IIM Ahmedabad Cutoff 2027: CAT Percentile & Eligibility

IIM Ahmedabad sets a 95 overall CAT percentile for General and EWS candidates in the PGP 2026-28 batch. It also requires 85 separately in all three CAT sections: VARC, DILR and QA. NC-OBC, SC and ST candidates clear at lower, category-specific percentiles (PGP 2026-28 shortlisting criteria, 9 January 2026).

Every number below carries its category, its section and its year. Mixing those up is the fastest way to misjudge your own chances.

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad publishes a percentile, not a rank, unlike a JoSAA-counselled engineering college. It never bundles two admission cycles into one figure either. That is why every table here keeps the batch year attached to every number.

Read the IIM Ahmedabad cutoff one batch at a time. That habit alone stops you comparing two different years by accident.

What percentile do you need for IIM Ahmedabad this year?

A General or EWS candidate needs 95 overall. The same candidate needs 85 in each of the three CAT sections: VARC, DILR and QA. Both conditions apply to the PGP 2026-28 batch.

That overall figure rose 15 percentile points from the PGP 2025-27 batch's 80. Two dated official shortlisting circulars, compared side by side, confirm the jump.

Each category carries an overall percentile and three sectional minimums, and a candidate must clear all four together.

A PwD candidate clears at 10 points below their own base category, overall and in every section. IIM Ahmedabad assesses transgender candidates applying under the General category against the NC-OBC cutoff. Its own shortlisting criteria for this batch set both rules.

Will your CAT percentile clear the sectional cutoff too?

An overall percentile above the bar does not clear you on its own. Every category above needs all three sections cleared together. A General candidate at 96 overall with 80 in DILR fails the sectional requirement. The overall number looks safe there, and it is not.

Both completed cycles sit side by side below, so you can see how far each category moved.

Will a lower percentile still get you into IIM Ahmedabad under a reserved category?

Yes, category-relaxed cutoffs exist for NC-OBC, SC and ST candidates, each sitting 5 to 20 points below the General figure. A relaxed cutoff still has to be cleared exactly. Both the overall percentile and every sectional minimum apply, the same as for the General category.

Does your Class 12 stream or your Class 10 marks affect your shortlisting chances?

Yes, and this is the bar most candidates miss. Alongside plain Composite Score ranking, IIM Ahmedabad runs a parallel Academic Category route. It reserves some interview calls for candidates from under-represented streams.

This route sets two extra conditions. The average of your Class 10 and Class 12 percentages must clear a minimum set for your Class 12 stream and your category. Your bachelor's degree percentage must also sit at or above the 80th percentile within your own academic-category pool.

For General and EWS candidates, the Class 10 + Class 12 average bar works out to, by Class 12 stream:

• Science: 80%
• Commerce: 77%
• Arts and Humanities: 75%

NC-OBC, SC and ST candidates clear at lower thresholds. This route runs alongside the main shortlist, not instead of it. It mainly helps non-engineering candidates avoid competing head-to-head against the largest applicant pool.

How much higher does your Composite Score really need to be?

Clearing the percentile cutoff only places you in the ranking pool. The table below gives the minimum Composite Score that actually secured an AWT-PI call. It covers the plain merit-list route in the PGP 2026-28 cycle. Every score runs against a maximum possible score of 1.

That is the empirical bar, not the published minimum percentile. It moves every year with the applicant pool. Treat it as a benchmark from the last completed cycle, not a promise for the next one.

The PGP 2027-29 cutoff applies to CAT 2026 test-takers, and IIM Ahmedabad has published it. Its Admission Policy for the PGP 2027-29 batch (September 2026) sets the same bar as 2026-28: General and EWS 95 overall with 85 in each section, NC-OBC 90/80, SC 85/75, ST 75/65, with a 10-point relaxation for PwD candidates in each category (PGP 2027-29 Admission Policy).

So the 15-point jump was a one-time reset, not a trend. A candidate preparing for CAT 2026 now has a published target rather than a forecast. Treat any page still publishing an "expected cutoff" guess for 2027-29 as out of date.

The shortlist size gives the useful context. IIM Ahmedabad shortlisted 1,312 candidates for PGP 2025-27 and 1,308 for PGP 2026-28, while the percentile bar rose 15 points. The pool's own scores shifted upward more than the institute's own selection criteria became stricter. This page offers that as a reasonable read of the two numbers, not a confirmed cause.

Four things move it, and only the last one is published in full.

• CAT difficulty that year. A harder paper compresses percentiles differently across sections, which can shift the cutoff up or down independent of applicant quality.
• Applicant pool size. More CAT test-takers chasing the same roughly 1,300 interview calls pushes the cutoff up, all else equal.
• Category-wise seat matrix. Reservation rules fix a share of seats by category, so each category's cutoff moves somewhat independently of the others.
• Composite Score weighting. CAT carries only 65% of the Composite Score that builds the AWT-PI shortlist. At the interview stage, that Composite Score carries forward at just 40% of the Final Composite Score. The Personal Interview carries 50% and the Analytical Writing Test 10%. A 95 percentile earns a shortlist slot, not a seat.

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad publishes none of the first three factors as its own reasoning. It releases no formula behind the percentile it sets each year. This page names them as plausible drivers behind the pattern in the official data, not as an institute statement.

Clearing the cutoff earns a shortlist slot, not a seat. Read the IIM Ahmedabad admission process and selection criteria page for what happens after.*