GATE 2027 regular registration extended to 5 October; late fee window till 12 October

IIT Madras has pushed the GATE 2027 regular registration deadline to 5 October 2026, without any late fee. The organising institute said the extension follows a heavy rush of applications. Candidates who still miss that date can apply in the extended window until 12 October 2026 by paying the higher fee.

The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering for 2027 is being run by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Applications go through the GATE Online Application Processing System, GOAPS, on the official GATE 2027 website.

What changed on the calendar

The important dates table on gate2027.iitm.ac.in shows earlier regular closing dates struck through. The live closing date for registration without late fee is now Monday, 5 October 2026. The extended registration with late fee closes on Monday, 12 October 2026.

Application rectification is scheduled to open on 14 October 2026 and close on 21 October 2026. City allotment is listed for 4 January 2027. Admit card download is still marked TBA. The exam itself is spread across three weekends in February 2027: 6 and 7 February, 13 and 14 February, and 20 and 21 February. Results are listed for 19 March 2027.

The homepage banner states plainly that regular registration has been extended to 5 October 2026 without late fee because of the volume of requests. It also urges candidates not to wait for the last day.

Fees in the regular and late windows

The application fee page lists two slabs. During the regular period, female candidates and those in the SC, ST or PwD categories pay Rs 1,000 for one paper and Rs 2,000 for two papers. All other candidates, including foreign nationals, pay Rs 2,000 for one paper and Rs 4,000 for two.

In the extended period those amounts rise to Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,500 for the concessional group, and Rs 2,500 and Rs 4,500 for others. PwD here means persons with benchmark disability, as defined on the fee page.

Separate charges apply later if a candidate changes name, date of birth, exam cities, paper, gender or category during the rectification window. Those line items start at Rs 500 per change, with higher totals when a change also moves the candidate into a different fee category.

Revised syllabi and DigiLocker

The GATE 2027 site warns that syllabi for the test papers have been revised. Candidates are told to download and check the updated syllabi before they finalise their paper choices. Relying on an older PDF is a practical risk, especially for anyone repeating the exam after a gap.

Registration through DigiLocker is mandatory for all Indian nationals. The organising institute asks applicants to create or update their DigiLocker account before they start the GOAPS form, so that document pull and identity checks do not stall midway.

What aspirants should do now

Anyone who has not yet submitted should treat 5 October as a hard stop for the no-late-fee route. Keep photograph, signature, category certificates and other required files ready in the sizes listed under the site's document instructions. Foreign nationals follow the same GOAPS path but are not under the DigiLocker mandate that applies to Indian citizens.

Helpdesk contacts listed by IIT Madras are helpdesk@gate.iitm.ac.in and 044-22578200, with an evening window on weekdays for application queries. The GATE-JAM Office address is IIT Madras, Chennai 600036.

GATE scores are used for admissions to postgraduate engineering programmes and for recruitment screens in several public sector organisations. A slipped deadline this week means either the late fee or a wasted year. The extension gives a short buffer. It does not change the February exam calendar.