JEE Advanced 2026: Application fee, exam centres; changes in engineering entrance exam

The Joint Entrance Examination Advanced (JEE Advanced) information brochure has been released. The Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) is the organising institute of JEE Advanced 2026. IIT Roorkee has also announced the JEE Advanced 2026 dates. The engineering entrance exam, JEE Advanced, is set to be held in May, with applications slated to start on April 23, 2026. JEE Advanced 2026 exam date is May 17.

The organising institute has introduced some changes in JEE Advanced 2026. From increasing the application fee for exam centres abroad to reducing exam centres, these are the changes in the engineering entrance exam

JEE Advanced Application Fee: The application fee for JEE Advanced 2026 examination centres outside India has been revised upwards by $50 for all categories. For Indian nationals and OCI/PIO (I) candidates appearing at foreign centres, the registration fee has been increased to $200, compared to $150 last year.

For foreign nationals and OCI/PIO (F) candidates, the fee for examination centres in SAARC countries now stands at $200, up from $150 last year. Candidates opting for centres in non-SAARC countries will have to pay $300, an increase from the previous fee of $250.

Indian national candidates belonging to the general, OBC-NCL and GEN-EWS categories are required to pay a registration fee of Rs 3,200. For female candidates across all categories, as well as candidates belonging to the SC, ST and PwD categories, the application fee has been fixed at Rs 1,600. The JEE Advanced 2026 fee must be paid online during the registration process, and it covers the cost of appearing for both Paper 1 and Paper 2 of the exam.

JEE Advanced 2026 Zonal Institutes: For JEE Advanced 2026, the responsibility of conducting the examination across different regions has seen a change in zonal coordinating institutes. In the East Zone, IIT Bhubaneswar has been designated as the zonal institute for JEE Advanced 2026, replacing IIT Kharagpur, which had served as the zonal coordinating IIT last year. Similarly, in the South Zone, IIT Madras will take over as the zonal coordinating institute for the upcoming edition of the exam. Last year, it was IIT Hyderabad Zonal coordinating IITs play a key role in overseeing exam-related arrangements, including coordination with test centres and implementation of examination protocols across their respective regions.

The 23 IITs are divided into seven zones – east, west, north, south, central, north-central, and north-east – for the conduct of JEE Advanced.

List of Exam Cities: There has also been a revision in the list of examination cities for JEE Advanced 2026. Pathankot and Saharanpur, which were included as exam centres last year, have been dropped from the list this year.

As per the JEE Advanced 2026 information brochure, candidates from Himachal Pradesh can now choose from exam cities including Hamirpur, Kangra (Dharamshala), Mandi and Shimla. In Uttar Pradesh, the examination will be conducted in Agra, Aligarh, Prayagraj, Bareilly, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Mathura, Meerut, Moradabad, Noida and Varanasi.

Candidates have to compulsorily choose 10 cities and towns of their choice at the time of online registration of JEE Advanced.