How to apply for NEET-PG (medical postgraduate) — complete 2026 guide

For NEET-PG 2024, 2,28,540 candidates appeared for approximately 65,000 MD/MS/Diploma seats (about 1 in 3.5 — better odds than UPSC, but the difficulty per candidate is far higher because all of them are MBBS doctors). The All India 50% quota has about 32,000 seats; State 50% + private + deemed makes up the rest.

NEET-PG (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - Postgraduate) is the single national entrance examination for admission to:

• MD (Doctor of Medicine) — for non-surgical specialities like Medicine, Pediatrics, Radiology, Dermatology, Psychiatry, Anaesthesia, Pathology, Pharmacology, etc.
• MS (Master of Surgery) — for surgical specialities like General Surgery, Orthopaedics, ENT, Ophthalmology, OBG.
• PG Diploma — 2-year diploma courses in fields like Diploma in Anaesthesia, Diploma in Child Health, Diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

The legal framework:

• Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 governed medical education until 2019, and is now superseded by the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act, 2019.
• NEET-PG was introduced as the single common entrance from 2017 onwards, replacing the older AIPGMEE (All India PG Medical Entrance Exam) and all state-level PG entrance exams (Karnataka PGCET, MH-CET PG, etc.). This is mandated under §14 of the NMC Act 2019.
• The exam is conducted by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS / NBE) under regulations made under the NBE Act-equivalent provisions.
• Counselling for the All India 50% quota is conducted by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, at mcc.nic.in. State 50% counselling is conducted by each state's Directorate of Medical Education (DME) through its own portal.

Eligibility — to be checked carefully:

• MBBS degree from a college recognised by MCI / NMC (check on the NMC's online list of recognised colleges).
• Internship completion by 15 August (or such other cut-off date as notified for the counselling year). If your internship will be completed by this date, you can apply with a “to-be-completed” certificate.
• Provisional registration / Permanent registration with a State Medical Council (SMC) or the NMC. Without this, even with MBBS, you can't sit the exam.
• Indian Citizen / OCI / NRI / Foreign National (with separate quota for NRI/Foreign — different counselling route).
• No age cap and no attempt limit in the current rules (the Supreme Court struck down attempt limits in 2017).

Where to apply:

• NBE NEET-PG portal: nbe.edu.in (or natboard.edu.in) → “NEET-PG” tab.
• Notification typically: November-December of preceding year.
• Application window: 2-3 weeks.
• Exam: March (was earlier January till 2024).
• Result: May.
• Counselling: May-September for All India; State-wise on their own schedules.

• The NBE notification for NEET-PG is published on nbe.edu.in typically in late November or early December.
• Read the full Information Bulletin (PDF) — it has eligibility, cut-off dates, fee, syllabus, exam centre list, dress code, allowed items.

• Go to nbe.edu.in → “NEET-PG” → “Apply Online”.
• Aadhaar OTP eKYC pulls in your name, DOB, address.
• Enter your MBBS roll number + medical college name + State Medical Council registration number + internship status.
• Set a password. You'll get a Registration ID — save it.

• Personal details — auto-pulled from Aadhaar. Verify name spelling exactly matches your MBBS marksheet.
• Educational qualifications — MBBS final marks, college name, year of passing, university.
• Internship details — start date, end date (or expected end date), institution.
• State Medical Council registration — registration number, council, date of registration.
• Category — Gen / OBC NCL / SC / ST / EWS / PwBD. With supporting certificates ready to upload.
• Choice of test city — pick 4 in order of preference. Allotment is centralised.
• Upload documents:
  • Photo — passport size, light background, 50 KB-100 KB.
  • Signature — black ink on white, 30 KB-50 KB.
  • MBBS degree / final marksheet PDF.
  • State Medical Council registration certificate PDF.
  • Internship completion certificate (or expected-completion letter from college).
  • Caste / EWS / PwBD certificate if applicable, in Central format.
  • Aadhaar (front and back) PDF.

• Gen / OBC / EWS — ₹4,250.
• SC / ST / PwBD — ₹3,250.
• Payment by net banking, debit/credit card, or UPI.
• Successful payment shows a confirmation page — download and save the payment receipt PDF. The fee is non-refundable even if you skip the exam.

• Preview → Submit. Application Reference Number generated. Download and print the final application form.

• Released on the NBE portal. Login → “Admit Card”.
• Carry to centre: printed admit card + one government-issued photo ID (Aadhaar / PAN / Voter ID / Passport / Driving License — must match the name on application).
• Strict dress code — formal half-sleeve shirt, no metal accessories, no analog watches, no electronics. Traditional / religious wear allowed only with prior intimation.

• 200 MCQs single-best-answer, computer-based.
• 3.5 hours (210 minutes), no break.
• Marking: +4 for correct, -1 for wrong, 0 for unattempted (negative marking is steep — be selective).
• Sections (notional, all in one paper):
  • Pre-Clinical (~30 Q): Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry.
  • Para-Clinical (~70 Q): Pharmacology, Pathology, Microbiology, Forensic Medicine, Community Medicine.
  • Clinical (~100 Q): Medicine + allied (Dermatology, Psychiatry), Surgery + allied (Anaesthesia, Orthopaedics, ENT, Ophthalmology), OBG, Pediatrics, Radiology.
• Score = raw marks → percentile (normalised against all candidates that year).

• Provisional answer key is published 7-10 days after exam — challenge window is 3-4 days, fee ₹1,000 per question (refunded if challenge upheld).
• Final result with score, percentile, AIR is on nbe.edu.in.
• Score card download is enabled for all candidates.

There are two parallel tracks:

Track 1 — All India 50% quota — through MCC

• Portal: mcc.nic.in
• Register → fee ₹1,000 (Gen) / ₹500 (SC/ST/PwBD), non-refundable + security deposit ₹2 lakh (Gen) / ₹1 lakh (SC/ST) / ₹2 lakh (deemed), refundable if you don't take the seat.
• Choice filling — list as many colleges + branch combinations as you want, in rank order. Lock before deadline.
• Round 1 — allotment based on AIR + choices + reservation. If allotted, you must report at the college within 7 days for original verification.
• If you take the seat, you can upgrade in Round 2.
• Round 2 + Mop-up Round + Stray Vacancy Round — used to fill remaining seats.

Track 2 — State 50% quota — through state DME

• Each state runs its own counselling on its DME portal — e.g., mhpgmedical.com (Maharashtra), dme.gov.in (Tamil Nadu), uppgmed.org (UP), kea.kar.nic.in (Karnataka).
• Need state-specific eligibility — typically MBBS from a medical college in that state OR domicile of that state.
• Separate registration, separate fee, separate choice-filling, but uses the same NEET-PG score for ranking.
• Private and deemed colleges have their seats filled through MCC + state portals (deemed are 100% MCC).

+-------------------+----------------+-----------+------------------+------------------+
| Stage             | Fee            | Refund    | Documents at this stage             |
+-------------------+----------------+-----------+------------------+------------------+
| NEET-PG           | Gen/OBC/EWS    | Non-      | MBBS marksheet, SMC registration,   |
| application       | ₹4,250 /       | refundable| internship cert, Aadhaar, photo,    |
| (NBE)             | SC/ST/PwBD     |           | signature, caste/EWS/PwBD cert      |
|                   | ₹3,250         |           |                                     |
+-------------------+----------------+-----------+------------------+------------------+
| Answer key        | ₹1,000 per     | Refunded  | Online challenge form, justification|
| challenge         | challenge      | if upheld |                                     |
+-------------------+----------------+-----------+------------------+------------------+
| MCC counselling   | Gen ₹1,000     | Reg fee   | MBBS degree, internship cert,       |
| (All India 50%)   | / SC/ST/PwBD   | non-refund| permanent SMC registration,         |
|                   | ₹500           | / Sec dep | Aadhaar, NEET-PG scorecard,         |
|                   | + Security     | refundable| domicile (if applicable)            |
|                   | Dep Gen ₹2L /  | unless    |                                     |
|                   | SC/ST ₹1L /    | seat      |                                     |
|                   | Deemed ₹2L     | retained  |                                     |
+-------------------+----------------+-----------+------------------+------------------+
| State 50%         | Varies by      | Varies    | Same as MCC + state domicile        |
| counselling       | state ₹500-    |           | certificate                         |
|                   | ₹2,000         |           |                                     |
+-------------------+----------------+-----------+------------------+------------------+
| Eligibility       | MBBS from MCI/NMC-recognised college; Internship completed by    |
|                   | counselling cut-off (15 Aug typically); SMC registration         |
|                   | (provisional or permanent); No age limit; No attempt limit       |
+-------------------+----------------+-----------+------------------+------------------+
| Cutoff            | 50 percentile (Gen/EWS); 40 percentile (SC/ST/OBC); 45           |
| (qualifying)      | percentile (PwBD Gen); 40 percentile (PwBD reserved)             |
+-------------------+----------------+-----------+------------------+------------------+

• MBBS college not recognised by NMC. A few colleges (especially older ones in Russia, China, Ukraine) are recognised by some State Medical Councils but not by NMC for India practice. The system may flag your application. Verify on nmc.org.in/recognised-colleges.
• Internship not completed by 15 August (or notified cut-off). This is the single biggest disqualifier at counselling — even if you cleared the exam, you forfeit the seat. Plan internship to end by July at the latest.
• State Medical Council registration pending. Most state councils issue Provisional Registration within 30 days of internship start; Permanent Registration after internship completion. Without provisional registration, NEET-PG application is rejected. Apply early.
• Payment failure / fee deducted but status “not paid”. Wait 24 hours. If unresolved, contact NBE helpdesk with payment reference. Re-paying may create duplicate; refund takes 60-90 days.
• Document upload format mismatch — wrong file size or type. The NBE portal is strict (50 KB photo / 30 KB signature). Use shrink-image tools to compress.
• Centre full — popular centres (Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru) fill in the first 48 hours of registration. Apply early or be ready for a centre in another city.
• OBC NCL / EWS certificate issued > 1 year ago — invalid. Renew before counselling.
• PwBD certificate — must be on Form V/VI/VII under the RPwD Act 2016, with UDID number, and must be from one of the 18 designated PwBD assessment centres for medical PG candidates (NMC has a separate panel for medical disability assessment).
• Allotment forfeited because of a missed reporting date — MCC reporting windows are usually 5-7 days; missing it means seat goes to next candidate, your security deposit may be partially forfeited.

• NBE NEET-PG helpline: 011-45593000, Monday-Friday 9:30 am to 6 pm.
• Email: support_neetpg@natboard.edu.in
• For application-stage issues — payment, upload, eligibility, admit card.

• nmc.org.in → Grievance section.
• For issues around degree recognition, internship cut-off interpretation, SMC registration delay (NMC oversees SMCs).

• mcc.nic.in → Helpline / Grievance.
• Helpline: 011-25367033 / 25367035.
• Email: mccdghs[at]gmail[dot]com.
• For All India counselling issues — choice filling errors, allotment, security deposit refund.

• https://pgportal.gov.in → Ministry “Health and Family Welfare” → sub-department “DGHS / NMC / NBEMS”.
• 30-day SLA.
• Useful for inter-agency issues (NBE vs MCC vs SMC).

This is the legal lever. NBE, NMC, MCC, every State Medical Council, every government medical college is a public authority under §2(h) of the RTI Act 2005. The PIO of NBE is at NBE Headquarters, Medical Enclave, Mahatma Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110 029. The PIO of NMC is at the NMC Bhawan, Pocket 14, Sector 8, Dwarka, New Delhi.

RTI helps here when:

• Your answer-key challenge was rejected without a reason — RTI to PIO NBE for the subject expert's note on your specific challenge with the supporting medical reference. NBE has complied on this since 2018.
• You want a copy of your answer sheet / response sheet post-result. The Supreme Court in CBSE v. Aditya Bandopadhyay (2011) 8 SCC 497 held an evaluated response sheet is “information” under §2(f) of the RTI Act. NBE provides response sheets on RTI in 30-90 days.
• Your percentile seems off vs your raw marks — RTI for the normalisation formula used that year and the cohort distribution.
• Your MCC allotment seems wrong (e.g., a candidate ranked below you got a seat you should have got) — RTI to PIO MCC for the round-wise allotment list + closing rank for each college-branch in your reservation category. MCC publishes these as PDFs after each round but they aren't always up to date.
• Your seat at a deemed university was cancelled because of a fee dispute — RTI to PIO MCC for the deemed university's disclosed fee structure as filed with NMC + the basis of cancellation.
• Your Internship Completion Certificate is delayed by your medical college — RTI to PIO of the medical college for the internship completion file movement + the IDP (Internship Daily Performance) sheets. Medical colleges (whether government or with > 50% government funding) are public authorities; even some private colleges are covered if they receive substantial state aid.
• Your SMC registration is delayed — RTI to PIO of the State Medical Council for the file status. SMCs have 30-day SLAs but routinely take 60-90 days; RTI accelerates.

See the dedicated guide: How to challenge exam result / get revaluation — complete 2026 guide.

RTI does NOT help here when:

• You want NBE to change your score because you think a question's correct answer is different — RTI gets you the file noting; it doesn't change the answer. For that, the only route is a writ to the High Court (rarely successful) or a representation to the NBE expert committee within the answer-key challenge window.
• You want NMC to recognise your foreign MBBS post-application (NMC has a separate recognition / Screening Test process — RTI doesn't bypass it).
• You want NBE to disclose answer keys before the official release — denied under §8(1)(d) (commercial confidence / examination integrity).
• You ask for all candidates' marks — broad, unfocused requests are denied as “disproportionate diversion of resources” under §7(9) of the RTI Act. Ask for your own + the cutoff.
• You want to change your category mid-counselling — RTI cannot change category; only NBE can on producing the relevant fresh certificate (with explanation).
• You want to dispute the fee charged by a deemed university — RTI gets you the disclosed fee schedule; the actual fee challenge goes to the Fee Fixation Committee of the state (post TMA Pai and subsequent SC rulings).

For sibling guides, see How to apply for RRB Railway Recruitment — complete 2026 guide and How to apply for State PSC civil services — complete 2026 guide.

Q. I'm a foreign medical graduate (FMG). Can I appear for NEET-PG?
Yes — but you must first clear the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE) conducted by NBE, get your degree recognised by NMC, and obtain registration with a State Medical Council. After that, NEET-PG eligibility is the same as for Indian MBBS graduates.

Q. I'm a 2024 MBBS graduate but my internship will end on 30 September 2025 — can I apply for NEET-PG 2026?
Yes for the exam, but for counselling you need internship completed by 15 August 2026 (or the cut-off date as notified). If your internship ends after that, you cannot accept any allotment. Some counselling rounds have flexibility — check the latest MCC notice.

Q. What's the difference between NEET-PG and INI-CET?
INI-CET (Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test) is conducted by AIIMS New Delhi for admission to AIIMS (all sites), JIPMER, PGIMER, NIMHANS, SCTIMST. NEET-PG is for all other government, private, deemed PG seats. Most candidates appear for both.

Q. Can I get a refund if I skip the exam after applying?
No. The NEET-PG fee is non-refundable even if you don't appear. Only MCC counselling security deposit is refundable if you don't lock in a seat (Gen ₹2 lakh; SC/ST ₹1 lakh; the registration ₹1,000/₹500 is forfeited).

Q. The MCC allotted me a seat in a state I don't want. Can I refuse and stay in the round?
You can refuse, but you'll lose your security deposit (forfeited if you don't report after allotment in Round 1; partial forfeit in later rounds). To stay in the upgrade pool, you must accept and report at the allotted college first.

Q. Can I appear for NEET-PG every year? Is there an attempt limit?
Yes, you can appear unlimited times. The Supreme Court struck down the 3-attempt limit in 2017 (Asha Pillai v. NBE).

Q. My SMC registration takes 6 months — is there a fast-track?
Some SMCs (Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala) issue Provisional Registration in 7-15 days. RTI to PIO of the SMC for the file movement timeline can pressurise the office. NMC has issued repeated directions to SMCs to clear within 30 days.

Q. I got allotted an MD in a deemed university but the fee is ₹35 lakh per year. Is there fee regulation?
Deemed universities have autonomous fee setting, but they must disclose their full fee schedule to NMC and on the MCC portal at the time of choice filling. Post-allotment unilateral hikes are illegal — RTI to PIO NMC for the disclosed fee vs the actual fee charged. Fee Fixation Committees of the state regulate annual hikes (capped at 10-15% in most states).

• How to apply for RRB Railway Recruitment — complete 2026 guide
• How to apply for State PSC civil services — complete 2026 guide
• How to challenge exam result / get revaluation — complete 2026 guide
• RTI in 12 simple steps — for first-time filers
• All Indian government helplines — one master directory
• RTI forms + state-wise fee chart

Last reviewed: 26 April 2026 by RTI Wiki editorial team. NEET-PG cut-offs, fee, percentiles change every year — verify current values on nbe.edu.in or mcc.nic.in or write to admin@bighelpers.in if you spot a stale figure.