CAT 2025 Cut Off (Updated): Check Expected Cutoff for IIMs and Top MBA Colleges for Admission 2026

CAT Cut Off 2025 is the required CAT percentage for admission into IIMs and other top MBA colleges. CAT 2025 Cut Offs varies by the ranking and placements of an MBA college.

• CAT Exam Cut Off 2025 for IIM vary significantly for general, EWS, SC, ST categories. See details on the article below.
• Remember, CAT Qualifying Cut Offs are much lower (75-90 %) than actual CAT Cut Offs (95-100 %)
• CAT Exam Cut Off 2025 for top non-IIM MBA colleges like SPJIMR and MDI is 90-95 percentile.  
• CAT Cut Off 2025 for other best MBA colleges like IMI Delhi, FORE, GIM Goa vary from 85-94 percentile.

IIMs release two different types of CAT Cut Offs: Qualifying CAT Cut Off and Final CAT Cut Off.

Qualifying CAT Cut off 2025: The minimum qualifying CAT cut offs are officially released by the B-schools before the CAT exam. This CAT cut off is the threshold criteria to screen the eligibility of applicants. If the candidates do not clear these CAT cut off, they will not be considered for next admission round. But it does not give any assurance that the candidate will be shortlisted based on qualifying cut off. Qualifying CAT Cut Offs are between 75-90 percent and used only to shortlist candidates for Personal Interview (PI) Round. 

Final CAT Cut Offs 2025 for IIM admission: The final admission CAT cut off is much higher than qualifying cut off. For example, in its Admission Policy 2026, IIM Bangalore has announced qualifying CAT cut off as 85 percentile, but the actual CAT cut off is expected to go up as high as 98-99 percentile. Final Cut Offs for IIM admission is much higher and between 95-100 percentile.  

The CAT 2025 cut-offs for IIM admissions vary by category and differ across IIMs. IIM Ahmedabad sets one of the highest qualifying thresholds, with General candidates requiring 95 overall percentile. IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta have minimum CAT percentiles requirement of 85 percent for general candidates. Check details tables from the official IIM admission 2026 policy documents. Table also includes CAT Sectional Cut Offs 2025 and Cat cut off 2025 for OBC. It is important to note that these figures represent minimum eligibility cut-offs only. In practice, the percentiles of candidates who are actually shortlisted are often higher.

Table 1: IIM Ahmedabad CAT 2025 Minimum Cut-offs (Qualifying Percentile Requirements)

Note: PwD stands for Persons with Disabilities

Table 2: IIM Bangalore CAT 2025 Cut Offs (Minimum Percentile Requirements for First Shortlist)

Note: These are the minimum percentile cut-offs used for shortlisting candidates for the first stage. The actual percentiles of candidates who received interview calls were higher.

Table 3: IIM Calcutta CAT 2025 Cut Offs (Minimum CAT Percentile Requirements for Stage I Shortlisting)

Note: Actual cut-offs used for interview calls may be higher than the minimum percentiles mentioned above. Final shortlist levels depend on number of applicants, score distribution, and institute-specific shortlisting policies.

Table 4: IIM Lucknow CAT 2025 Cut Offs for MBA (Minimum Sectional and Overall Percentile Requirements for MBA Shortlisting)

Source: IIM Lucknow

Based on IIM Admission policy 2026 previous year trends, the expected CAT 2025 Cut Off IIM general candidates is below. Note that some candidates may have lower percentiles but get admission offer because of their exceptional achievements in international/national sports or extracurriculars. 

Table 5: CAT 2025 Cut Off IIMs for General Candidates 

Above table gives CAT Cut Off 2025 General Category details. 

There were eight IIMs that participated in IIM CAP 2025 process, and had common CAT Exam Cutoff for shortlisting. IIM CAP 2026 details are yet to be released. Check IIM CAP Cut Offs 2025 in table below.

Table 6: IIM CAP Cut Off 2026 

IIM Joint Admission Process (JAP) 2026 is a new common MBA admission process for IIM Kashipur, IIIM Raipur, IIM Ranchi, and IIM Tiruchirappalli. IIM JAP CAT Cut Offs 2026 will be announced soon. Meanwhile, check expected IIM JAP Cut Offs 2026 in the table below. 

Table 6: IIM JAP Cut Off 2026 

After the CAP rounds are over, a few IIMs also initiate the IIM Supplementary Admission Process (SAP) round. Last year, only 2 colleges participated in the SAP round and the IIM SAP cutoff was set at 92%ile. Check details in table below. 

Table 7: IIM SAP Cut Off 2026 

CAT cut off category wise 2025 for admission in top IIMs has been released. Given below are the IIM cut off category wise including CAT cut off for IIM for General category, CAT cut off for IIM for SC category, CAT Cut off for IIM for OBC NC category, CAT cut off for IIM for EWS and CAT cut off for IIM for ST and PwD category candidates:

Table 8: CAT Cut Off 2025 Category Wise
 

Most top MBA colleges in India including FMS Delhi, MDI Gurgaon, SPJIMR Mumbai, IIFT Delhi use CAT cut off in their admission process among others. The expected CAT 2025 cut off for top MBA colleges for admission 2026 is given in table below. Also check their latest admission status and click on Know More link to check placements, fees and other details: 

Table 10: CAT Cut Off 2026 for Top MBA Colleges – Above 80% 

Table 11: CAT Cut Off 2026 for Top MBA Colleges – Above 60%  

IIT CAT Cut Offs are high and at part with IIMs and other top B-schools. Check their expected CAT Cut Offs in the table below.

Table 9: IIT CAT Cut offs 2026 (Expected) 

After getting the information on CAT Cut off for admission 2026 for IIMs and other top MBA colleges, the question arises what CAT score will get the required cut off percentile so that you can clear the cut offs. CAT 2025 difficulty level is expected to go up moderately than last year. Read this article for complete details on CAT 2025 exam difficulty level. Expected CAT Cut Off Marks vs Percentile 2025 estimates by India’s Top Coaching Institutes are given in table below. 

Factors Determining CAT 2025 Cutoff for Admission 2026 

To close this article, you should remember that CAT 2025 Cut Offs for IIMs and other top B-schools are dependent on many factors such as:

• Total number of applications received
• Total number of seats available
• Number of aspirants who appeared for the exam
• Difficulty level of the CAT exam

Above CAT Cut Off 2206 estimates will be updated soon after CAT Exam is held on November 30, 2025, and difficulty level is known. 

In summary, CAT Cut Off refers to the minimum percentile a candidate needs to be shortlisted for the MBA Admission process at IIMs and other top B-schools. CAT Cutoffs vary by candidate’s category (General, EWS, NC-OBC, SC, ST, PwD) and also differ across the IIMs. IIMs release minimum CAT Cut Offs in their admission policy documents. Cut Offs 2025 for IIMs and top MBA colleges including MDI, SPJIMR, IMI Delhi, FORE Delhi and others are published in above article. You can also download CAT 2025 Cut Off PDF from the link above.