JEE Main Passing Marks 2026 - Check Previous Year Trends

Understanding the JEE Main passing marks 2026 is crucial in determining your admission chances, evaluating your performance, predicting colleges, and planning counselling strategies effectively. 

It is important to know that unlike any school examinations, JEE Main doesn’t follow a fixed “pass or fail” score based on raw marks. Instead, the JEE Main 2026 qualifying criteria are determined by percentile cut‑offs calculated through normalization. These JEE Main cut‑offs vary from year to year depending on exam difficulty, the number of candidates, and overall performance trends.

In this article, we will walk you through the key aspects you need to know about qualifying marks, expected cut‑offs, factors that shape them, marks required for high percentiles, and previous trends.

What are the JEE Main Passing Marks 2026?

In simple terms, the passing marks for JEE Main 2026 indicate the minimum percentile a candidate must secure to be considered qualified, which is especially important for eligibility for JEE Advanced and the JEE Main counselling process. The National Testing Agency does not set a specific raw score as the pass mark. Instead, it releases JEE Main qualifying criteria in terms of percentile, which vary by category.

For instance, in past years, candidates in the general category usually needed to score around the 90–93+ percentile to qualify, while the cut-offs for categories like OBC‑NCL, EWS, SC, and ST were comparatively lower.

JEE Main Passing Marks 2026: Expected Category‑wise Cut‑offs

The official JEE Main category-wise cutoffs will be released after the announcement of JEE Main results. However, you can refer to the table below for JEE Main expected passing marks based on patterns observed in recent years:

Category	Expected Qualifying Percentile (2026)
General	92‑94+ percentile
EWS	80‑82+ percentile
OBC‑NCL	80+ percentile
SC	60‑65+ percentile
ST	48‑55+ percentile

JEE Main Qualifying Marks for Paper 1 (B.E./B.Tech)

For Paper 1 (B.E./B.Tech), candidates must meet the qualifying percentile cutoff to be considered for the further counselling process. However, achieving just the minimum qualifying percentile doesn’t guarantee admission, it only makes you eligible for counselling and JEE Advanced. 

Actual admissions depend on All India Rank (AIR) and institute‑specific cut‑offs later in the counselling process.Here’s what you should keep in mind:

• Raw marks are converted into percentile for fairness across different exam shifts. 
• General category candidates usually require a higher percentile compared to reserved categories.
• Qualification alone doesn’t assure a seat in top branches or institutes.

JEE Main Qualifying Marks for Paper 2 (B.Arch / B.Planning)

Like Paper 1, JEE Main Paper 2 also follows a percentile‑based qualifying system rather than fixed study‑marks.

While official qualifying percentiles for 2026 are not yet announced, expected benchmarks based on cut‑off trends from past years suggest:

Category	Expected Passing Marks
General	~85‑90 marks
OBC‑NCL	~70‑75 marks
EWS	~70‑75 marks
SC	~50‑55 marks
ST	~35‑40 marks

How Many Marks Are Required for 99 Percentile in JEE Main 2026?

To target a 99 percentile specifically, most analyses suggest you should score around 180 to 200 marks or above in JEE Main 2026. Though the exact marks fluctuate each year depending upon the difficulty level and number of shifts, scoring 99 percentile in JEE Main requires a higher raw score. 

The table below highlights the expected required marks and score to secure a 99 percentile in JEE Main 2026:

Percentile Range	Expected Marks	Expected Rank
99.99827 – 99.99891	288 – 294	20 – 11
99.99618 – 99.99791	280 – 284	44 – 22
99.99035 – 99.99417	270 – 279	107 – 63
99.95229 – 99.99017	252 – 268	522 – 106
99.87389 – 99.95028	231 – 249	1385 – 546
99.74522 – 99.87061	215 – 230	2798 – 1421
99.57504 – 99.73930	202 – 214	4666 – 2862
99.39320 – 99.56020	190 – 200	6664 – 4830
99.02150 – 99.34876	175 – 189	10746 – 7151

Factors Determining JEE Main Passing Marks 2026

Several important factors influence the qualifying marks and percentile requirements in JEE Main 2026:

• Difficulty Level of the Exam: The overall difficulty of the paper affects how raw marks are distributed among candidates. A tougher paper typically lowers the qualifying percentile range since fewer candidates score high marks, and vice‑versa.
• Number of Candidates Appearing: More candidates could result in higher competition, which can shift percentile boundaries slightly. Conversely, fewer or diverse scoring patterns might influence percentiles differently.
• Normalization Across Multiple Shift: Since JEE Main is held in several shifts with varying difficulty, NTA uses normalization to convert raw marks into percentile scores. This ensures fairness but can cause identical marks to correspond to different percentiles across sessions
• Category and Reservation Norms: Qualifying percentiles are category‑specific, meaning reserved categories generally have lower cutoff percentiles compared to the unreserved category to ensure equity in opportunities.

Previous Year JEE Main Passing Marks and Trends

Reviewing previous years' offers provides a useful reference for aspirants preparing for JEE Main 2026. These percentiles represent the minimum qualifying benchmark for consideration as eligible for JEE Advanced.

Year	General	OBC‑NCL	SC	ST	EWS
2025	~93.10	~90.10	~70.00	~70.00	~88.00
2024	~93.24	~89.75	~70.00	~69.00	~87.50
2023	~90.78	~78.21	~68.21	~67.21	~78.21
2022	~88.41	~74.31	~66.21	~66.21	~77.31
2021	~87.90	~68.90	~50.00	~50.00	~72.25

Conclusion

To maximize your chances in JEE Main 2026, it’s important to focus on improving your percentile rather than just aiming for a specific raw score, as your ranking depends on performance relative to other candidates. 

Reviewing previous years JEE Main cut-offs can provide valuable insight, helping you set realistic targets that align with historical trends for different percentiles