CAT 2026 Registration Fee — Confirmed Amount, Payment Charges, Refund Policy & 10-Year Trend

The CAT 2026 registration fee is now officially confirmed — and it’s slightly higher than what most projections had assumed. Here’s the exact category-wise breakdown, what payment mode actually costs you the least, the refund and cancellation policy in plain terms, and how this year’s fee compares to the last decade, from the Quantifiers team.

1. The Confirmed CAT 2026 Registration Fee

With the official CAT 2026 notification now released, the registration fee is no longer a projection — it’s a confirmed figure directly from the IIMs.

Table 1 — CAT 2026 Registration Fee, Category-Wise

2. Payment Modes and What Each One Actually Costs

The category-wise fee above is the base amount — what actually leaves your account can be slightly higher depending on how you pay, since payment gateways add their own processing charge on top.

Table 2 — Additional Charges by Payment Mode

3. When and How to Pay the CAT 2026 Registration Fee

Payment is the final step of registration, completed only after your personal, academic, and professional details are filled in and your documents are uploaded.

• Step 1: Complete every section of the registration form — personal details, academics, work experience, and institute preferences — before proceeding to payment.
• Step 2: Select a payment mode — debit card, credit card, net banking, or UPI.
• Step 3: Enter payment details carefully and submit.
• Step 4: Wait for confirmation — don’t refresh or navigate away mid-transaction.
• Step 5: Download and save your payment confirmation and registration acknowledgement for future reference.

4. Common Registration Fee Mistakes to Avoid

• Not checking account balance beforehand. An insufficient balance is one of the most common, entirely avoidable causes of payment failure.
• Entering payment details incorrectly. A mistyped card number, CVV, or expiry date will reliably cause a transaction to fail.
• Retrying immediately after a failed or stuck transaction. This is the leading cause of accidental double payment — wait a few minutes and check your bank statement before trying again.
• Paying on the very last day of the registration window. Heavy last-minute traffic increases the odds of a slow or failed transaction at exactly the moment you have the least buffer to fix it.
• Attempting to pay over a weak or unstable internet connection, which can interrupt a transaction mid-process and create confusion about whether the payment actually went through.

5. CAT 2026 Registration Fee Refund Policy

The CAT 2026 registration fee is non-refundable in the overwhelming majority of cases. Once paid, there’s no mechanism to reclaim it simply because you change your mind, decide not to appear, or apply under the wrong category by mistake.

6. Is There a Cancellation Option?

No. There’s no option to cancel a submitted CAT 2026 registration and claim a refund. Once the application form is submitted and payment is confirmed, the registration is final — treat the payment step as a genuinely irreversible decision, not a placeholder you can undo later.

7. CAT Registration Fee — The Last 7 Years

The fee has climbed nearly every year, generally in modest, predictable increments.

Table 3 — CAT Registration Fee, Year-on-Year

8. What to Do If Your Payment Fails

• Check whether any amount was actually deducted before doing anything else — a failed transaction with no deduction just needs a retry, ideally after waiting several minutes.
• Switch payment modes if a specific one keeps failing. A repeated error on one card or gateway often resolves immediately with a different payment method, such as UPI.
• Take a screenshot as proof if a payment appears to have gone through on your end but confirmation never arrived — this becomes your evidence if you need to raise the issue with the CAT Helpdesk or your bank.
• Contact the CAT Helpdesk directly if a genuine duplicate deduction has occurred, with both transaction references ready to submit.