How to Register for CAT 2026 — Step-by-Step Guide, Documents & Test City Selection

Registration for CAT 2026 is now live at iimcat.ac.in. Here’s exactly how to register for CAT 2026 — the step-by-step form process, the documents to keep ready, how test city selection actually works, and a few confirmed details worth knowing before you submit, from the Quantifiers team.

1. How to Register for CAT 2026 — Step by Step

The process runs in two distinct stages — first creating your account, then completing the full application form. If you haven’t already, it’s worth reading our CAT 2026 notification breakdown and registration fee guide alongside this one — together they cover everything from dates to payment.

• Step 1 — Visit the official site. Go directly to iimcat.ac.in, not a search result or a bookmarked link from earlier in the season.
• Step 2 — Click “Register” on the homepage to begin new candidate registration.
• Step 3 — Enter your basic details: full name, date of birth, email address, country, and mobile number. Submitting these generates your unique User ID and password.
• Step 4 — Check your registered email and phone for your User ID and password — this is your login for the rest of the process, including admit card download and result checking later.
• Step 5 — Log in and complete the full application form, filling in personal details, academic history, work experience (if any), and your test city preferences.
• Step 6 — Review everything, then submit with the declaration and payment. Once submitted and paid, the form is final except for the narrow edit window described further below.

2. Documents Required for CAT 2026 Registration

Before you learn how to register for CAT 2026, have these ready — so the form takes minutes rather than becoming a multi-day scramble for missing paperwork.

• Passport-size photograph (recent, colour, white background)
• Signature, scanned from white paper, signed in black ink
• Class 10 and Class 12 mark sheets or grade sheets
• Graduation mark sheets
• Degree certificate, if already issued
• Category certificate, if applying under a reserved category
• Work experience certificate, if applicable
• PwBD certificate, if applicable

3. How Test City Selection Actually Works

Test city selection is one of the more consequential choices in how to register for CAT 2026, since it directly affects your exam-day logistics. Candidates can select up to 5 preferred test cities during registration this year — an increase from the 4 allowed in earlier cycles. CAT 2026 will be conducted across roughly 170 test cities nationwide.

• Selection isn’t a guarantee. The conducting authority makes a genuine effort to allot your top preference, but final allocation depends on capacity at each centre — there’s no way to lock in a specific city with certainty.
• Rank your 5 choices by genuine preference, not by guessing which ones are “safer” — since allotment logic isn’t published, there’s no strategic advantage to gaming the order.
• Test city can be corrected later, but only within the edit window — described in Section 6 below — so it’s worth getting this right the first time rather than relying on a later fix.

4. CAT 2026 Reservation Policy

Table 1 — CAT 2026 Category-Wise Reservation

5. Who Can Apply — Eligibility Recap

Knowing how to register for CAT 2026 only matters if you’re actually eligible to — here’s a quick recap of who qualifies.

• A bachelor’s degree with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA (45% for SC/ST/PwBD candidates), from an institution recognised under the relevant UGC or Parliamentary/State Legislature framework.
• Final-year students awaiting results can apply, provided a completion certificate is submitted as required if they secure provisional admission.
• Professional degree holders — Chartered Accountants (CA), Company Secretaries (CS), Cost and Management Accountants (CMA/ICWA), and Fellows of the Institute of Actuaries of India (FIAI) — are also eligible with the required marks.

6. The Registration Edit Window — What You Can and Can’t Change

After the CAT 2026 registration window closes on 15th September, a short edit window opens for candidates who’ve successfully registered and paid. Only three fields can be changed during this window: photograph, signature, and test city preference. Every other field — personal details, category, academic information — is locked once the form is submitted.

7. Who’s Conducting CAT 2026 — Why It Matters When You Register

IIM Indore is officially conducting CAT 2026, with Prof. Aditya Bellore serving as convener. This lines up with the established six-institute rotation IIMs have followed for years — Indore was next in line, having last hosted the exam in 2020.

8. Which Programmes Can You Apply To Through CAT?

CAT scores feed into admission for a wide range of programmes across participating IIMs — not just the standard two-year MBA.

Table 2 — Sample of Programmes Offered by IIM (Through CAT)

9. How to Register for CAT 2026 — What the Numbers Show

Not everyone who registers for CAT ends up appearing on exam day — the gap between the two numbers has stayed fairly consistent over the years.

Table 3 — CAT Registrations vs Actual Appearances, 2017–2025

10. Registered? Here’s What Comes Next

Once your CAT 2026 registration is submitted, the next 16 weeks before the 29th November exam are what actually decide your percentile — registration itself is just the entry ticket. If you’re figuring out your prep structure from here, start with our free resources at www.quantifiers.in, or if you’d rather have a structured, live-taught plan run for you end to end, that’s exactly what our Sangharsh CAT Crash Course is built for.