Okay so GATE 2027 dates are finally out and my WhatsApp study group has been going crazy about it since morning. IIT Madras put it up on gate2027.iitm.ac.in and yeah, it’s official now, not just some rumour going around Telegram channels. If you’re targeting M.Tech at an IIT/NIT, or PhD, or even a PSU job later on, this is basically the one exam you can’t afford to mess up the timeline for. So let’s just go through everything, date by date.
The Actual Exam Dates
Write this down somewhere: 6, 7, 13, 14, 20 and 21 February 2027. Six days total, spread over two weekends. Not one continuous week like some people were expecting.
Two shifts daily —
Morning: 9:30 to 12:30 Afternoon: 2:30 to 5:30
Which one you get depends on your paper. No choice in that, it’s fixed by IIT Madras based on the subject code.
Full Timeline (so you don’t have to scroll through 10 tabs)
Honestly the way most sites present this info is so scattered, so here’s everything together:
| Event | Date |
| Registration opens | Aug 27, 2026 |
| Apply without late fee till | Sept 27, 2026 |
| Apply with ₹500 late fee till | Oct 5, 2026 |
| Correction window opens | Oct 14, 2026 |
| Correction window closes | Oct 21, 2026 |
| Mock test out | Nov 2026 |
| City slip out | Jan 4, 2027 |
| Admit card | Jan 2027 |
| Exam | Feb 6,7,13,14,20,21 2027 |
| Provisional answer key | Feb 2027 |
| Objection window | Feb 2027 |
| Result | March 19, 2027 |
| COAP starts | March 2027 |
| Scorecard | March 2027 |
| Paid scorecard (₹500/paper) | June 2027 |
Small warning though — the reg date already got changed once before settling on Aug 27. GATE does this almost every single year honestly, so don’t just trust one screenshot floating around, go check the official site yourself.
Which Day for Which Subject
Not gonna lie, this part confuses a lot of people every year.
Day 1 morning — AG, ES, GG, IN, MA, MN, TF, XE, XL Day 1 evening — AE, BT, CH, CY, GE, PH, XH
Day 2 morning — just CS-1 and ST Day 2 evening — CS-2, EY, NM, PE
Day 3 morning — CE-1, EE, PI Day 3 evening — BM, CE-2, ME, MT
Day 4 morning — EC only Day 4 evening — AR, DA
If you’re doing CS or EC or ME or CE, you already know these get separate full slots because so many people apply. Makes sense, imagine cramming that many candidates into one shift.
And quick reminder for the two-paper people — your second subject HAS to be from the official combo list. You can’t just randomly pick two subjects you like, they’ve set fixed pairs. Check that before you fill the form, not after.
Filling the Form
Reg started Aug 27 through GOAPS. Pretty standard stuff — academic details, personal info, photo upload. The photo thing trips up a lot of students though. White background, JPEG only, size between 200×260 and 530×690, under 600KB. Don’t just upload your Aadhar photo or a random selfie, it’ll get rejected.
Oh and this year DigiLocker is compulsory during registration. Get that set up before you even open the form, saves you from restarting halfway.
If Sept 27 slips past you, you get till Oct 5 with the late fee. After that there’s a short correction window mid-October where you can fix mistakes — wrong city choice, typo in name, that kind of thing.
Admit Card Stuff
Before the actual admit card there’s a City Intimation Slip on Jan 4, which just tells you the city, not the exact centre. Real admit card comes in January, log in to GOAPS with your enrollment ID and password to grab it. Keep a printout AND a phone copy honestly, exam day is not the time to discover your printer’s out of ink.
Answer Key, Result, All That
Provisional key drops in February. If you think something’s wrong with a question, you get a window to challenge it — don’t skip this if you genuinely spot an error, it can change your score. Final result lands March 19, 2027. Scorecard’s free if you clear cutoff, otherwise there’s a paid version later in June for ₹500 per paper.
Counselling Part
This confuses first-timers a LOT. IITs handle their own counselling through COAP. NITs, IIITs, GFTIs go through CCMT instead — completely separate portal, separate process. COAP starts after March with like five regular rounds plus extra ones going till July. CCMT’s registration is around May, allotments running through June.
They don’t talk to each other, these two systems, so if you’re eligible for both, track both separately. Don’t assume one covers the other.
Bottom Line
Dates are locked, so honestly just build your prep calendar around them now instead of waiting for “more clarity” that isn’t coming. Registration, correction, admit card — treat each one seriously, GATE isn’t very forgiving about deadlines. We’ll update this page whenever IIT Madras drops something new, so bookmark it and check back closer to Feb.
Conclusion
With the GATE 2027 dates finally confirmed, the real work starts now — and that’s exactly where the right guidance makes a difference. Between the syllabus, previous year papers, and keeping track of every deadline mentioned above, a lot of students end up losing time figuring things out on their own that could otherwise go into actual preparation. If you’re based in or around Chandigarh and looking for structured support, checking out a good GATE Coaching in Chandigarh can genuinely save you months of trial and error — from subject-wise strategy to mock tests that match the real exam pattern. At the end of the day, dates are just the starting point; how you use the time between now and February 2027 is what’ll actually decide your result.
FAQs
Q1. GATE 2027 date?
Feb 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21 — 2027. Two shifts each day.
Q2. Registration start/end?
Started Aug 27, 2026. No late fee till Sept 27, then till Oct 5 with fee.
Q3. When will the admit card be released?
January 2027, on GOAPS.
Q4. Result date?
March 19, 2027.
Q5. Conducting body?
IIT Madras.
Q6. Two papers allowed?
Yes but the second one must be from the fixed combination list.
Q7. Is DigiLocker compulsory?
Yes, it’s mandatory for GATE 2027 registration this time.