Apply separately to an IIT before using COAP to respond to its offer. COAP records offer decisions; it does not select your institutes or submit programme applications. The 2027 schedule is not announced, so the detailed round rules below are labelled 2026.

What COAP Does

COAP is the Common Offer Acceptance Portal. It began in 2017 and provides a common window for participating postgraduate admission and PSU offers. It is not a common M.Tech application form. Each institution selects applicants through its own procedure before displaying an offer.

The 2027 schedule and eligibility notice are not announced. The following process is the 2026 reference, when IIT Roorkee coordinated COAP.

COAP Eligibility and Registration: 2026 Reference

COAP 2026 required Indian nationality and a qualifying GATE score from 2024, 2025 or 2026. Candidates entered all valid scores they held. Registration was free; institute application fees were separate.

Registration was completed through the first login and final Submit step, using the login information sent through email and SMS. The COAP number linked institute applications and offers. This does not make the same three score years the confirmed list for 2027.

Participating Institutes

IISc Bengaluru; IIT Bhilai; IIT Bhubaneswar; IIT (BHU) Varanasi; IIT Bombay; IIT Delhi; IIT Dharwad; IIT Gandhinagar; IIT Goa; IIT Guwahati; IIT Hyderabad; IIT Indore; IIT (ISM) Dhanbad; IIT Jammu; IIT Jodhpur; IIT Kanpur; IIT Kharagpur; IIT Madras; IIT Mandi; IIT Palakkad; IIT Patna; IIT Roorkee; IIT Ropar; IIT Tirupati.

NPCIL was the participating PSU listed for 2026. An institute's participation does not mean that every programme or admission process is handled through COAP.

How to Respond to Offers

Retain and Wait had to be chosen and submitted in each eligible round. It was not an automatic hold until the end. The same offer could be retained only twice; a later higher-preference offer released the previous held offer.

Decisive Rounds and Admission

Round 5 and additional rounds 6-10 in 2026 were decisive: Accept and Freeze or Reject. The last round was extended to 13 July 2026. These completed dates are not a 2027 schedule.

• Apply separately to each institute/programme or participating PSU.
• Register in COAP with the eligible GATE score details and link the COAP number where required.
• During a round, review the actual offers in the account.
• Select the permitted decision and click Submit.
• After Accept and Freeze, complete the selected institute's admission or joining formalities by its deadline.

Accepting in COAP is followed by the institute's fee, document and reporting steps. Applicants comparing the NIT option can use the CCMT admission process; its float, slide and freeze rules belong to a different system.