GATE 2027: complete guide to dates, application, results

GATE 2027 is conducted by IISc Bangalore or one of the seven IITs (rotating) on the first and second weekends of February 2027 (6-7 and 13-14 February). Application opens late August 2026 and closes mid-October; results land mid-March 2027 with a 3-year score validity for M.Tech admission and PSU recruitment. Everything you need on this page - dates, fees, documents, counselling - is verified against the conducting body's notification.

Key dates at a glance

What GATE 2027 covers

GATE is jointly conducted by IISc Bangalore and seven IITs (Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Roorkee) on a rotating basis. The exam is a 3-hour computer-based test for a total of 100 marks, with 65 questions split as:

• General Aptitude (GA): 10 questions, 15 marks. Common across all papers.
• Subject-specific: 55 questions, 85 marks. Engineering Math (~13 marks) + core subject (~72 marks).
• Question types: MCQ (1 of 4 with negative marking), MSQ (Multiple Select, no negative), NAT (Numerical Answer Type, no negative).

30+ papers, one cycle

GATE 2027 will offer 30+ paper codes including the high-volume engineering papers (CS, ME, EE, EC, CE, ChE, IN, CH) plus interdisciplinary papers (XE, XL), humanities and social sciences (XH), and economics (EY). Candidates can attempt one or two papers (the two-paper combinations are pre-defined by the conducting body).

Application process

Apply online at the GATE 2027 portal (URL announced by the conducting institute in July 2026 - typically gate2027.iitX.ac.in). The 4-step flow:

• Register: Email + mobile (OTP). Choose your paper code(s).
• Fill the form: Academic details, category, choose 3 preferred test cities.
• Upload documents: Photo (JPG, 5-200 KB), signature (JPG, 5-100 KB), category certificate if applicable, photo ID (Aadhaar / PAN / Passport).
• Pay fees: ₹1,800 (General / OBC) or ₹900 (SC / ST / PwD / Female). Late fee: ₹500 extra. Per paper if you attempt two.

Admit card & exam day

The admit card releases on the GATE portal ~4 weeks before the exam. Carry a printout plus a valid photo ID (Aadhaar / PAN / Passport / Driving License). Each GATE 2027 paper runs in either Forenoon (9:30 AM - 12:30 PM) or Afternoon (2:30 PM - 5:30 PM) shift across the two weekends.

Result & counselling

The provisional answer key drops within a week of the last exam. Candidates can raise objections (with a small per-question fee). The final answer key + GATE score card releases by mid-March 2027. The scorecard shows your raw mark, GATE score (0-1000 normalised scale), All-India rank in your paper, and the cutoff for qualifying / PSU shortlisting.

M.Tech admission at IITs runs through COAP (Common Offer Acceptance Portal); NITs / IIITs / GFTIs run CCMT. PSU recruitment varies by company - most PSUs invite GATE qualifiers for a separate interview / group discussion round.

Full GATE 2027 calendar, week by week

The conducting institute pre-publishes the full schedule in its information brochure. The dates below are the ones most candidates need to track for their own planning - application, document upload, fee window, admit card, the two exam weekends, the answer-key objection cycle, the final result, and the COAP / CCMT counselling windows. Treat these as the planning skeleton for the cycle.

• July 2026: Conducting institute named (one of the seven IITs or IISc Bangalore on rotation). Information brochure published.
• Late August 2026: GOAPS portal opens. Registration + form fill + document upload + fee payment all begin.
• End-September 2026: Regular application deadline. Skip this and you pay the Rs 500 late fee.
• Mid-October 2026: Late application window closes. After this, no fresh applications are accepted.
• Late October 2026: Application correction window. Limited fields editable (photo, signature, paper code, test city, category).
• November 2026: Test centre allotment communicated by SMS / email. Centre is fixed once admit card releases.
• Early January 2027: Admit card downloadable from GOAPS. Save a printout and a soft copy on your phone.
• 6-7 February 2027: First exam weekend. Multiple papers split across Forenoon and Afternoon shifts.
• 13-14 February 2027: Second exam weekend. Remaining papers conducted across the same two shifts.
• Mid-February 2027:Response sheets (candidate's actual responses) released. Verify your attempt against the saved copy.
• Late February 2027: Provisional answer key released. Objection window opens for ~5 days at a small per-question fee.
• Mid-March 2027: Final answer key + scorecard. Raw mark, normalised GATE score, paper-wise All India Rank, qualifying status.
• April-June 2027: COAP rounds for IIT M.Tech and CCMT rounds for NIT / IIIT / GFTI M.Tech allotment.

How to download the GATE 2027 admit card

The admit card releases on the GOAPS portal in the first week of January 2027. Log in with the enrolment ID and password set during application. The download is a single PDF that includes your photograph, signature, allotted test centre name + address, reporting time, exam shift, paper code, and the list of items barred from the centre. Print at least two copies on plain A4 paper - one for the centre and a backup at home. Verify every field against your application form; report any mismatch to the conducting institute helpdesk before exam day.

Exam-day rules: what to carry, what is banned

The conducting body runs a strict frisking process at every centre. Carrying a banned item is treated as use of unfair means and can disqualify the attempt. Reach the centre at the reporting time printed on the admit card (typically 60 to 90 minutes before the shift) so you have buffer for biometric capture, frisking and seat allocation.

The on-screen virtual calculator

The platform ships a scientific calculator that mirrors a standard non-programmable model. It supports basic arithmetic, square root, exponent, trigonometric and inverse trigonometric functions, logarithms, factorials, memory keys (M+, M-, MR, MC) and a backspace. Two operational quirks catch first-timers off guard. First, the calculator opens in a draggable, resizable pane that overlaps the question text - position it once and leave it there. Second, all inputs are click-only on the rendered keypad; your physical number-row will not type values into it, which slows long NAT calculations until you have practised on the actual platform.

The single biggest source of wasted minutes on exam day is a candidate who has rehearsed on a physical calculator and never touched the virtual one. Use the GATE mock platform on this site to drill numerical questions inside the on-screen calculator interface. Aim for ~80% of NAT solves to come out of the calculator on the first try without re-entering operands.

Score validity and how to use it across cycles

The GATE 2027 scorecard is valid for three years from the date of result, so the mid-March 2027 result is usable for the M.Tech intake of 2027, 2028 and 2029 plus PSU recruitment notifications released in the same window. PSUs publish their notification independently of the conducting institute; the cycle in which you apply must accept your GATE 2027 score (most PSUs accept the most recent two cycles). A candidate who attempts again in GATE 2028 can use whichever scorecard is stronger for each application - the two scores do not get combined.

COAP and CCMT counselling, in plain language

COAP (Common Offer Acceptance Portal) is the single platform where every IIT uploads its M.Tech offers. After the GATE result you register on COAP with your GOAPS enrolment ID, fill out branch and IIT preferences, and wait. IITs run multiple rounds (typically four to six) where each round you can hold one offer, withdraw to chase a better one in the next round, or freeze and exit the process. CCMT (Centralised Counselling for M.Tech) is the parallel platform for NITs, IIITs, GFTIs and a few SPAs - a single allotment system rather than rolling offers, with choice-filling, seat allotment, fee payment and reporting at the allotted institute.

A serious M.Tech candidate registers on both platforms the moment results drop. Many of the best outcomes (an IIT-Bombay AI/ML seat, an IIT-Madras Data Science seat) are decided between COAP rounds three and five, when better-scoring candidates have started freezing their preferred offers and the next round of upgrades opens for everyone below them.