The CAT Application Form's last date has been extended and the new deadline for final submission of the application form is September 20, 2025 candidates who are yet to fill out their registration form are advised to complete their application process at the earliest.

Payment of the CAT Application Fee is required for the final submission of the application form. Also, before paying the registration fee for the CAT exam candidates should check the CAT Exam Fee for the category to which they belong as the application fee is different for each category of candidates.

For candidates who belong to the SC/ST/PwD category, the CAT Application Fee is INR 1250; for the rest of the candidate categories, the registration fee is INR 2500. The registration fee once paid will not be refunded as per the guidelines mentioned in the CAT 2025 information bulletin.

Those candidates who have already filled and saved all the sections of the CAT registration form are just required to pay the CAT Exam Fee which they can do by logging to their CAT Application account and selecting the ‘Declaration’ tab which is also the gateway for the registration fee payment.

Also, candidates are only required to pay once regardless of the IIMs they are applying for and SC/ST/PwD category applicants are required to upload their category certificate to avail of the concession in the CAT Registration Fee. Continue scrolling through the article for more facts and details regarding the CAT Application Fee 2025.

Also Check:

• CAT 2025 Question Paper
• CAT 2025 Cutoff

CAT Application Fee 2025: Overview

The CAT Application Fee is paid in the final stage of filling out the application form through various modes of payment. Candidates can check out the brief details regarding the CAT Exam Form Fee in the table below:

Candidate Category-Wise CAT Application Fee

There are two different CAT Application Fees prescribed by the IIMs based on the candidate’s category elaborated below:

SC/ST/PwD CAT Application Fee

The CAT Exam Fees for the candidates who belong to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Persons with Disabilities (PwD) categories is INR 1250.

General/EWS/OBC-NCL

Also, for all other categories such as General, Economical Weaker Sections (EWS), and Other Backward Caste-Non Creamy Layer (OBC-NCL) of candidates (excluding SC/ST/PwD), the CAT Application Fee is INR 2500.

Hence, candidates belonging to the SC/ST/PwD categories are eligible for the concession in the registration fee.

Candidates entitled to concession in the CAT Exam Fee are required to upload their category certificate as specified in the information bulletin released on the CAT office website as only then they will be considered for the concession.

CAT Application Fee for the IIMs

There are a total of 21 IIMs across the length and breadth of the country out of which 17 IIMs don’t have such obligation for filling their separate application forms only 4 IIMs namely IIM Mumbai, IIM Vishakhapatnam, IIM Amritsar, and IIM Rohtak have their separate application form for admission to their management programmes.

Hence, apart from these 4 IIMs mentioned above no other IIMs require candidates to fill their separate forms, and filling out the CAT Application Form is sufficient for getting entry to any of the 17 IIMs based on their CAT score/percentile.

Therefore, candidates are just required to pay the CAT Registration Fee for its complete submission as the CAT form alone is sufficient for most of the IIMs.

CAT Application Fee for Top Non-IIMs

There are many top management institutions other than IIMs that accept admission based on the CAT Exam Score/Percentile but they to apply for the programmes provided by that college or university candidates have to fill out a separate application required by them along with their registration fee.

Top Non-IIMs Colleges

The registration fees for some of the popular business schools other than IIMs which release their separate application form to be filled by interested candidates are mentioned below:

Payment Mode for CAT Application Fee 2025

There are several modes of payment for the CAT Exam Fee utilised by the candidates while completing their CAT registration process. Below given are payment options for the CAT Application Fee:

• Net Banking
• Credit Card
• Debit Card
• Cash Card
• UPI

Although candidates can opt for any of the above-mentioned modes of payment for the final submission of the CAT Application Form there are additional charges on the registration fee for certain payment methods.

For payment of the CAT Application Fee through credit cards and net banking there is a certain amount of additional charges which gets added to the registration fee. The additional charges for different payment modes are as follows:

• Standard Credit Card: 0.90%
• Debit Card: Nil
• UPI: Nil
• Standard Net Banking: INR 10
• Net Banking (ICICI/HDFC): INR 12
• Net Banking (SBI): INR 17
• Rupay Credit Card: 1.75%

From the details of the additional charges for different payment options described above, it can be concluded that payment through UPI and Debit Card incurs no additional charges.

Some Important Guidelines for the CAT Application Fee

There are a few rules formulated by the IIMs mentioned in the CAT Exam 2025 Information Bulletin published on its official website which are as follows:

• The CAT Application Fee once paid will not be refunded.
• Candidates are just required to pay once for all the participating IIMs and need not apply for their admission process by filling out any separate forms.
• The last date for payment of the CAT Exam Fee is September 20, 2025, until 5 PM for final submission of the form.
• Before heading towards the CAT Registration Fee payment process candidates are required to check out the additional charges applied on certain modes of payment.
• There will be two payment gateways provided for payment of the CAT Exam Form Fee candidates are required to select any one of the following:

1. SBI ePay
2. Payu

CAT Helpdesk Details for Application Fee Payment-Related Issues

There might be some challenges while paying the CAT Application Fee for the registration process such as the amount deducted from their source account but the payment confirmation message is not reflected on the payment gateway screen.

For all the CAT Exam Fee-related, Admit Card, and many other issues the IIM Kolkata which is also the conducting body of the CAT 2025 Exam has created a Helpdesk for solving all these kinds of issues faced by the applicants. Below are the details of the CAT Helpdesk for registration fee-related queries.

• CAT Helpdesk Email: cathelpdesk@iimcat.co.in
• CAT Helpdesk Contact Number: 1800 210 0175

CAT Application Fee Increment in Recent Years

The CAT Application Fee for the General/EWS/OBC-NCL and SC/ST/PwD categories has seen a significant increase in cost with approximately 38% fee of CAT application forms for the said category candidates hiked since 2017. The CAT Application Fee data ranging from the year 2017 to 2025 is tabulated below: