INI-CET Cutoff 2025: Institute-wise, Branch-wise Closing Ranks Explained

The INI-CET cutoff is not one number — it is hundreds of numbers. Each institute, each speciality, and each category carries its own opening and closing rank. The qualifying percentile tells you whether you can enter counselling. The admission closing rank tells you whether you actually get a seat.

This guide covers both — the qualifying cutoffs across sessions and the speciality-wise admission closing ranks from 2025 counselling — so you can set a realistic rank target for INI-CET November 2026 rather than preparing for a vague idea of "getting a good rank."

If you are reading this alongside planning for November 1, 2026, the complete INI-CET November 2026 exam guide covers registration, eligibility, and the four-month preparation plan.

Two Cutoffs You Must Understand

Every INI-CET discussion conflates two separate cutoffs. Keeping them distinct is essential.

The qualifying cutoff is the minimum percentile you need to become eligible for the counselling process. It is set by AIIMS New Delhi before counselling begins. Clearing this makes you eligible to participate — it does not guarantee a seat.

The admission cutoff is the closing rank at which seats fill for a specific speciality at a specific institute in each counselling round. This is what actually determines your seat. A student who qualifies at the 52nd percentile but has an overall rank of 8,000 may qualify and still not get a seat in their preferred speciality or institute.

Understanding both is the difference between students who are blindsided by counselling and those who enter with a clear rank target.

INI-CET Qualifying Cutoff — Historical Percentiles

The qualifying percentile has remained consistent across recent sessions. AIIMS sets this as a minimum threshold that all candidates must clear regardless of category, except for reserved categories which have a slightly lower threshold.

Session	General / EWS	OBC / SC / ST / PwBD
May 2022	50th percentile	45th percentile
November 2022	50th percentile	45th percentile
May 2023	50th percentile	45th percentile
November 2023	50th percentile	45th percentile
May 2024	50th percentile	45th percentile
November 2024	50th percentile	45th percentile
May 2025	50th percentile	45th percentile
November 2025	50th percentile	45th percentile

Key point: The qualifying percentile for INI-CET is stable and has not changed. Every General or EWS candidate needs the 50th percentile. Every OBC, SC, ST, or PwBD candidate needs the 45th percentile. There is no further category-based relaxation beyond this.

What does the 50th percentile mean in practice? With approximately 40,000 to 50,000 candidates appearing per session, the 50th percentile corresponds to roughly AIR 20,000 to 25,000 depending on the session. Clearing the qualifying cutoff is achievable for most candidates who prepare systematically — the challenge is getting a competitive rank for a preferred speciality.

INI-CET Admission Cutoff 2025 — Branch-wise Closing Ranks

The following data shows the opening and closing ranks at which seats were filled in INI-CET 2025 counselling across major specialities. All ranks are General category unless otherwise noted.

MD General Medicine — INI-CET 2025 Closing Ranks

General Medicine is the highest-demand clinical speciality across AIIMS institutes. AIIMS New Delhi fills seats at ranks that only the top 5 to 10 candidates in the country can access.

Institute	Opening Rank	Closing Rank
AIIMS New Delhi	2	4
AIIMS Jodhpur	34	35
AIIMS Rishikesh	36	36
AIIMS Bhubaneswar	22	75
AIIMS Raipur	37	79
AIIMS Mangalagiri	115	115
AIIMS Patna	117	117
AIIMS Nagpur	81	119
AIIMS Raebareli	126	126
AIIMS Gorakhpur	129	129
AIIMS Bilaspur	130	130
AIIMS Guwahati	141	141
AIIMS Deoghar	142	142
AIIMS Rajkot	152	152
AIIMS Jammu	153	153

What this tells you: MD General Medicine across all AIIMS institutes fills within approximately rank 155. Below rank 160, every AIIMS campus has a General Medicine seat available. AIIMS New Delhi specifically requires ranks 2 to 4 — making it accessible only to the national toppers.

MS General Surgery — INI-CET 2025 Closing Ranks

Institute	Opening Rank	Closing Rank
AIIMS New Delhi	19	19
AIIMS Rishikesh	175	175
AIIMS Mangalagiri	208	208
AIIMS Guwahati	232	232
AIIMS Gorakhpur	295	295
AIIMS Bathinda	441	441
AIIMS Rajkot	520	520
AIIMS Deoghar	564	564
AIIMS Bilaspur	594	594
AIIMS Jammu	590	606

What this tells you: MS General Surgery at AIIMS institutes fills within rank 600 to 620. AIIMS New Delhi fills at rank 19 — extremely competitive. For candidates targeting surgery at any AIIMS campus, a rank under 600 is the realistic target.

MD Dermatology — INI-CET 2025 Closing Ranks

Institute	Opening Rank	Closing Rank
AIIMS Mangalagiri	41	41
AIIMS Bhubaneswar	69	69
AIIMS Nagpur	99	125
AIIMS Patna	160	160

What this tells you: Dermatology at AIIMS closes within rank 160. Note that AIIMS New Delhi does not always have Dermatology seats in every session — when available, they close in the top 20 to 30. Any candidate targeting Dermatology needs a rank under 165.

MD Radiodiagnosis — INI-CET 2025 Closing Ranks

Radiodiagnosis is consistently among the most competitive specialities after General Medicine. Seats are limited and demand is very high.

Institute	Approximate Closing Rank
AIIMS New Delhi	Under rank 10
AIIMS Jodhpur / Rishikesh	Under rank 50
Other AIIMS campuses	50 to 200 (depending on campus)
JIPMER Puducherry	Under rank 100
PGIMER Chandigarh	Under rank 200

What this tells you: Radiodiagnosis across all premier institutes typically fills within rank 200 in General category. This is one of the most sought-after specialities and requires preparation targeting a top-200 rank.

MD Psychiatry — INI-CET 2025 Closing Ranks

Institute	Approximate Closing Rank
AIIMS New Delhi	200 to 400
Other AIIMS campuses	400 to 1,500
NIMHANS Bengaluru	Under 600 (extremely competitive for NIMHANS)

NIMHANS note: NIMHANS Bengaluru is India's premier psychiatric institute and has its own specialised seat allocation. Psychiatry at NIMHANS fills at competitive ranks — often under 600 in General category — despite being a speciality with higher availability elsewhere.

MD Physiology — INI-CET 2025 Closing Ranks

Physiology is a pre-clinical speciality with lower competition. It illustrates the stark contrast between clinical and pre-clinical closing ranks.

Institute	Opening Rank	Closing Rank
AIIMS Jodhpur	3,362	3,362
AIIMS Kalyani	3,553	3,553
AIIMS Rajkot	4,463	4,571
AIIMS Patna	4,644	4,644
AIIMS Jammu	4,320	5,129
AIIMS Raebareli	4,841	5,308
AIIMS Gorakhpur	5,309	5,309
AIIMS Guwahati	5,401	5,401

What this tells you: Pre-clinical specialities like Physiology, Anatomy, and Biochemistry fill at ranks 3,000 to 6,000 and beyond. For candidates with ranks in this range, pre-clinical AIIMS seats remain accessible.

MD Forensic Medicine — INI-CET 2025 Closing Ranks

Institute	Opening Rank	Closing Rank
AIIMS Jodhpur	1,244	1,244
AIIMS Bhubaneswar	1,816	1,816
AIIMS Kalyani	4,010	4,010
AIIMS Mangalagiri	4,035	4,035
AIIMS Rajkot	4,400	4,400
AIIMS Jammu	4,478	4,480

MD Radiation Oncology — INI-CET 2025 Closing Ranks

Institute	Opening Rank	Closing Rank
AIIMS Nagpur	645	645
AIIMS Rajkot	745	745
AIIMS Bibinagar	847	1,047
AIIMS Guwahati	954	954

MCh Super-Speciality Courses — INI-CET 2025 Closing Ranks

Institute	Branch	Opening Rank	Closing Rank
AIIMS New Delhi	MCh Neurosurgery	53	53
AIIMS Jodhpur	MCh Neurosurgery	135	135
AIIMS Nagpur	MCh Burns and Plastic Surgery	230	230
AIIMS Patna	MCh Surgical Gastroenterology	242	242
AIIMS Bathinda	MCh Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	281	281
AIIMS Nagpur	MCh Neurosurgery	303	415
AIIMS Nagpur	MCh Paediatric Surgery	439	439
AIIMS Bhubaneswar	MCh Paediatric Surgery	447	447
AIIMS Rishikesh	MCh Cardiothoracic Surgery	531	531

JIPMER Puducherry — INI-CET 2024 Closing Ranks

JIPMER Puducherry is India's second most-sought after institute in the INI-CET system. Its clinical specialities fill within the top 500 to 1,000 ranks.

Speciality	General Category Closing Rank (Round 1)
Radiodiagnosis	32
General Medicine	38
Dermatology	94
General Surgery	227
Paediatrics	269
OBG	337
Psychiatry	341
Orthopaedics	426
Ophthalmology	449
ENT	539
Anaesthesiology	1,042
Biochemistry	1,242
Physiology	1,441
Anatomy	2,719
Microbiology	2,862

What this tells you: JIPMER clinical specialities fill within 600. Radiodiagnosis fills at rank 32 — within the top 50. For candidates targeting JIPMER, the rank requirement is close to AIIMS but slightly more accessible for mid-range clinical specialities.

PGIMER Chandigarh — INI-CET 2024 Closing Ranks

PGIMER Chandigarh is among the highest-preference institutes in the INI-CET system. The overall cutoff range across all specialities in 2024 was approximately rank 12 to rank 3,217.

Approximate Closing Ranks	Speciality Band
Under rank 12	Radiodiagnosis (most competitive)
12 to 100	General Medicine, Paediatrics (top tier)
100 to 500	Surgery, OBG, Psychiatry, Ophthalmology
500 to 1,000	ENT, Dermatology, Orthopaedics
1,000 to 3,000	Pathology, Microbiology, Pharmacology
Above 3,000	Pre-clinical specialities

Note on PGIMER: PGIMER has its own seat allocation system that runs in parallel with the AIIMS system. Candidates must indicate PGIMER preference in counselling. The institute's Chandigarh location and exceptional training quality make it among the top choices for high-ranked candidates.

NIMHANS Bengaluru — What Rank You Need

NIMHANS is India's premier institute for psychiatry and neuroscience. It participates in the INI-CET system for its MD Psychiatry seats. Because the institute is highly prestigious and the seat count is limited, the closing rank for Psychiatry at NIMHANS is significantly more competitive than Psychiatry at most other AIIMS campuses.

Approximate NIMHANS Psychiatry closing rank: Under rank 600 in General category.

Candidates specifically targeting NIMHANS must prepare for a top-600 overall rank — which requires significantly more preparation depth than candidates targeting AIIMS pre-clinical seats.

SCTIMST Trivandrum — What Rank You Need

SCTIMST (Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology) offers super-speciality courses in Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurology, and Neurosurgery through the INI-CET system.

Because SCTIMST offers only super-speciality (DM and MCh) seats through INI-CET, the closing ranks vary significantly by speciality. DM Cardiology and MCh Neurosurgery are among the most competitive nationally.

Approximate closing ranks at SCTIMST: Top 100 to 500 for super-speciality courses depending on branch.

Speciality Tier System — Planning Your Rank Target

Based on 2025 closing ranks, here is a practical tier system for planning your November 2026 rank target.

Target Rank	Accessible Specialities
Top 10	Radiodiagnosis at AIIMS Delhi and JIPMER; General Medicine at AIIMS Delhi
10 to 50	General Medicine across AIIMS campuses; MS Surgery at AIIMS Delhi; most specialities at JIPMER and PGIMER
50 to 200	MD Dermatology, MS Orthopaedics, MD Paediatrics across AIIMS campuses
200 to 600	MS Surgery, MD Psychiatry (including NIMHANS), MD OBG, MS Ophthalmology, MS ENT at AIIMS campuses
600 to 1,500	Anaesthesiology, Radiation Oncology, Forensic Medicine at select AIIMS campuses
1,500 to 5,000	Pre-clinical specialities (Physiology, Biochemistry, Anatomy) across all AIIMS campuses
5,000 and above	Qualifying for counselling but limited clinical seat availability; pre-clinical seats may still be accessible

Use this table to reverse-engineer your preparation target. If you want MD Dermatology at any AIIMS campus, your realistic rank target for November 2026 is under 165. If you want any clinical seat at a premier institute, under 600 is the practical benchmark.

Once you have fixed that target, the study method matters more than the hours. INI-CET and NEET PG draw on the same syllabus, so the subject-prioritisation approach in our INI-CET preparation strategy guide applies directly — work backwards from the weightage, not through the textbook.

How INI-CET Cutoffs Compare to NEET PG

Students often ask whether they need a better rank for INI-CET or NEET PG to achieve the same speciality goal.

The answer depends on the speciality. For Radiodiagnosis and Dermatology, the top 100 to 200 ranks in INI-CET compare to approximately the top 500 to 700 ranks in NEET PG — the INI-CET competition is far more concentrated because only 40,000 to 50,000 students appear versus 2.5 lakh for NEET PG.

For General Medicine, the pattern is similar — top 5 ranks for AIIMS Delhi versus approximately top 3,800 for NEET PG government colleges. This is because the AIIMS Delhi seat count is tiny (1 to 2 seats per speciality per session) compared to the NEET PG seat pool.

The key insight: INI-CET closing ranks are low in absolute terms because the number of seats per speciality per institute is tiny — often just 1 to 2 seats. A rank of 50 in INI-CET is not equivalent to rank 50 in NEET PG. INI-CET rank 50 means you are likely to get a clinical seat at any AIIMS campus of your choice. NEET PG rank 50 means you are among the top national performers with access to the most competitive specialities at all government colleges.

Because the two exams share a syllabus, most candidates sit both. Track your mock scores on the 720-mark pattern with the NEET PG 2026 score calculator — a rising NEET PG score is the clearest early signal that your INI-CET rank is moving too.

What November 2026 Cutoffs Are Likely to Look Like

The November 2026 closing ranks will depend on three factors: the difficulty of the November 1 exam, the total number of candidates, and the seat matrix announced by AIIMS.

Based on the trend from recent sessions, here are directional expectations:

Stable or marginally higher for clinical specialities: General Medicine, Surgery, Dermatology, and Radiodiagnosis have consistently competitive closing ranks. Expect similar ranges — top 5 for AIIMS Delhi General Medicine, top 600 for Surgery across campuses.

More seats becoming available: AIIMS has been expanding — new campuses like AIIMS Vijaypur, AIIMS Rajkot, AIIMS Jammu, and others have been added in recent years. More seats per session means slightly more accessible closing ranks at non-Delhi campuses over time.

November sessions historically more competitive than May: More students appear for November sessions since it captures both first-time takers and those repeating after the May session. Expect slightly tighter closing ranks at top institutes compared to May sessions.

Turning a Rank Target Into a Study Plan

A closing rank is only useful if it changes what you do tomorrow morning. Pick the speciality you want, read its closing rank off the tables above, and treat that number as the bar every mock has to clear.

Reflex INI-CET practice is built around exactly that loop — 14 years of tagged previous-year questions, daily TROCAR quizzes on the patterns that repeat, and a weekly HAMMER grand test that gives you an All India rank against other aspirants. A rank you can see moving week by week is the only honest evidence that a target under 600 is within reach.