About 1.1 million out of nearly two million candidates are eligible for nearly 1,37,000 seats in MBBS and other dental, AYUSH and allied programs after clearing the National Eligibility Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET-UG 2026, according to the results announced by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Thursday night.
The highest score of 715 out of 720 was jointly obtained by Aryan Gupta from Punjab and Panchul Bansal from Haryana. Among the top 10 NEET-UG 2026 rank holders, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar and Maharashtra each had two candidates, while Haryana and Uttar Pradesh had one candidate each.
Women outperform men, with 58% of qualified candidates being female. The majority of top performing candidates were between 17 and 19 years old. “Women also qualified at a higher rate than men: 56.8 percent of women seemed qualified, compared to 55.1 percent of men,” the NTA said in a statement.
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The results bring down the curtain on a turbulent exam season that saw NEET-UG canceled due to leak of multiple question papers, a nationwide uproar, and a retake of the exam conducted on June 21. A total of 138 candidates scored more than 690 marks out of 720. “Of the 138, a total of 99% are between the ages of 17-19 years and more than 93% appeared for NEET (UG) for the first time,” the NTA said, adding that the results were declared timely so that the “medical admission and counseling calendar of the candidates remains on track.”
NTA has a history of announcing NEET-UG results late at night. In 2024, it announced the original NEET-UG results at around 10 pm on June 4, released the results of the re-test conducted for 1,563 candidates on the evening of June 30, and released revised scorecards at around 8:30-9 pm on July 26 after the Supreme Court directed it to review the results by withdrawing the marks awarded for a disputed physics question.
This year, the agency announced the NEET-UG 2026 results at around 10:30 pm on July 16. A total of 19 candidates scored above 700, and 1,492 candidates scored 650 and above. “A total of 10,160 candidates scored 600 and above, and 90,780 candidates scored 500 and above,” NTA said.
