CAT 2026 Registration: Dates, Fees & How to Apply

CAT 2026 registration via the Official IIM CAT Website closed on September 22, 2026. In case you have made any mistakes while filling the form, don't miss form correction window on 5th and 6th October, 2026 for application correction window. During this period you can edit your photograph, signature, and change your test city preferences.

If you missed the CAT 2026 registration deadline on September 22, 2026, you cannot register or appear for the CAT exam this year, as IIMs do not offer a late registration window.

Once CAT 2026 registration closed, exactly three fields stayed open for correction: photograph, signature, and preferred test city. Category is not on that list. IIM Indore's Information Bulletin states this directly. Once a candidate submits their category, they cannot edit it afterward, for any reason, at any later stage. That is the one constraint every CAT 2026 candidate genuinely needed to get right before hitting submit. It mattered more than the deadline reminder or the fee amount.

That constraint made CAT 2026 registration a one-time decision inside a fixed window. It was not a form a candidate could quietly fix up later. Everything else here, the dates, the fee, the eligibility rule, connects back to that one fact.

IIM Indore, this cycle's conducting institute under Convener Prof. Aditya Billore, ran the entire process through one portal, iimcat.ac.in. It offered no offline alternative at any point.

CAT 2026 registration opened on 3 August 2026 at 10:00 AM. It closed on 22 September 2026 at 5:00 PM. That window has already closed. A candidate reading this page today is past it, not approaching it.

The full exam-day, admit card and result calendar, built off that closing date, sits on the CAT 2026 dates page. This section will not repeat the same six weeks of dates twice.

A bachelor's degree with 50 percent marks, or the equivalent CGPA, qualified a general-category candidate to register for CAT 2026. SC, ST and PwBD candidates needed 45 percent. Neither figure moves for age. CAT sets no upper age limit at all.

Meeting this bar got a candidate through the registration gate. It says nothing about what it takes to actually clear an institute's cutoff once the score is out. That is a separate, higher bar. The CAT 2026 overview page's cutoff section covers it.

CAT 2026 registration ran entirely online, through one official portal, iimcat.ac.in. It offered no offline or paper option at any stage. The confirmed process had a clear shape. A candidate created an account, filled in academic and category details, and uploaded a photograph and signature. The candidate then paid the registration fee. Once the candidate submitted the form and the fee cleared, they received a confirmation page.

Once a candidate submitted and paid, the form locked into that shape. IIM Indore opened a separate, short edit window after registration closed. That window covers only three fields. This page details them further down.

The CAT 2026 registration fee was Rs 2,700 for General, NC-OBC and EWS candidates. It was Rs 1,350 for SC, ST and PwBD candidates, per IIM Indore's Information Bulletin. A candidate paid this fee once, at the point of registration, not per institute or per preference listed.

IIM Indore's Information Bulletin does not address whether this fee is refundable under any circumstance. It could not independently confirm this either way. A candidate needing clarity on this should check directly with IIM Indore rather than rely on a secondary source's guess.

IIM Indore's Information Bulletin does not lay out one consolidated checklist of documents for the CAT 2026 application form. It could not independently source one either. The bulletin does confirm the reservation categories: 15% SC, 7.5% ST, 27% NC-OBC, up to 10% EWS and 5% PwBD. A candidate applying under any of these would logically need a valid category certificate at some stage. This follows the way most Indian entrance exams work.

IIM Indore has not stated any of the specifics above as official CAT 2026 requirements. These are its honest inference from the reservation structure the bulletin does confirm, and nothing more. A candidate should confirm the exact document list directly on iimcat.ac.in rather than treat this section as a checklist.

IIM Indore's Information Bulletin confirms that a candidate had to upload a photograph and signature at registration. Both are among the only fields correctable after registration closed. The bulletin does not publish exact pixel dimensions, file size limits or file format for either upload. It could not independently verify these details.