IIT Madras: Complete Guide & JoSAA 2026 Cutoff, Round Wise
IIT Madras has held the No. 1 spot in NIRF's engineering rankings for ten consecutive years – a run no other IIT has matched. Its 600-plus-acre forested campus and research-first culture make it a distinctive choice among the top IITs. Here's what to know, plus its 2026 JoSAA cutoff movement.
About IIT Madras
Established in 1959, IIT Madras occupies one of the largest and greenest campuses of any IIT, home to a resident population of spotted deer and a wide range of wildlife alongside its academic departments. Beyond its long-standing engineering programmes, IIT Madras is also known for pioneering large-scale online education in India through its BS in Data Science and Applications degree, one of the largest online undergraduate programmes in the world by enrolment.
Academic Strengths
- Computer Science & Engineering: Among the most competitive CSE programmes nationally, just behind IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi in typical demand.
- Research output: Consistently ranked first among Indian engineering institutes for research and innovation metrics.
- Ocean and aerospace engineering: A traditional area of strength, supported by specialised research centres.
- Online and open education: A pioneer among IITs in large-scale online degree programmes.
JoSAA 2026 Cutoff, Round Wise
Over JoSAA 2026's five rounds – concluding 16 July 2026 – IIT Madras's CSE closing rank held in a tight band through the early rounds, opening in the 40s–70s range and closing around the 150 mark by Round 3, again showing very little movement for the most in-demand branch.
JoSAA 2026 Cutoff, Round Wise
JoSAA 2026 ran five rounds, with the final round declared on 16 July 2026. The table below is IIT Madras's complete final-round (Round 5) result, pulled directly from JoSAA's own OR-CR portal – OPEN category, gender-neutral seats, across every programme on offer. Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, a newer programme, actually closed tighter than CSE itself – one of the few IITs where CSE isn't the single most competitive seat on campus.
| Branch (Gender-Neutral, OPEN) | Round 5 (Final) Closing Rank |
|---|---|
| Computer Science & Engineering | 151 |
| Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics | 226 |
| Electrical Engineering | 749 |
| Computational Engineering & Mechanics | 1,314 |
| Engineering Physics | 1,316 |
| BS in Mathematics | 1,804 |
| Mechanical Engineering | 2,619 |
| Engineering Design (5 Yr Dual Degree) | 3,093 |
| Aerospace Engineering (4 Yr) | 3,278 |
| Aerospace Engineering (5 Yr Dual Degree) | 3,389 |
| Physics | 3,918 |
| Instrumentation & Biomedical Engineering | 4,011 |
| Chemical Engineering | 4,162 |
| Metallurgical & Materials Engineering | 5,398 |
| Civil Engineering | 6,225 |
| Biological Engineering | 6,440 |
| Naval Architecture & Ocean Engineering | 8,354 |
| Biological Science | 12,204 |
This is JoSAA 2026's final, closed result. Confirm the current year's actual figures on JoSAA's own OR-CR portal (josaa.nic.in) once that year's rounds are under way, rather than assuming this table still applies.
How Reserved Categories Compare
JoSAA keeps a separate closing rank for every category – General, EWS, OBC-NCL, SC, ST, and PwD – and each one is a position within that category's own applicant pool, not the overall merit list. As a rule, EWS tracks closest to the General figure, OBC-NCL relaxes further, and SC/ST relax the most of all, since fewer candidates compete within each of those pools. That pattern holds across every branch at IIT Madras, CSE included.
We're not publishing specific OBC-NCL, SC, or ST numbers for IIT Madras here – the third-party sources available for category-specific figures disagree with each other widely enough, even for well-documented institutes, that citing one as fact would be misleading. For the precise, current closing rank in your own category and branch, use JoSAA's OR-CR tool directly on josaa.nic.in.
Placements
IIT Madras attracts a strong, diverse recruiter base each placement season, with particular strength in software, core engineering research roles, and analytics, supported by its reputation as India's top-ranked engineering research institute.