Checked 28 September 2026. Every input is from the official GATE 2023–2026 statistical reports and cut-off pages. Score conversions, candidates at or above a mark and the qualified share are our arithmetic on those numbers. GATE 2027 values are not known until 19 March 2027.
GATE reports three different numbers and they are easy to confuse. Marks are what you scored out of 100. The qualifying mark is the cut-off for your category. The GATE score (out of 1000) is what IIT Madras and every other institute actually ranks you by, and it depends on how everyone else did. This guide puts all three side by side for the four GATE Economics papers with official reports. It includes a calculator that turns your mock-test marks into a score and an approximate rank on each year’s field.
GATE 2023–2026 statistical reports; the percentage is our arithmetic.
Where other pages get this wrong
The GATE 2026 Economics (XH-C1) qualifying marks are 35.7 (General), 32.1 (OBC-NCL/EWS) and 23.8 (SC/ST/PwD). In 2026, 4,166 candidates registered and 2,952 appeared.
Commonly published instead: Careers360’s “GATE cutoff for XH” FAQ (checked 28 Sep 2026) gives the 2026 general cut-off as 37.5, although its own table says 35.7. HaqSe Economics’ IIT Madras guide says “4,166 students appeared”, which is the registration figure.
GATE 2026 Statistical and Performance Report and cut-off page (IIT Guwahati).
Four years of GATE Economics in one table
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Item |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,756 | 3,748 | 4,161 | 4,166 | Registered |
| 1,931 | 2,721 | 2,973 | 2,952 | Appeared |
| 409 | 548 | 1,532 | 572 | Qualified |
| 21.2% | 20.1% | 51.5% | 19.4% | Qualified ÷ appeared (ours) |
| 31.26 / 16.07 | 25.14 / 11.92 | 38.18 / 15.54 | 23.48 / 12.30 | Mean / SD of marks |
| 78.334 | 68.07 | 83.53 | 68.17 | Top-candidates’ mean (M̄t) |
| 47.3 / 42.5 / 31.5 | 37 / 33.3 / 24.6 | 40 / 36 / 26.6 | 35.7 / 32.1 / 23.8 | Qualifying marks GEN / OBC-EWS / SC-ST-PwD |
| 83.33 / 989 | 70.33 / 940 | 87.33 / 948 | 81.33 / 1000 | Highest mark / score |
GATE 2023 (IIT Kanpur), 2024 (IISc), 2025 (IIT Roorkee) and 2026 (IIT Guwahati) statistical reports, XH-C1 rows. The 2026 qualifying mark is printed truncated: μ+σ is 35.78.
Official report figures (M̄t rounded to one decimal here). The gap between the two lines sets how many score points each extra mark is worth.
How the score is calculated
The official formula is Score = 350 + 550 × (M − Mq) ÷ (M̄t − Mq), capped at 1000. M is your mark, Mq the general qualifying mark and M̄t the mean mark of the top 0.1% or top 10 candidates, whichever is larger. So a mark exactly at the general qualifying mark always scores 350, and a mark equal to the top candidates’ mean scores 900. Economics was a single-session paper every year, so no normalisation applies.
The qualifying mark itself comes from a second formula. For GEN it is μ + σ (the mean plus one standard deviation of the marks of all who appeared), but never below 25. From GATE 2025 it is also never above 40. OBC-NCL and EWS get 0.9 of the GEN figure, and SC, ST and PwD get two-thirds. The 40-mark cap is new: the GATE 2024 brochure said only “25 or μ+σ, whichever is larger”, with no upper limit.
2025: the year the cap changed everything
In 2025 the Economics paper was easier, or the field stronger: the mean mark rose to 38.18 and μ + σ reached 53.72. Under the 2024 rules that would have been the GEN qualifying mark. The new cap cut it to 40. Two things followed, both by our arithmetic on the official figures. First, 1,532 of the 2,973 candidates who appeared qualified (51.5%), against about 20% in every other year. Second, every score was pushed up: 50 marks scored 476 instead of about 281, and 60 marks scored 603 instead of about 466. That is why the 2025 rank bands are roughly three times deeper than in 2026, and why the IIT Madras M.A. cut-off jumped to 737 that year (see our IIT Madras guide).
The practical lesson is that a GATE Economics score is only comparable with scores from the same year. A 600 in 2025 was a rank of about 122–271; a 600 in 2026 was about 47–91. When you compare your score with an admission cut-off, always check which year’s scores that cut-off was set on.
Marks → score on each year’s field
| Marks | Score on 2026 field | Score on 2025 field | Score on 2024 field | Score on 2023 field | Appeared at or above, 2026 (ours) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | 253 | 224 | 226 | 43 | 798 |
| 35 | 338 | 287 | 315 | 132 | — |
| 40 | 423 | 350 | 403 | 221 | 299 |
| 45 | 508 | 413 | 492 | 309 | — |
| 50 | 592 | 476 | 580 | 398 | 101 |
| 55 | 677 | 540 | 669 | 486 | — |
| 60 | 762 | 603 | 757 | 575 | 19 |
| 65 | 846 | 666 | 846 | 664 | — |
| 70 | 931 | 729 | 934 | 752 | 2 |
Our application of the official formula to each year’s Mq and M̄t. A negative result means the mark was well below the qualifying mark. “At or above” counts are summed by us from the 2026 report’s appeared-marks table, whose bins are 10 marks wide, so only multiples of 10 can be given.
GATE Economics marks → score → 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.
Work the other way round when you set a target. On the 2026 field a score of 500 needed about 44.6 marks, 600 about 50.5, 700 about 56.4 and 800 about 62.3. On the capped 2025 field the same scores needed 51.9, 59.8, 67.7 and 75.6. The answer depends heavily on the year, so aim at the harder column.
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Target score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55.8 | 45.5 | 51.9 | 44.6 | 500 |
| 61.4 | 51.1 | 59.8 | 50.5 | 600 |
| 67.0 | 56.8 | 67.7 | 56.4 | 700 |
| 72.7 | 62.4 | 75.6 | 62.3 | 800 |
| 78.3 | 68.1 | 83.5 | 68.2 | 900 |
Marks needed for a target score, by inverting the official formula (our arithmetic).
Score bands and All India Ranks
| Score band | 2023 AIR | 2024 AIR | 2025 AIR | 2026 AIR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 900–1000 | 1–5 | 1–6 | 1–4 | 1–2 |
| 800–900 | 6–15 | 7–11 | 6–24 | 3–14 |
| 700–800 | 16–34 | 12–36 | 27–118 | 16–43 |
| 600–700 | 35–83 | 37–86 | 122–271 | 47–91 |
| 500–600 | 85–137 | 90–162 | 279–578 | 95–171 |
| 400–500 | 139–255 | 170–285 | 593–1002 | 177–336 |
| 300–400 | 263–390 | 295–544 | 1029–1528 | 348–587 |
| 200–300 | 400–597 | 558–895 | 1553–2125 | 612–994 |
| 100–200 | 619–807 | 917–1299 | 2151–2251 | 1018–1278 |
Score-band → rank tables of the GATE 2023–2026 statistical reports, XH-C1. The 2023 report lists bands from the top down; the later reports from the bottom up.
Your GATE Economics score, read against four years of official rank bands
Enter a GATE score out of 1000. The tool finds the 100-point band it falls in and shows the All India Ranks that band covered in each year’s official statistical report.
XH-C1 score-band → rank tables of the GATE 2023–2026 statistical reports, as printed (the table below carries the same numbers). Boundary conventions differ between years, so a score exactly on a boundary may belong to either neighbour.
Two report errors to avoid quoting
The statistical reports also print a qualifying score for each category. For 2025 and 2026 these match the formula exactly (for example 2026: 350 / 289 / 148). For 2023 and 2024 they do not. The 2024 report prints 185 for SC/ST/PwD, but 24.6 marks on the 2024 field works out to about 130.5. The 2023 report prints 253 for OBC and 27 for SC, where the formula gives 264.9 and 70.0. We take these as errors in the reports; the SC column of the 2024 report is scrambled across several papers, not only Economics. The qualifying marks (37 / 33.3 / 24.6 in 2024 and 47.3 / 42.5 / 31.5 in 2023) are consistent everywhere, so quote those.
| Year | OBC score, printed | OBC score, formula (ours) | SC/ST/PwD score, printed | SC/ST/PwD score, formula (ours) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 253 | 264.9 | 27 | 70.0 |
| 2024 | 284 | 284.5 | 185 | 130.5 |
| 2025 | 299 | 299.5 | 181 | 180.7 |
| 2026 | 289 | 289.0 | 148 | 148.4 |
Printed values from the official reports; formula values are our arithmetic from each year’s qualifying marks, Mq and M̄t.
Who writes GATE Economics
| 2025 | 2026 | Category | 2024 (reg / app / qual) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2,210 / 1,569 / 864 | 2,082 / 1,452 / 324 | GEN | 2,088 / 1,514 / 340 |
| 380 / 275 / 124 | 392 / 294 / 54 | EWS | 320 / 241 / 43 |
| 999 / 740 / 335 | 1,082 / 798 / 112 | OBC-NCL | 890 / 666 / 91 |
| 412 / 291 / 154 | 441 / 291 / 62 | SC | 337 / 231 / 61 |
| 160 / 98 / 55 | 169 / 117 / 20 | ST | 113 / 69 / 13 |
| 2,419 / 1,707 / 827 | 2,459 / 1,733 / 287 | Female | 2,203 / 1,604 / 288 |
| 1,742 / 1,266 / 705 | 1,707 / 1,219 / 285 | Male | 1,545 / 1,117 / 260 |
Official statistical reports 2024–2026 (the 2023 report has no gender table for XH-C1). Economics is a majority-female paper: 59% of 2026 registrants were women (our arithmetic).
Practise it, don't just read it
At about 45 marks on the 2026 field, every extra mark was worth roughly 17 score points. The cheapest marks are in Microeconomics, the section every paper weights most.
The ProSyllabus GATE Economics library has one topic quiz today: Production Function and Returns (Microeconomics, XH1.1), with a worked explanation for every option. For every other section, work from the official past papers and keys linked in our previous-papers guide.
What is the GATE Economics cut-off for 2026?
The qualifying marks for XH-C1 in GATE 2026 were 35.7 (General), 32.1 (OBC-NCL/EWS) and 23.8 (SC/ST/PwD), out of 100.
What was the GATE Economics cut-off in 2025?
40 (General), 36 (OBC-NCL/EWS) and 26.6 (SC/ST/PwD). The general figure was capped at 40; without the cap it would have been 53.72.
How is the GATE Economics score calculated?
Score = 350 + 550 × (M − Mq) ÷ (M̄t − Mq), capped at 1000, where M is your mark, Mq the general qualifying mark and M̄t the mean of the top 0.1% or top 10 candidates. Economics is a single-session paper, so no normalisation applies.
How many marks are needed for a 600 score in GATE Economics?
About 50.5 marks on the 2026 field and about 59.8 on the 2025 field, by our application of the official formula. It depends on how the year’s candidates perform.
What rank does a 600 score get in GATE Economics?
In 2026 the 600–700 band covered ranks 47–91; in 2025 it covered 122–271; in 2024, 37–86; in 2023, 35–83 (official statistical reports).
How many candidates appear for GATE Economics?
2,952 appeared in 2026 out of 4,166 registered; 572 qualified.
When will the GATE 2027 Economics result come?
19 March 2027.
More in this series
- GATE Economics 2027 syllabus: what changed in XH1
- GATE Economics PYQ: topic-wise weightage 2023–2026
- IIT Madras M.A. Economics through GATE: cut-offs, seats, fees
- GATE Economics 2027 preparation plan, October to February
- What a GATE Economics score is used for: M.A., PhD, fellowship
- GATE XH0 Reasoning and Comprehension: the compulsory 25 marks
- GATE Economics notice board — official updates
- GATE Economics: the complete guide
- GATE Economics paper analysis
- GATE Economics cut-off, rank and colleges
Sources
- official — GATE 2026 Statistical and Performance Report (IIT Guwahati, PDF)
- official — GATE 2026 — cut-off marks
- official — GATE 2025 Statistical and Performance Report (IIT Roorkee, PDF)
- official — GATE 2025 — cut-off marks
- official — GATE 2024 Statistical and Performance Report (IISc, PDF)
- official — GATE 2023 Statistical Report (IIT Kanpur, PDF)
- official — GATE 2027 Information Brochure, IIT Madras (revised 27 Sep 2026)
- official — GATE 2025 Information Brochure, IIT Roorkee (PDF) — first brochure with the 40-mark cap
- official — GATE 2024 Information Brochure, IISc (PDF) — no cap
- reported — Careers360 — “GATE cutoff for XH” (checked 28 Sep 2026; see correction)
- reported — HaqSe Economics — “How to get into IIT Madras MA Economics via GATE” (checked 28 Sep 2026; see correction)
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.
