CSAB 2026 Vacant Seats: College-Wise NIT, IIIT & GFTI Seat Matrix
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The Central Seat Allocation Board released its tentative vacancy matrix for the 2026 Special Rounds on July 28, 2026, revealing 15,423 seats still open across 114 participating NITs, IIITs, and GFTIs after JoSAA's five rounds concluded. This is the highest CSAB vacancy count in recent years, up from 13,727 seats in 2025 and 12,758 in 2024, giving candidates who missed out in JoSAA a genuinely wider second opportunity than the previous two cycles offered. For a JEE Main 2026 candidate who did not get the branch or institute they wanted, or who received no seat allotment at all through JoSAA, this matrix is effectively the last centralised chance at the NIT+ system for the year. This guide breaks down exactly where those seats sit, college by college and category by category, and what the numbers mean for anyone filling CSAB choices before the August 5 lock deadline.
CSAB 2026 Vacant Seats: The Total Picture
Summed across every institute, category, quota, and seat pool row in the official tentative matrix, CSAB's 2026 vacancy list totals exactly 15,423 seats. Government Funded Technical Institutes account for the largest share by a clear margin, followed by NITs, with IIITs contributing the smallest but still substantial share of the total.
Table
| Institute Type | Vacant Seats (2026) | Share of Total |
|---|---|---|
| GFTIs | 6,945 | 45% |
| NITs | 4,850 | 31% |
| IIITs | 3,628 | 24% |
| Total | 15,423 | 100% |
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Three-Year Vacancy Trend: Why 2026 Has More Seats
CSAB's vacancy count has climbed for three consecutive years, and the scale of the increase is worth putting in context. From 12,758 vacant seats in 2024 to 13,727 in 2025 and now 15,423 in 2026, the total has grown by close to 2,700 seats over just two cycles. Part of this reflects the steady addition of new GFTIs and IIITs to the CSAB and JoSAA participating list each year, since every newly added institute begins with limited brand recognition among candidates and consequently sees a larger share of its intake go unfilled in the primary JoSAA rounds. Part of it also reflects candidates increasingly using JoSAA to secure a safety seat while planning to try for an upgrade through CSAB, a strategy that pulls seats back into the vacancy pool once those candidates decline their JoSAA allotment in favour of a CSAB attempt. A further contributing factor is the overall growth in JEE Main registrations, which reached 14.75 lakh in 2026, the highest in the exam's history; a larger applicant pool spreads candidates across a wider range of institutes during JoSAA, which can leave marginally more seats at lower-demand institutes unfilled by the time the final round closes, even as demand at the very top of the system intensifies.
Table
| Year | Total CSAB Vacant Seats | Year-on-Year Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 12,758 | Baseline |
| 2025 | 13,727 | +969 |
| 2026 | 15,423 | +1,696 |
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Colleges With the Highest Vacancies in 2026
Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi tops the entire 2026 vacancy list with 678 open seats, the single largest vacancy count of any participating institute. It is followed by the School of Studies of Engineering and Technology at Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur, with 493 vacant seats, and Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar, with 489. Among IIITs specifically, IIIT Senapati in Manipur carries the highest vacancy count at 352 seats, followed by IIIT Bhopal at 325, IIIT Vadodara at 285, IIIT Dharwad at 224, and IIIT Bhagalpur at 208.
Table
| Institute | Type | Vacant Seats (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi | GFTI | 678 |
| Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur | GFTI | 493 |
| Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar | GFTI | 489 |
| IIIT Senapati, Manipur | IIIT | 352 |
| IIIT Bhopal | IIIT | 325 |
| IIIT Vadodara | IIIT | 285 |
| IIIT Dharwad | IIIT | 224 |
| IIIT Bhagalpur | IIIT | 208 |
3 columns · 9 rows
Where Vacancies Concentrate: A Consistent Pattern
Across every recent CSAB cycle, the same underlying pattern holds. GFTIs consistently contribute the largest share of vacant seats each year, followed by IIITs, particularly the newer PPP-model campuses, and then NITs, which show the fewest vacancies relative to their total intake because of their comparatively stronger brand recognition. High-demand branches such as Computer Science and Engineering at established Tier 1 NITs, including NIT Trichy, NIT Warangal, and NIT Surathkal, rarely appear in the vacancy matrix at all, since these seats are almost always exhausted well before JoSAA's final round. Vacancies at NITs, where they do occur, cluster overwhelmingly in core branches such as Civil, Metallurgical, and Production Engineering, at newer or lower-ranked NIT campuses, or under specific reserved category and quota combinations that saw fewer eligible applicants during JoSAA.
How to Read the CSAB Seat Matrix Correctly
The official CSAB vacancy PDF breaks every seat down by institute, programme, category, quota, and gender-pool, and candidates need to filter it against their own exact profile rather than skimming institute-level totals. A college showing 300 vacant seats overall might have zero seats vacant in the specific branch, category, and quota combination a given candidate qualifies under, while a college with a modest overall vacancy count could still have exactly the right seat available. Home State and Other State quota categorisation continues to apply at NITs during CSAB exactly as it did in JoSAA, so candidates should filter the matrix by their home state status before assuming a seat is within reach. Before adding any IIIT or GFTI programme purely because it appears with a healthy vacancy count, candidates should also compare its curriculum carefully against similarly named programmes elsewhere, since programme names that look identical on paper can differ significantly in coding exposure, mathematics requirements, elective structure, and career outcomes depending on the specific institute offering them. Candidates are strongly advised to download the official PDF directly from csab.nic.in and cross-check it against their category and quota rather than relying on secondhand summaries, including the college-level figures presented in this article, for their final choice-filling decisions.
CSAB Special Round 2026 Timeline
Registration, fee payment, and choice filling for CSAB Special Rounds 2026 opened on July 28, 2026, alongside the release of the vacancy matrix itself. A mock seat allotment, allowing candidates to preview a likely outcome and revise their choices accordingly, is scheduled for July 31. The registration window closes on August 3, while choice filling and final locking conclude on August 5, 2026, after which no further changes are permitted. Candidates should treat the mock allotment as a genuine planning tool rather than a formality, since it offers the only opportunity to meaningfully reorder a choice list before it locks permanently.
Who Should Actually Use This Vacancy List
This vacancy matrix is most useful for two distinct groups of candidates. The first is anyone who registered for JoSAA but received no seat allotment across all five rounds, for whom this list represents the last centralised route into the NIT+ system for the year; this group can afford to cast a genuinely wide net across all 114 institutes without the risk calculus that applies to the second group. The second is candidates who already hold a JoSAA seat but are specifically eyeing one of the higher-vacancy institutes or branches identified above as a genuine upgrade, though this group must weigh that decision against CSAB's binding rule that accepting a Special Round seat automatically and irreversibly cancels any existing JoSAA allotment. A college appearing prominently in the vacancy matrix should never be added to a choice list purely because a seat is available; candidates should be genuinely willing to join that specific institute and branch before including it, given how little room CSAB's compressed two-round, five-day timeline leaves for reconsideration. Candidates should also resist the temptation to fill an unusually long choice list simply because so many seats are technically vacant, since a bloated list with dozens of institutes a candidate has not genuinely researched increases the odds of an unwanted allotment locking in before the candidate has had a chance to properly evaluate it.
GFTIs: The Largest but Most Overlooked Vacancy Pool
Government Funded Technical Institutes make up nearly half of all CSAB 2026 vacancies, yet they receive a fraction of the attention NITs and IIITs get during choice filling, largely because many candidates are simply unfamiliar with what GFTIs offer. This category includes long-established institutions such as BIT Mesra, along with state university engineering colleges like Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur, and Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar, several of which run programmes in core engineering, architecture, planning, food technology, and materials science that are not always available at NITs or IIITs in the same city or region. The size of a GFTI's vacancy count is not, by itself, a signal of quality or lack of quality; it more often reflects limited name recognition among JEE Main aspirants who default to filling NIT and IIIT choices first and only consider GFTIs as a last resort, if at all. Candidates open to a wider range of institutes, particularly those targeting a specific specialised programme rather than a specific brand name, may find genuinely strong options within the GFTI vacancy list that a purely NIT-or-IIIT-focused search would miss entirely.
Category and Quota-Wise Vacancy Patterns
Beyond the institute-level totals, the CSAB vacancy matrix also breaks down every seat by category and quota, and this layer of detail matters just as much as the headline institute figures. Reserved category seats, particularly ST and, to a lesser extent, SC seats, tend to show a disproportionately higher share of vacancies relative to their total sanctioned intake compared to the General category, largely because the pool of eligible, JoSAA-registered candidates in these categories is smaller to begin with. Other State quota seats at NITs also tend to carry more vacancies than Home State quota seats for the same branch, since Home State seats benefit from a naturally larger local applicant base in most states. Candidates should check both their category and their home state status against the specific institute before assuming a seat is realistically within reach, since a college showing a large total vacancy count could still show zero vacancies in a candidate's own specific category and quota combination, particularly for General category, Other State applicants targeting popular branches.
- National Institute of Technology, Andhra Pradesh
- National Institute of Technology, Mizoram
- IIIT Vadodara
- IIIT Kota
- IIIT Guwahati
- IIIT Sri City, Chittoor
- IIIT Una
- IIIT Tiruchirappalli
- IIIT Ranchi
- IIIT Bhopal
- Top Engineering Colleges in India
- Top Private Engineering Colleges in India
- CaderaEdu College Predictor (All Streams)
- CaderaEdu College Compare Tool
- JEE Main 2026 Exam Page
Official Sources and Verified References
Conclusion
CSAB 2026's vacancy matrix, at 15,423 seats across 114 institutes, gives candidates a genuinely wider second chance than either of the previous two cycles, with GFTIs and IIITs offering the bulk of that room and NITs, especially the established Tier 1 campuses, remaining tight even in this final clean-up round. Candidates should treat the college-level figures in this guide as a starting point for research, not a final answer, and should always cross-check the exact branch, category, and quota combination that applies to them against the official CSAB portal before locking their choice list ahead of the August 5 deadline.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many total vacant seats does CSAB 2026 have?
CSAB's official tentative vacancy matrix, released July 28, 2026, shows 15,423 vacant seats across 114 participating NITs, IIITs, and GFTIs, the highest count in recent years, up from 13,727 in 2025 and 12,758 in 2024.
Which institute has the highest number of vacant seats in CSAB 2026?
Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi tops the 2026 vacancy list with 678 vacant seats. Among IIITs specifically, IIIT Senapati in Manipur has the highest count at 352 vacant seats.
Do NITs like Trichy, Warangal, and Surathkal have vacant seats in CSAB?
High-demand branches such as CSE at established Tier 1 NITs, including NIT Trichy, NIT Warangal, and NIT Surathkal, rarely show significant vacancies in CSAB, since these seats are almost always filled by the end of JoSAA's final round.
What is the CSAB Special Round 2026 timeline?
Registration and choice filling opened July 28, 2026, with a mock seat allotment on July 31, registration closing August 3, and choice filling and final locking concluding on August 5, 2026.
Where can I download the official CSAB 2026 vacant seat matrix?
The official CSAB vacancy matrix PDF, with institute-wise, branch-wise, category-wise, and quota-wise breakdowns, is available for download directly on the official CSAB portal at csab.nic.in.
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