Checked 30 September 2026. Every CS figure is from the official 2023-2026 statistical reports; the formula is from the GATE 2027 brochure. The 2027 figures will not exist until the result on 19 March 2027.
In GATE CS 2026, 2,11,020 candidates appeared and 40,661 qualified. The General qualifying mark was 30 out of 100, which the formula turns into a GATE score of 350. Those three numbers, all from the official IIT Guwahati statistical report, are the starting point for everything else on this page.
Below are the official qualifying marks by category for the last four years, the score formula worked through with real CS inputs, what a given mark was worth as a score, and the official score-to-rank table from each year's report. Figures that are our own arithmetic on official data are labelled as ours.
Official statistical reports; the percentage is ours.
Where other pages get this wrong
"Qualifying" in GATE CS means a valid score, not an admission or a job.
Commonly published instead: Pages that present the qualifying mark as the cut-off for IITs or PSUs, or print a single category table that matches none of the official years.
The General qualifying mark was 32.5 in 2023, 27.6 in 2024, 29.2 in 2025 and 30 in 2026, and EWS is always 90% of General, the same as OBC-NCL. Clearing it makes your score valid for three years. Every M.Tech programme and every PSU then applies its own, much higher, bar.
Qualifying marks by category, 2023-2026
| Year (organiser) | Appeared | Qualified | Qualified % | Qualifying marks GEN / OBC-NCL-EWS / SC-ST-PwD | Qualifying score GEN / OBC-NCL-EWS / SC-ST-PwD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (IIT Guwahati) | 2,11,020 | 40,661 | 19.3% | 30 / 27 / 20 | 350 / 315 / 233 |
| 2025 (IIT Roorkee) | 1,70,825 | 27,518 | 16.1% | 29.2 / 26.2 / 19.4 | 350 / 319 / 250 |
| 2024 (IISc Bangalore) | 1,23,967 | 21,949 | 17.7% | 27.6 / 24.8 / 18.4 | 350 / 319 / 189 (see note) |
| 2023 (IIT Kanpur) | 75,679 | 14,797 | 19.6% | 32.5 / 29.2 / 21.6 | 350 / 313 / 227 |
Marks and scores as printed in the official reports. The qualified percentage is our arithmetic. Note on 2024: the report prints 189 as the SC/ST/PwD qualifying score, but the formula with the printed inputs (18.4 marks, Mq 27.6, Mt 78.03) gives about 250. The OBC-NCL/EWS figure and every other year's SC/ST/PwD figure match the formula. We print the official 189 and flag the difference rather than correct it.
Official statistical reports. The 2023 report's CS row is ambiguous about which figure is the mean and which the standard deviation; we read the mean as 20.03 (sum 32.54, so the qualifying mark is 32.5 either way).
The formula, worked with the 2026 CS numbers
From the GATE 2027 Information Brochure
- GATE Score = 350 + 550 × (M − Mq) / (Mt − Mq)
- M is your (normalised) mark. Mq is the General qualifying mark. Mt is the average mark of the top 0.1% of candidates or the top 10, whichever is larger, taken across all sessions of the paper.
- Mq (General) = mean + one standard deviation of all candidates' marks, but never below 25 or above 40. OBC-NCL and EWS get 0.9 × that; SC, ST and PwD get 2/3 of it.
- For 2026 CS: mean 18.51 + SD 11.58 = 30.09, which the report prints as 30; Mt was 77.03.
- So in 2026 each mark above 30 was worth 550 / 47.03 = 11.7 score points (our arithmetic).
The reports truncate rather than round: 2025 had 16.46 + 12.83 = 29.29, printed as 29.2. That is why category marks should be read from the report, not recalculated.
A worked example. A General candidate with 50 marks in 2026: 350 + 550 × (50 − 30) / (77.03 − 30) = 350 + 550 × 20 / 47.03 = 584. About 3,655 candidates scored 50 or more that year, and the official rank table puts scores of 500 to 600 at ranks 3,189 to 7,514. All three numbers agree, which is a useful check that the formula and the report describe the same thing.
Because GATE CS is held in two sessions, M is your normalised mark, not the raw mark from your set. The brochure maps each session's marks onto a common scale using that session's top-0.1% average and its mean plus one standard deviation. A raw mark from a mock is therefore only an approximation of M.
Calculate your score
GATE CS score and rank calculator
Enter your expected marks out of 100 (after negative marking). The calculator applies the official GATE score formula using the real qualifying mark and topper average of the year you pick, and estimates a rank from that year's official mark distribution.
Estimates only. Your real score depends on the 2027 field, which is not known until the result on 19 March 2027. Qualifying marks by category are the official figures for that year. Rank is interpolated between official mark bands and is approximate.
The same numbers as a table, for readers on a simplified view:
| Marks | Score on 2026 field | Score on 2025 field | Score on 2024 field |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 233 | 256 | 267 |
| 25 | 292 | 307 | 322 |
| 30 | 350 | 358 | 376 |
| 35 | 408 | 409 | 431 |
| 40 | 467 | 460 | 485 |
| 45 | 525 | 511 | 540 |
| 50 | 584 | 562 | 594 |
| 55 | 642 | 613 | 649 |
| 60 | 701 | 663 | 703 |
| 65 | 759 | 714 | 758 |
| 70 | 818 | 765 | 812 |
| 75 | 876 | 816 | 867 |
| 80 | 935 | 867 | 921 |
Computed with the official formula and each year's official General qualifying mark and Mt, capped at 1000. Our arithmetic. Very low marks give negative scores: the lowest 2026 CS mark was -19.32, which the report lists with a score of -227.
Marks to rank: how many scored at or above each mark
| Marks | 2026: score · candidates at or above | 2025: score · candidates at or above | 2024: score · candidates at or above |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | 350 · 29,611 | 358 · 20,485 | 376 · 14,562 |
| 40 | 467 · 10,340 | 460 · 9,447 | 485 · 6,225 |
| 50 | 584 · 3,655 | 562 · 4,387 | 594 · 2,616 |
| 60 | 701 · 1,170 | 663 · 1,851 | 703 · 921 |
| 70 | 818 · 295 | 765 · 546 | 812 · 235 |
| 80 | 935 · 42 | 867 · 122 | 921 · 30 |
The candidate counts add up the official 10-mark distribution tables in each report, so scoring exactly that mark placed you at about that rank or better. Bin edges make this approximate. Our arithmetic on official data.
From the official marks distributions. The field grew every year; the number at the top did not grow with it.
Official score band to rank
GATE CS score to all-India rank lookup
Type a GATE score out of 1000 and pick a year. The lookup returns the official range of all-India ranks held by candidates in that 100-point score band that year, from the rank table in the official statistical report.
The reports print ranks by 100-point band only, so a score inside a band maps to the whole range, not a single rank. Bands below 200 are not covered here.
| GATE score | 2026 ranks | 2025 ranks | 2024 ranks | 2023 ranks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 900-1000 | 1-77 | 1-70 | 1-45 | 1-34 |
| 800-900 | 85-360 | 73-342 | 48-280 | 38-135 |
| 700-800 | 366-1,157 | 351-1,282 | 288-941 | 139-448 |
| 600-700 | 1,171-3,124 | 1,300-3,156 | 957-2,416 | 460-1,210 |
| 500-600 | 3,189-7,514 | 3,207-6,858 | 2,458-5,543 | 1,267-2,986 |
| 400-500 | 7,662-18,337 | 6,962-14,740 | 5,614-12,153 | 3,067-6,923 |
| 300-400 | 18,602-45,212 | 14,929-32,356 | 12,341-25,671 | 7,138-15,938 |
| 200-300 | 46,071-81,014 | 32,758-48,285 | 26,013-37,511 | 16,457-28,510 |
From the rank table of each official report: the first and last all-India rank of qualified CS candidates in each score band. Ranks count everyone who appeared with a higher score.
Read down one column and across one row and the growth of the paper is plain. A score of 700 sat at the bottom of the 700-800 band, which ended at rank 448 in 2023, 941 in 2024, 1,282 in 2025 and 1,157 in 2026. The same score bought a rank more than twice as deep in 2026 as in 2023, because 2.8 times as many candidates appeared (75,679 to 2,11,020, our arithmetic). When a counsellor or an institute quotes a rank, ask which year it came from.
Who appeared and who qualified
| Category (2026) | Appeared | Qualified | Qualified % |
|---|---|---|---|
| General | 76,990 | 14,738 | 19.1% |
| EWS | 21,933 | 4,728 | 21.6% |
| OBC-NCL | 79,469 | 12,758 | 16.1% |
| SC | 25,470 | 6,724 | 26.4% |
| ST | 7,158 | 1,713 | 23.9% |
| Female | 77,320 | 9,184 | 11.9% |
| Male | 1,33,682 | 31,473 | 23.5% |
Counts from the official 2026 report; percentages are ours. Qualifying rates differ by category because the qualifying mark does (30, 27 and 20), not because the paper differs.
Qualifying is the floor, not the target
A qualifying score does three things: it puts your name in the result, it gives you an all-India rank, and it stays valid for three years. It does not by itself admit you anywhere. IIT and IISc M.Tech programmes set their own cut-offs by programme and category, and public-sector employers that recruit through GATE set theirs higher still. POWERGRID, for example, called Computer Science candidates to interview from GATE 2024 only at 67.88 marks and above in the unreserved category.
For IIT cut-offs and placement context, see GATE CS expected cut-off for top IITs. For the public-sector route, see PSU recruitment through GATE CS. For a rank estimate from your mock score, the GATE CS rank predictor does the job; this page gives the official tables behind it.
Practise it, don't just read it
A target mark is only useful if you can score it section by section. Topic quizzes are a quick way to find the sections that are not there yet.
The ProSyllabus GATE CS library currently has 29 topic quizzes of ten questions each, covering programming and data structures, algorithms, operating systems, databases, computer networks, compiler design and theory of computation, each with a worked explanation. There are no quizzes yet for Engineering Mathematics or Computer Organization, and Digital Logic has only number systems, so use the official papers for those. One networks quiz is built on the OSI and TCP/IP stacks, which the 2027 syllabus no longer lists.
What was the GATE CS qualifying mark in 2026?
According to the official IIT Guwahati report, 30 for General, 27 for OBC-NCL and EWS, and 20 for SC, ST and PwD. 40,661 of the 2,11,020 candidates who appeared qualified.
How is the GATE CS score calculated?
Score = 350 + 550 × (M − Mq) / (Mt − Mq), where M is your normalised mark, Mq the General qualifying mark and Mt the average of the top 0.1% of candidates. In 2026, Mq was 30 and Mt 77.03, so 50 marks gave a score of about 584.
What rank does a GATE CS score of 600 get?
In 2026, scores from 600 to 700 held ranks 1,171 to 3,124, and scores from 500 to 600 held ranks 3,189 to 7,514, according to the official report. A score of exactly 600 therefore sat around rank 3,100 to 3,200.
How many marks are needed for a rank under 1,000 in GATE CS?
In 2026, 1,170 candidates scored 60 or more and 3,655 scored 50 or more, so a rank near 1,000 needed a little over 60 marks. In 2025 it needed between 60 and 70 (1,851 scored 60 or more, 546 scored 70 or more), and in 2024 a little under 60.
Is the EWS qualifying mark the same as OBC in GATE CS?
Yes. OBC-NCL and EWS both get 90% of the General qualifying mark. In 2026 that was 27 against a General mark of 30.
More in this series
- GATE CS topic-wise weightage, counted from six official sets
- GATE CS previous year papers with official answer keys
- GATE CS 2027 syllabus changes, section by section
- PSU recruitment through GATE CS 2027, from the notices
- GATE DA vs GATE CS: which paper to write
- GATE CS rank predictor
- GATE CS expected cut-off for top IITs
- GATE CS notice board: official updates
- GATE CS exam analysis
- GATE Computer Science complete guide
Sources
- official — GATE 2027 Information Brochure, IIT Madras, revised 27 Sep 2026
- official — GATE 2026 Statistical and Performance Report (IIT Guwahati)
- official — GATE 2025 Statistical and Performance Report (IIT Roorkee)
- official — GATE 2024 Statistical and Performance Report (IISc, archived copy)
- official — GATE 2023 Statistical Report (IIT Kanpur)
- official — GATE 2026 cut-off marks (IIT Guwahati)
- official — GATE 2025 cut-off marks (IIT Roorkee)
official = a document published by the conducting body. reported = a news or coaching site we could not check against an original. Where sources disagree this page says so rather than picking one.
