Checked 28 September 2026. Every input is from the official GATE 2023–2026 statistical reports. Score conversions, candidates at or above a mark, percentages and the qualifying-score check are our arithmetic on those numbers. GATE 2027 values are not known until 19 March 2027.
GATE reports three numbers and they are easy to mix up. 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 CCMT counselling, BARC’s OCES GATE route and DRDO’s Scientist ‘B’ shortlisting use, and it depends on how the whole field did. This guide puts all three side by side for the four GATE Physics papers with official statistical reports, adds a calculator that turns a mock-test mark into a score and an approximate rank, and explains the one thing most pages miss: PH marks have been falling, so the marks you need have fallen too.
GATE 2023–2026 statistical reports; the percentage and count are our arithmetic.
Where other pages get this wrong
In GATE Physics 2026 the highest mark was 70, which scored 975. Only 22 of the 18,055 candidates who appeared scored 60 or more, and the 900–1000 score band held ranks 1–9.
Commonly published instead: Careers360’s GATE Physics cut-off page (checked 28 Sep 2026) still shows “expected” 2026 cut-offs of 26–32 (GEN), 23–29 (OBC/EWS) and 17–21 (SC/ST), says “75+ marks for rank 1–10”, and puts rank 5,000–10,000 at 60–65 marks. CollegeDekho prints the 2024 cut-off as 32.1 / 28.9 / 21.7.
GATE 2026 Statistical and Performance Report (IIT Guwahati): PH row, marks distribution and rank table. The 2024 cut-offs are 32 / 28.8 / 21.3 in the GATE 2024 report.
Four years of GATE Physics in one table
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Item |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24,739 | 26,475 | 24,747 | 24,225 | Registered |
| 18,517 | 20,258 | 19,225 | 18,055 | Appeared |
| 3,975 | 4,431 | 3,917 | 3,588 | Qualified |
| 21.5% | 21.9% | 20.4% | 19.9% | Qualified ÷ appeared (ours) |
| 21.44 / 9.70 | 21.44 / 10.66 | 17.34 / 9.55 | 14.68 / 10.88 | Mean / SD of marks |
| 65.72 | 68.44 | 63.42 | 64.68 | Top-candidates’ mean (M̄t) |
| 31.1 / 27.9 / 20.7 | 32 / 28.8 / 21.3 | 26.8 / 24.1 / 17.8 | 25.5 / 22.9 / 17 | Qualifying marks GEN / OBC-EWS / SC-ST-PwD |
| 75 / −9.33 | 78.33 / −6.67 | 76.67 / −11.33 | 70 / −13.33 | Highest / lowest mark |
| 1000 | 1000 | 1000 | 975 | Highest score |
| 15.9 | 15.1 | 15.0 | 14.0 | Score points per extra mark, 550 ÷ (M̄t − Mq) (ours) |
GATE 2023 (IIT Kanpur), 2024 (IISc), 2025 (IIT Roorkee) and 2026 (IIT Guwahati) statistical reports, PH rows. The 2023 report prints the mean and standard deviation in an ambiguous order; we read it as mean 21.44, SD 9.70 because their sum, 31.14, matches the printed qualifying mark of 31.1. The 2024 mean is also printed as 21.44.
Official report figures. Both lines fell after 2024.
The field is large and steady, about 18,000 to 20,000 candidates a year, but marks have fallen. The mean mark fell from 21.44 to 14.68 in two years, and the share who appeared but scored below 20 rose from 49% in 2024 to 72% in 2026 (our count from the official distribution). The GEN qualifying mark followed: it is the mean plus one standard deviation, never below 25, so as the mean fell it dropped from 32 to 25.5, close to the floor. For 2027 the qualifying mark is unknown, but under the formula it cannot fall below 25.
| Year | Scored below 20 (ours) | Scored below 30 (ours) | Scored below 0 (ours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 48.7% | 83.2% | 0.3% |
| 2024 | 49.0% | 79.9% | 0.2% |
| 2025 | 65.7% | 89.7% | 1.7% |
| 2026 | 72.0% | 90.7% | 5.3% |
Our percentages from the official appeared-candidate marks distributions (10-mark bins) of the GATE 2023–2026 reports.
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% of candidates (or the top 10, if that is more). A mark exactly at Mq scores 350 and a mark equal to M̄t scores 900. Mq itself is the mean plus one standard deviation of everyone who appeared, but not below 25 and not above 40. OBC-NCL and EWS candidates qualify at 0.9 of the GEN mark, and SC, ST and PwD candidates at two-thirds of it. PH was a single-session paper in 2023–2026, so there was no normalisation: the raw mark was the mark that counted. If a paper runs in several sessions, the brochure’s normalisation applies instead.
One check that the numbers fit: with the 2026 values, 70 marks gives 350 + 550 × (70 − 25.5) ÷ (64.68 − 25.5) = 975, exactly the highest score in the 2026 report. On the 2026 field each extra mark was worth about 14 score points (our arithmetic; the last row of the table above).
Marks → score on each year’s field
| Marks | Score on 2026 field | Score on 2025 field | Score on 2024 field | Score on 2023 field |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 273 | 248 | 169 | 174 |
| 25 | 343 | 323 | 244 | 253 |
| 30 | 413 | 398 | 320 | 333 |
| 35 | 483 | 473 | 395 | 412 |
| 40 | 554 | 548 | 471 | 491 |
| 45 | 624 | 623 | 546 | 571 |
| 50 | 694 | 698 | 622 | 650 |
| 55 | 764 | 774 | 697 | 730 |
| 60 | 834 | 849 | 773 | 809 |
| 65 | 904 | 924 | 848 | 889 |
| 70 | 975 | 999 | 924 | 968 |
Our application of the official formula to each year’s Mq and M̄t, capped at 1000. Qualifying marks are printed rounded, so a figure here can differ from a scorecard by a point or two.
GATE Physics 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.
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Marks at or above |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 70 |
| 25 | 46 | 14 | 22 | 60 |
| 160 | 258 | 63 | 97 | 50 |
| 773 | 1,193 | 432 | 449 | 40 |
| 3,104 | 4,078 | 1,980 | 1,684 | 30 |
| 9,506 | 10,336 | 6,588 | 5,060 | 20 |
| 16,562 | 17,752 | 14,582 | 11,421 | 10 |
Appeared candidates at or above each mark, summed by us from the official appeared-marks tables (10-mark bins), so only multiples of 10 can be given. The calculator’s rank estimate interpolates between these counts.
Read the two tables together. 40 marks was worth a score of 554 on the 2026 field and put you among the top 449 who appeared. 50 marks was a score of 694 and the top 97. 60 marks was 834 and the top 22. Between 30 and 60 marks, each extra ten marks cut the number of candidates ahead of you by a factor of roughly four (our arithmetic from the table).
Work backwards from a target score
If a programme or an employer names a score, invert the formula to find the marks. On the 2026 field a score of 500 needed about 36.2 marks, 600 about 43.3 and 700 about 50.4. On the 2024 field, the easiest of the four, the same scores needed 41.9, 48.6 and 55.2. Plan against the 2026 column, but aim a few marks higher: nobody knows how hard the 2027 paper will be.
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Target score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34.2 | 35.3 | 30.1 | 29.1 | 400 |
| 40.5 | 41.9 | 36.8 | 36.2 | 500 |
| 46.8 | 48.6 | 43.4 | 43.3 | 600 |
| 53.1 | 55.2 | 50.1 | 50.4 | 700 |
| 59.4 | 61.8 | 56.8 | 57.6 | 800 |
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 | 1–6 | 1–6 | 1–8 | 1–9 |
| 800–900 | 7–30 | 7–30 | 9–16 | 10–25 |
| 700–800 | 34–91 | 36–107 | 17–56 | 26–83 |
| 600–700 | 95–277 | 114–317 | 61–211 | 88–262 |
| 500–600 | 291–682 | 339–889 | 223–690 | 280–730 |
| 400–500 | 731–1762 | 920–2063 | 734–1816 | 762–1751 |
| 300–400 | 1836–4018 | 2153–4535 | 1898–4225 | 1823–4034 |
| 200–300 | 4182–7873 | 4710–8339 | 4394–7776 | 4192–6496 |
Score-band → rank tables of the GATE 2023–2026 statistical reports, PH. Gaps between bands (for example 30 then 34 in 2023) are ties. The lowest bands run past the number who qualified, because the reports rank candidates below the GEN qualifying score too; the 2023 and 2024 tables also print a 100–200 band.
Your GATE Physics 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.
PH score-band → rank tables of the GATE 2023–2026 statistical reports, as printed (the table below carries the same numbers). A score exactly on a boundary is shown in the higher band.
As a rule of thumb from the 2026 report: a score of 700 or more was roughly the top 83, 600 or more the top 262, 500 or more the top 730, and 400 or more the top 1,751. Of the 12 physics-flavoured CCMT groups in our admissions guide, 10 closed between scores of 350 and 461 in the last round of 2026, which on the 2026 field is roughly 25.5 to 33.4 marks. Those closing scores are pooled across every GATE paper a group admits. We found no official BARC publication of its GATE cut-off for Physics; the figures reported from an RTI reply, 650 to 742, would be about 46.9 to 53.4 marks on the 2026 field. Our jobs guide and our GATE-vs-JEST guide have the details.
| Score quoted elsewhere | What it is | Marks on the 2026 field (ours) | Marks on the 2024 field (ours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 350 | GEN qualifying score, every year | 25.5 | 32.0 |
| 461 | Upper end of last-round CCMT closings for 10 of 12 physics-type M.Tech groups, 2026 (pooled across papers) | 33.4 | 39.4 |
| 560 | Last-round OPEN close, NIT Rourkela Semiconductor Devices (G1), 2026 | 40.5 | 45.9 |
| 650 | Lowest BARC OCES Physics GATE cut-off reported for 2020–2024 (2023; not published by BARC) | 46.9 | 51.9 |
| 742 | Highest BARC OCES Physics GATE cut-off reported for 2020–2024 (2021; not published by BARC) | 53.4 | 58.0 |
Scores converted to marks by inverting the official formula (our arithmetic). CCMT closing scores come from the NIC opening-and-closing-score pages and are pooled across every GATE paper a group admits; BARC figures are reported by gatexplore from an RTI reply.
Who writes GATE Physics
Official statistical reports, category-wise appeared counts.
| 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Category | 2023 (reg / app / qual) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11,520 / 8,559 / 1,661 | 10,505 / 7,998 / 1,581 | 10,173 / 7,306 / 1,514 | GEN | 10,940 / 7,962 / 1,582 |
| 2,555 / 2,052 / 546 | 2,196 / 1,789 / 427 | 2,193 / 1,712 / 394 | EWS | 2,339 / 1,849 / 455 |
| 8,916 / 7,076 / 1,503 | 8,729 / 6,940 / 1,294 | 8,445 / 6,533 / 1,169 | OBC-NCL | 8,300 / 6,418 / 1,198 |
| 2,658 / 1,970 / 580 | 2,503 / 1,892 / 488 | 2,579 / 1,913 / 395 | SC | 2,363 / 1,701 / 600 |
| 826 / 601 / 141 | 814 / 606 / 127 | 835 / 591 / 116 | ST | 797 / 587 / 140 |
GATE 2023–2026 statistical reports, PH category rows.
The reports also split PH by gender. Women were 8,262 of the 18,055 who appeared in 2026, but a smaller share of them qualify: in 2026, 993 of 8,262 women who appeared qualified (12.0%) against 2,595 of 9,793 men (26.5%), by our arithmetic. The gap has been similar in each year the reports print it.
| Year | Women (app / qual / %) | Men (app / qual / %) |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 9,439 / 1,435 / 15.2% | 10,819 / 2,996 / 27.7% |
| 2025 | 8,985 / 1,231 / 13.7% | 10,238 / 2,686 / 26.2% |
| 2026 | 8,262 / 993 / 12.0% | 9,793 / 2,595 / 26.5% |
GATE 2024–2026 statistical reports, PH gender rows; percentages are ours. The 2023 gender row was not extracted.
A report figure to avoid quoting
The reports also print a qualifying score for each category. For PH they match the formula in every year but one: the 2024 report prints 221 for SC/ST/PwD, but 21.3 marks on the 2024 field works out to about 189. Every other printed PH figure matches, so we take 221 as a report error. Quote the qualifying marks, which are consistent everywhere.
| Year | OBC-EWS score, printed | SC-ST-PwD score, printed | SC-ST-PwD score, formula (ours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 299 | 185 | 185 |
| 2024 | 302 | 221 | 189 |
| 2025 | 309 | 215 | 215 |
| 2026 | 314 | 231 | 231 |
Printed values from the official reports; formula values are our arithmetic from each year’s qualifying marks, Mq and M̄t.
Practise it, don't just read it
On the 2026 field every extra mark was worth about 14 score points. The quickest marks to add are usually in Quantum Mechanics, the heaviest section by our count in the section-wise guide; our Schrödinger Equation in One Dimension quiz is a good test of whether you are ready for it.
The ProSyllabus GATE Physics library has eight quizzes today: four topic quizzes (Simple Harmonic Oscillator Dynamics, Gauss’s Law Applications, the Schrödinger Equation in One Dimension and Perturbation Theory for Degeneracy) and four section quizzes (Nuclear and Particle Physics, Electronics, Solid State Physics and Atomic and Molecular Physics), each with a worked explanation for every option. There are no quizzes yet for Mathematical Physics, Thermodynamics, Optical Physics or Measurements; use the official papers for those.
What is the GATE Physics cut-off for 2026?
The qualifying marks for PH in GATE 2026 were 25.5 (General), 22.9 (OBC-NCL/EWS) and 17 (SC/ST/PwD), out of 100.
What were the GATE PH cut-offs in 2025, 2024 and 2023?
2025: 26.8 / 24.1 / 17.8. 2024: 32 / 28.8 / 21.3. 2023: 31.1 / 27.9 / 20.7 (General / OBC-NCL-EWS / SC-ST-PwD).
What rank will I get with 40 marks in GATE Physics?
In 2026, 40 marks meant a score of about 554, and 449 candidates who appeared scored 40 or more, so roughly rank 450 or better. On the 2024 field, 1,193 scored 40 or more.
How is the GATE Physics 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% of candidates. PH was a single-session paper in 2023–2026, so there was no normalisation.
What was the highest mark in GATE Physics 2026?
70 out of 100, which gave a score of 975. Nobody scored 1000 in PH in 2026.
How many students appear for GATE Physics?
18,055 appeared in 2026 out of 24,225 registered, and 3,588 qualified. Between 18,000 and about 20,300 have appeared every year from 2023 to 2026.
How many marks are needed for a 600 score in GATE PH?
About 43 marks on the 2026 and 2025 fields, 48.6 on the 2024 field and 46.8 on the 2023 field, by our application of the official formula.
More in this series
- GATE Physics 2027 syllabus: what changed
- GATE Physics section-wise weightage 2023–2026
- Jobs through GATE Physics: BARC, DRDO and who does not hire
- GATE vs JEST vs CSIR-NET for a physics PhD
- GATE Physics 2027 revision plan
- GATE Physics notice board — official updates
- GATE Physics paper analysis
- GATE Physics: the complete guide
- GATE Physics 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 — CCMT 2026 — opening and closing scores (NIC)
- reported — gatexplore — “BARC Scientific Officer cut-off” (says the figures come from an RTI reply; not published by BARC)
- reported — Careers360 — “GATE Physics cut-off 2026” (checked 28 Sep 2026; see correction)
- reported — CollegeDekho — “GATE Physics cut-off” (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.
