NEET UG is the single national entrance for MBBS and BDS — and the 2026 cycle has been anything but routine. The 3 May 2026 paper was cancelled after a leak controversy, and the National Testing Agency (NTA) held a full re-examination on 21 June 2026 for roughly 22.8 lakh candidates across 551 cities. With the re-test done, the result is next — and then counselling. This tracker follows the whole 2026 timeline, the All India Quota (MCC) process and all 10 major state counsellings, straight from the official sources, and we update it weekly.
NEET UG 2026: cancelled exam, re-exam and result
The original NEET UG 2026 paper was conducted on 3 May 2026 but was cancelled on 12 May 2026 after a question-paper leak came to light. NTA ordered a complete re-examination, held on 21 June 2026 — with no fresh application or fee, fresh admit cards, and tightened security (mandatory biometric verification, GPS-tracked papers and AI-supervised CCTV). The re-test result — your All India Rank, percentile and the year's qualifying cut-off scores — is awaited and is the basis for the entire 2026 admission cycle. For the full candidate-side breakdown, see our guide at collegeandfees.com/blog/neet-ug-2026-re-exam-complete-guide.
How NEET counselling works: All India Quota vs state quota
Your single NEET rank runs through two parallel tracks. The 15% All India Quota of government-college seats, plus 100% of the seats in deemed and central universities (AIIMS, JIPMER, ESIC, BHU, AMU), are filled by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) at mcc.nic.in — purely on merit, with no domicile requirement. The remaining 85% of government seats, plus private, management and NRI seats, are filled by each state's own authority, and almost always require state domicile. Most rank-holders register for both.
You can browse every option on our medical hub at collegeandfees.com/medical-colleges, or jump straight to the deemed-university route (the MCC track) at collegeandfees.com/medical-colleges/deemed.
NEET counselling fees and rounds (MCC + states)
MCC typically runs four rounds — Round 1, Round 2, Round 3 (Mop-up) and a Stray Vacancy Round, with an occasional court-directed Special Stray Round. You pay a non-refundable registration fee plus a refundable security deposit: in 2025 that was about ₹1,000 + ₹10,000 for government/AIQ seats and ₹5,000 + ₹2,00,000 for deemed universities (2026 figures awaited). The deposit is forfeited if you take a later-round seat and then exit or fail to report — the single most common and most expensive mistake. State registration fees are much smaller, usually ₹500–₹2,500, though management and NRI quotas carry higher processing fees.
NEET counselling documents required
Keep scanned originals ready before registration opens: your NEET 2026 admit card and scorecard/rank letter, Class 10 and 12 marksheets and certificates, a photo ID (Aadhaar/passport), passport-size photographs, a category certificate (SC/ST/OBC-NCL) or EWS certificate if applicable, a PwD certificate if applicable, and — for any state-quota seat — a domicile/nativity certificate. NRI seats additionally need sponsor, relationship and embassy-attested papers.
What to do right now
While you wait for the result: shortlist colleges across both tracks so you can fill choices quickly when windows open; get your domicile, category and income certificates ready (these are the usual bottleneck); and decide your budget band — government, deemed or private — because deemed and private fees vary enormously. Our state and city hubs at collegeandfees.com/medical-colleges list fees college by college, and the full timeline lives on our tracker at collegeandfees.com/exams/neet.
How we track this
We track this page from the official sources only — NTA (neet.nta.nic.in), MCC (mcc.nic.in) and the ten state authorities — and refresh it weekly. We list a date only when an official notification confirms it; secondary sites showing "2026" counselling dates are almost always recycling 2025.