IIM Guwahati: 70 Seats, 18L Fees & CAT Cutoff for the 22nd IIM

IIM Guwahati is India’s 22nd IIM and it is listed among the participating IIMs on iimcat.ac.in, so a CAT 2026 score can be used for it. Its first MBA batch, 2026-28, has 52 students drawn from 18 states. The institute is mentored by IIM Ahmedabad and runs from a transit campus at Tech City, Bongora, in Kamrup, Assam.

CAT 2026 registration closes at 5:00 PM on 15 September 2026, which makes this a live decision rather than a piece of news. The numbers below come from IIM Guwahati’s own admission pages for the 2026-28 batch.

At a Glance

Is IIM Guwahati on the CAT 2026 form

Yes. Guwahati appears in the list of Indian Institutes of Management on iimcat.ac.in alongside the other 21 IIMs. The official CAT 2026 site also confirms the cycle dates: registration opened on 3 August 2026, closes at 5:00 PM on 15 September 2026, admit cards download from 4 November and the test is on 29 November 2026.

One detail from the institute’s own FAQ page is worth knowing. For the 2026-28 cycle IIM Guwahati stated that candidates did not need to have selected IIMG in their CAT form to be considered. That was written for the last cycle.

A separate point of confusion is the name. IIM Guwahati and IIT Guwahati are two different institutions. The IIM is new, the IIT is not.

How many seats does IIM Guwahati have

The sanctioned intake for the 2026-28 batch was 70 seats. Only 52 candidates finally joined. The category breakup published by the institute is below.

Three of the 70 seats are PwD seats, calculated as 5% within each category and rounded. One sits inside General, one inside NC-OBC and one inside SC.

Source: IIM Guwahati, Seats for MBA and Admission Process pages, iimg.ac.in, read on 10 September 2026.

IIM Guwahati CAT cutoff for the first batch

These were the minimum CAT percentiles required to clear the eligibility stage for 2026-28. They are qualifying bars, not the score at which a candidate was admitted.

A candidate also had to score above zero in the raw score of every section. Bachelor’s degree eligibility was 50%, or 45% for SC, ST and PwD candidates, with final-year students allowed to apply.

How selection worked without an interview

IIM Guwahati ran a three stage process for 2026-28. Stage 0 checked basic academic eligibility. Stage 1 checked the CAT percentiles above. Stage 2 produced a composite score.

The composite score formula was CS = 0.65 x NCAT + 0.35 x NAR. NCAT is the normalised CAT score. NAR is a normalised application rating built from Class 10 marks, Class 12 marks, bachelor’s degree marks and work experience, with a maximum of 60 months of work experience credited.

There was no Written Ability Test and no personal interview in that cycle, though the institute reserved the right to change the process. That is the most distinctive thing about IIM Guwahati right now. At 65% weight the CAT score carried more of the final decision here than at most established IIMs.

IIM Guwahati fees, term by term

The fee for the 2026-28 MBA is Rs 18 lakh. That figure covers tuition plus hostel and facility charges. Mess is collected in advance at Rs 18,000 per term and adjusted against actual spend, so it sits on top of the Rs 18 lakh. A refundable caution deposit of Rs 15,000 is payable in Term 1, along with a one time registration fee of Rs 50,000.

Read that total carefully. The headline number is Rs 18 lakh. What leaves your account across six terms is Rs 19,23,000, of which Rs 15,000 comes back as the refundable deposit and Rs 1,08,000 is mess advance adjusted against what you eat. Year one costs Rs 9,49,000 across the first three terms. Year two costs Rs 9,74,000.

The campus, now and later

Teaching happens at a transit campus at Tech City, Bongora, in Kamrup district. Around Rs 39 crore was spent on renovating it, covering lecture halls, a library, offices, faculty accommodation and three hostel blocks.

The permanent campus is being built across 574 bighas at Morabhita and Dighalkuchi villages in the Palashbari revenue circle of Kamrup. The institute lists the campus area as 77 hectares with a planned investment of Rs 554 crore. Reports at the launch put completion within three years, which means a student joining the 2027-29 batch should plan on studying at the transit campus for the full two years.

What the Assam Chief Minister said about 50% of seats

A line has been circulating that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma asked IIM Guwahati to reserve at least 50% of its seats for students from Assam. That is not what the reporting supports.

At the inauguration on 21 July 2026 he called for a coordinated effort so that at least 50 per cent of the seats in national institutions of excellence located in the State are secured by students from Assam in the years ahead. Secured, not reserved. That is an aspiration about local students winning seats on merit, not a request for a domicile quota.

So the practical answer for an aspirant outside Assam is straightforward. There is no state quota at IIM Guwahati. Admission runs on the Government of India reservation policy that every IIM follows. The first batch itself came from 18 states.

What is not settled yet

The 2027-29 admission policy, the seat count for that batch and the CAT 2026 cutoffs have not been published. Everything above is the 2026-28 cycle, which is the only complete cycle the institute has run.

Placements are also unknown. The institute describes itself as being in its formative phase and says the placement framework will be published later. The first batch graduates in 2028, so there is no placement record to judge. Any site quoting an IIM Guwahati average package today is not quoting the institute.

The institute’s own pages also carry different establishment years, 2022 on the homepage against 2026 on The Institute page. The firm dates are the transit campus inauguration in February 2026 and the first MBA batch on 21 July 2026.

Should a CAT 2026 aspirant care

If you are targeting an 85 to 95 percentile band, a new IIM with a 65% CAT weight and no interview round belongs on your list. If you interview well on a weaker CAT score, the same formula works against you.

Either way the form closes at 5:00 PM on 15 September 2026. Register first, decide later. Then get back to what moves the score, which is daily practice through the free CAT daily challenge on Percentyl.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is IIM Guwahati accepting CAT 2026 scores?

IIM Guwahati is listed among the Indian Institutes of Management on the official CAT site, iimcat.ac.in. Its 2027-29 admission policy has not been published yet, so the exact cutoffs and seat count for that batch are not known.

How many seats does IIM Guwahati have?

Seventy seats were sanctioned for the 2026-28 batch, split as 28 General, 19 NC-OBC, 11 SC, 7 EWS and 5 ST, with three PwD seats inside those categories. Only 52 students joined.

What is the fee for the IIM Guwahati MBA?

Rs 18 lakh for the two years, covering tuition and hostel. Adding the mess advance of Rs 18,000 per term and a refundable Rs 15,000 deposit, the amount payable across six terms is Rs 19,23,000.

Does IIM Guwahati have an interview or WAT?

It did not for the 2026-28 batch. Selection used a composite score of 0.65 times the normalised CAT score plus 0.35 times an application rating built on academics and work experience. The institute reserved the right to change this.

Does IIM Guwahati reserve seats for students from Assam?

No. The Assam Chief Minister called for Assam students to secure at least half the seats in national institutions in the State, which is not a quota. Admission follows the Government of India reservation policy applied at every IIM.

What is the IIM Guwahati placement record?

There is none. The first MBA batch started in July 2026 and graduates in 2028. The institute says its placement framework will be published in due course.