PG Seat Matrix 2026-27: Speciality Wise MD and MS Seats

PG Seat Matrix 2026-27: Speciality Wise MD and MS Seats in India

The PG seat matrix 2026-27 is the official list of postgraduate medical seats approved for counselling. It carries 63,177 seats across 645 medical colleges. MD General Medicine is the largest branch with 6,143 seats, ahead of MD Anaesthesiology at 5,672 and MS General Surgery at 5,591.

Karnataka holds more seats than any other state, 8,323. Government colleges hold 33,088 seats, or 52.4% of the total. The full speciality wise table is below.

Key takeaways from the PG seat matrix 2026-27

• 63,177 seats in total. The matrix published by the Medical Assessment and Rating Board on 29 September 2026 lists 10,756 college and course entries across 645 institutions.

• Five branches hold 41.6% of everything. General Medicine, Anaesthesiology, General Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Paediatrics together account for 26,299 seats.

• The most wanted branches have the fewest government seats. Only 36.7% of Radiology seats and 36.0% of Dermatology seats sit in government colleges, against 72.7% for Forensic Medicine.

• Super-speciality is small. DM and MCh courses together hold 4,711 seats, which is 7.5% of the matrix.

• Ten states hold 77.6%. The top ten states carry 48,998 of the 63,177 seats between them.

• It is not the final number. Seats from pending applications for new courses or intake increases are not in this matrix and will appear in a later updated version.

The PG seat matrix 2026-27 at a glance

Every figure on this page was counted by futureMBBS from the 10,756 rows of the NMC matrix itself, not taken from a summary. The source file is the Seat Matrix for Postgraduate (PG) Seats for the Academic Year 2026-27, National Medical Commission, 29 September 2026.

What is the PG seat matrix and who publishes it?

The PG seat matrix is the list of postgraduate seats the Medical Assessment and Rating Board has approved for each medical college, course by course, for one academic year. Counselling committees are required to use it. A college may not admit a student against a seat that is not on it.

The 2026-27 matrix was issued under file number M-19011/20/2025/NMC/PGMARB on 29 September 2026, signed by Dr. M. K. Ramesh, President of the Medical Assessment and Rating Board, and circulated by Dr. Raghav Langer, Secretary of the National Medical Commission. It went to every medical college and to the Medical Counselling Committee under the Directorate General of Health Services.

Each row carries a serial number, the college code, the state, the college name, whether it is government, private or deemed, the corrected course name, and the number of seats for 2026-27. There are 10,756 such rows.

How this sits against the wider picture is covered in our guide to PG seats in India and the expansion, and the undergraduate equivalent is in the MBBS seat matrix 2026-27. If you are reading this before choice filling, our page on NEET counselling sets out how the rounds work.

Speciality wise PG seats 2026-27: the full table

These are the 20 largest branches by seat count, with the share held by government colleges in each. The government share matters because it is the difference between a seat that costs a few thousand rupees a year and one that costs several lakh.

MD Emergency Medicine follows with 663 seats and a government share of 36.8%, and MD Radiation Oncology with 554 seats and a government share of 71.8%.

Which branches have the fewest government seats in the PG seat matrix?

This is the pattern most seat lists miss. The three branches with the lowest government share are also three of the most competitive: Dermatology at 36.0%, Radiology at 36.7% and Emergency Medicine at 36.8%.

The effect on a candidate is direct. Of the 1,880 Dermatology seats in the country, only 676 are in government colleges. Of the 3,224 Radiology seats, only 1,182 are. A rank that would comfortably take a government seat in Pathology, where 54.8% of seats are government, will not come close in Radiology.

The reverse holds for the pre-clinical and para-clinical branches. Forensic Medicine sits at 72.7% government, Microbiology at 60.6%, Biochemistry at 59.1%, Physiology at 58.6% and Anatomy at 58.3%. Taken together, the eight pre-clinical and para-clinical subjects hold 13,739 seats, or 21.7% of the whole matrix.

How many DM and MCh seats are in the PG seat matrix?

Super-speciality courses hold 4,711 seats, 7.5% of the matrix. DM accounts for 2,549 and MCh for 2,162. These are entered through NEET SS, not NEET PG.

The tail is very thin. DM Neuro-Radiology has 1 seat in the country. DM Paediatric Hepatology has 3. MCh Hand Surgery has 8. A candidate planning for one of these is planning around single-figure national intakes.

PG seats state wise in the PG seat matrix 2026-27

Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu alone hold 21,621 seats, just over a third of the country. The ten largest states hold 48,998 seats between them, or 77.6% of the matrix.

Within the PG seat matrix, Karnataka leads in most individual branches too: 827 of the General Medicine seats, 712 of the Anaesthesiology seats, 615 of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology seats and 551 of the Orthopaedics seats. Maharashtra leads in Community Medicine with 279.

What the PG seat matrix 2026-27 does not include

Four things sit outside this matrix, and missing them leads to wrong expectations during counselling.

• Pending applications. Seats applied for under an increase in intake of an existing course, or for a new PG course, are not counted. The NMC states these will be added to a later updated matrix published on its website.

• Later revisions. The matrix is subject to revision following a decision of the Medical Assessment and Rating Board, an Appeal Committee or another competent authority.

• Institutes of national importance. AIIMS, PGIMER, JIPMER and NIMHANS run their own admissions through INI-CET and do not appear in the NMC matrix. Our guide to the difference between INI-CET and NEET PG explains how those seats are filled.

• Non-medical PG courses. The matrix covers MD, MS, DM, MCh and the remaining diplomas only. Dental, AYUSH and nursing postgraduate seats are counted by their own regulators.

How should you use the seat matrix for choice filling?

1. Start with your branch, not your college. Find the total for the branch you want in the table above. A branch with 1,596 seats nationally, such as Psychiatry, behaves very differently from one with 6,143.

2. Check the government share for that branch. If the government share is near 36%, as it is for Radiology and Dermatology, plan on the realistic likelihood of a private or deemed seat and price it before you fill choices.

3. Read your own state’s line. If you are competing in state quota, the state total is the number that governs most of your chances, not the national figure.

4. Open the NMC file for your college. The matrix lists every college by name with its course wise intake. Confirm the exact number of seats in your target college and branch before you lock a choice.

5. Re-check before each round. Because seats from pending applications are added later, the matrix you used in Round 1 may not be the matrix that governs Round 2.

6. Keep the cost of the seat in view. A private or deemed seat is a three year financial commitment, and what a resident earns during those years is set out in our guide to the PG resident stipend in India.

What if your branch has very few seats in the PG seat matrix?

Several branches a student may have set their heart on are small. MD Geriatrics has 68 seats in the country. MD Family Medicine has 26. MD Sports Medicine has 30. MD Palliative Medicine has 20. MD Nuclear Medicine has 16.

Three things follow from a small national intake. The closing rank moves sharply year to year, because a handful of candidates changes the picture. The seats are concentrated in a few states, so you may have to move. And a non-clinical or smaller clinical branch with a high government share can be a better route to a government seat than a crowded branch with a low one.

If a PG seat in India does not work out this cycle, there are other routes. The alternatives and how they compare are covered in our guide on how to become a doctor in India and in the result coverage for NEET PG 2026.

Where to read more on futureMBBS

Our short visual summary of the latest seat changes is in the web story NMC seat matrix update, and the counselling process that uses this matrix is set out in counselling for NEET PG.

Sources

• Seat Matrix for Postgraduate (PG) Seats for the Academic Year 2026-27, No. M-19011/20/2025/NMC/PGMARB, National Medical Commission, 29 September 2026

• National Medical Commission, What’s New notices page

• National Medical Commission, list of colleges teaching PG courses

• Medical Counselling Committee, Directorate General of Health Services