NEET UG 2026 MCC counselling Round 1: Closed, Round 3 Next

NEET UG 2026 MCC counselling Round 1 is over. Registration closed on 15 August, the final Round 1 result came out on 24 August, and reporting ended on 31 August 2026. The Round 3 provisional result was declared on 30 September. Round 3 reporting runs to 9 October, and the stray vacancy round opens on 12 October.

Updated on 1 October 2026.

Key Takeaways: NEET UG 2026 MCC counselling Round 1

• Round 1 is closed. Registration ran from 5 to 15 August 2026 and reporting closed at 5:00 PM on 31 August, as per the MCC revised Round 1 schedule dated 19 August 2026.

• The next stage is Round 3 reporting, then the stray vacancy round. The MCC notice on the Round 3 provisional result, 30 September 2026 asks candidates to report only after the final result. Round 3 reporting ends on 9 October.

• Fees did not change between rounds. All India Quota candidates paid Rs. 11,000 (General and EWS) or Rs. 5,500 (OBC, SC, ST and PwD). Deemed university candidates paid Rs. 2,05,000, as listed in the MCC UG Counselling 2026 information bulletin.

• Round 1 offered close to 27,300 MBBS seats across all MCC quotas, including about 9,200 under the 15% All India Quota, in the MCC Round 1 seat matrix. Against that, 11.21 lakh candidates qualified NEET UG 2026.

• Round 1 had a free exit. A Round 1 seat could be left without losing the security deposit. From Round 2 onwards, leaving a seat means losing the deposit, and a Round 3 seat cannot be resigned at all.

MCC Round 1 2026 at a glance

NEET UG 2026 MCC counselling Round 1 schedule: what happened and when

MCC changed the Round 1 dates twice while the round was running. It extended choice filling on 17 August (MCC Notice No. 10), then issued a revised Round 1 schedule on 19 August. The table below shows the final official dates.

Many families still search for the original dates of 12 August and 17 August. Those dates were replaced. The official record is the revised Round 1 schedule on the MCC schedule page.

Where MCC counselling 2026 stands now: all four rounds

MCC runs four rounds for NEET UG: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3 and an online stray vacancy round. The dates below come from the MCC schedule for Rounds 2, 3 and 4, dated 14 September 2026. Classes for the 2026-27 year began on 15 September 2026, as per the MCC and state counselling schedule.

Our NEET counselling guide explains how MCC and state counselling fit together. For the next stages, see our MCC Round 3 registration 2026 guide and our NEET UG 2026 stray vacancy round guide.

What MCC Round 1 covered: quotas, colleges and courses

MCC counsels only part of India's medical seats. According to the MCC UG Counselling 2026 information bulletin, MCC allots:

• 15% All India Quota (AIQ) seats in government medical and dental colleges of the participating states. Any NEET-qualified candidate from any state can compete for these.

• 100% of seats at deemed universities. These are private institutions with university status, so their fees and security deposit are higher.

• Central universities (Delhi University, AMU, BHU and Jamia Millia Islamia), including their internal and domicile quotas.

• 100% of AIIMS and JIPMER seats (Puducherry and Karaikal), plus ESIC seats.

• AFMC, where MCC handles only the registration part.

• B.Sc Nursing seats at central institutes.

The other 85% of seats in state government colleges, and most private college seats, are filled by each state's own counselling authority. That is a separate registration, with its own dates and fees. A NEET UG 2026 candidate needed to register for both to keep every option open.

Who was eligible for NEET UG 2026 MCC counselling Round 1?

Every candidate who qualified NEET UG 2026 could register for NEET UG 2026 MCC counselling Round 1. The NTA result press release of 16 July 2026 reports that close to 20 lakh candidates appeared in the 21 June 2026 exam and 11.21 lakh qualified. The candidate groups below were treated differently.

• Indian candidates could choose AIQ, central university, AIIMS, JIPMER, ESIC and deemed university seats. They paid the higher deemed university fee only if they wanted deemed seats.

• NRI, OCI and PIO candidates could choose NRI seats, general AIQ seats and deemed university seats, as the bulletin states. MCC published a separate list of eligible NRI candidates for each round on its UG counselling page.

• Candidates with a disability (PwD) needed an eligibility certificate from an MCC medical assessment board to claim a PwD seat.

• Candidates claiming a reserved category (OBC-NCL, SC, ST, EWS) needed a certificate in the standard central format, in English or Hindi.

How MCC Round 1 registration worked, step by step

Registration happened only on mcc.nic.in. MCC states that it does not allot seats by nomination or manually. The steps below follow the MCC Candidate User Guide for NEET UG Counselling 2026.

1. New candidate registration. Read the instructions and the list of documents. Then enter your NEET UG 2026 roll number, application number, name, mother's name and date of birth exactly as on your admit card.

2. Set a password and enter the OTP. Choose a password of 8 to 13 characters, then enter the OTP sent to your mobile or email. MCC advised using the Sandes app for OTPs.

3. Give consent. Tick each item on the consent form for counselling purposes and submit it.

4. Fill the application form. Add qualification details, choose the counselling sections you want (for example AIQ or deemed), and add contact details.

5. Upload documents and images. Then preview the form and make the final submission. Details cannot be changed by MCC after this.

6. Pay the fee. Pay the registration fee and security deposit online. Only candidates who paid the full amount moved to choice filling.

7. Fill and lock choices. Add colleges and courses in your true order of preference, then lock them in the locking window. Print the locked choices.

8. See the result. Check the seat allotment result, choose Freeze or Float, upload documents and download the provisional allotment letter.

NEET UG 2026 MCC counselling Round 1 fees and security deposit

Every candidate paid two amounts: a registration fee that is never returned, and a security deposit that is refunded under MCC rules. These figures come from the MCC UG Counselling 2026 information bulletin and applied in every round.

How the MCC security deposit refund works

• Pay the higher fee only. A candidate applying for both government and deemed seats paid only the deemed university fee, not both.

• Refund goes to the same account. MCC refunds the deposit only to the card or bank account it came from. It will not refund to an unrelated account or an NRI account.

• Refund comes after all rounds end. MCC publishes the list of eligible candidates after counselling closes, and refunds are completed within about 30 days of that list. No interest is paid.

• When the deposit is lost. It is forfeited if a candidate does not join a seat allotted in Round 2 or a later round, or if an admission is cancelled for wrong information or missing documents.

Documents required for NEET UG 2026 MCC counselling Round 1: registration vs reporting

At registration

At registration you needed your NEET UG 2026 admit card details and a working mobile number and email. You also needed scanned images for the form and a card or bank account for payment. Use an account you can name for the refund later.

At reporting (originals plus attested photocopies)

The MCC information bulletin lists the documents a college checks at joining:

• Allotment letter issued by MCC.

• NEET UG 2026 admit card issued by NTA.

• NEET UG 2026 result or rank letter issued by NTA.

• Class 10 certificate, which also serves as date of birth proof (a birth certificate is needed if it does not show the date).

• Class 12 certificate and Class 12 marks sheet.

• Eight passport-size photographs, the same as the one on the application form.

• Proof of identity: Aadhaar, PAN, driving licence or passport.

• Category certificate where it applies: SC or ST, OBC-NCL in the central list format, or EWS in the prescribed format.

• PwD eligibility certificate from an MCC medical assessment board, where it applies.

Colleges do not accept a letter saying your originals are kept at another institute. Certificates in a regional language need an attested English or Hindi translation. A name spelt differently across documents needs an affidavit.

MCC Round 1 seat matrix 2026: how many seats were on offer

The MCC seat matrix for Round 1 listed close to 27,300 MBBS seats across all MCC quotas. About 9,200 of these were 15% All India Quota seats in government colleges. The rest sat in deemed university, AIIMS, JIPMER, ESIC, central university and NRI quotas.

Put next to 11.21 lakh qualified candidates, that is roughly one MCC MBBS seat for every 41 qualifiers. This is why state counselling matters as much as MCC. It is also why most qualified candidates did not get a seat in Round 1.

Later rounds use three seat terms. A clear vacancy is a seat that is empty when the round starts. A virtual vacancy is a seat that may open if a current holder upgrades. Newly added seats are seats that colleges add after the earlier round. MCC publishes all three lists before Round 2 and Round 3.

Round 1 choice filling and locking: how it worked

• List more choices, not fewer. MCC allots only from the choices you lock. A short list means more chance of no seat at all.

• Order is everything. Put the college you want most at the top. MCC gives the highest choice your rank allows.

• Locked means final. MCC's bulletin says locked choices cannot be unlocked, even by MCC. A wrong choice can lead to a seat you never wanted.

• Unlocked choices still count. MCC's bulletin says saved choices that are not locked are locked automatically as per schedule, so a saved list is not a draft.

Our college predictor helps you see which colleges your NEET UG 2026 rank could reach before you build a list.

Freeze, Float and the Round 1 free exit

2026 was the first year MCC let candidates choose Freeze or Float online, as the information bulletin explains in its chapter on changes.

Both groups had to upload scanned documents on the MCC portal. For Round 1, the Freeze or Float choice closed at noon on 31 August, and Float uploads closed at 2:00 PM the same day (MCC Notice No. 15).

Round 1 also had a free exit. A candidate could leave or not join a Round 1 seat and keep the security deposit. MCC opened a Round 1 resignation window from 31 August to 1:00 PM on 2 September, without forfeiture, for both Freeze candidates (Notice No. 16) and Float candidates (Notice No. 17). A later window on 17 and 18 September allowed Round 1 and Round 2 seat holders to resign only with forfeiture of the deposit (Notice No. 23). Our web story on MCC seat resignation, Freeze, Float and forfeiture sums this up in a few slides.

How Round 1 differs from Rounds 2 and 3

After joining a Round 3 seat, a candidate cannot take part in any further counselling. MCC and the states also share data, so anyone holding a seat in either list is removed from the All India stray vacancy round.

After the Round 1 result: reporting and what if you did not report

MCC published the final Round 1 allotment result on 24 August 2026. Freeze candidates then had until 5:00 PM on 31 August to report in person. Colleges confirmed or cancelled each admission by 11:00 AM on 1 September. Our web story on the Round 1 final allotment shows the key points.

• Allotted but did not report. Because Round 1 had a free exit, the deposit was not lost. The candidate could take part in Round 2 without registering again.

• Registered but got no seat. No fresh registration was needed for Round 2. The candidate filled fresh choices.

• Did not register for Round 1. A new registration with full fees was possible in Round 2 or Round 3.

• Documents rejected by the college. The seat was cancelled, and the candidate could join the next round under MCC rules.

If you missed the Round 2 reporting date, read our guide to missing MCC Round 2 reporting.

What comes next after NEET UG 2026 MCC Round 3

The Round 3 provisional result was published on 30 September 2026. Candidates could raise a grievance through the candidate portal until 10:00 AM on 1 October (MCC Notice No. 25). MCC tells candidates to go to the college only after the final result. Round 3 reporting runs from 1 to 9 October.

The stray vacancy round follows. Registration runs from 12 to 14 October, the result is due on 17 October, and reporting runs from 19 to 26 October 2026. A candidate who joined a Round 3 seat cannot take part.

If MCC counselling 2026 does not work out

1. Stay in state counselling. State rounds fill 85% of government college seats and most private seats. Our NEET hub covers cut-offs and counselling for 2026.

2. Look at the stray vacancy round. Seats left after Round 3 are offered there, from 12 October 2026.

3. Weigh a second attempt. Our NEET UG 2027 preparation guide covers preparing for the 2027 exam.

4. Compare MBBS in Europe. futureMBBS works with 23 partner universities in 9 countries. Our guide to MBBS in Europe after NEET Round 3 explains timing and costs.

An MBBS from abroad leads back to India through FMGE, the screening exam a foreign medical graduate must pass before practising in India. The NMC Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations 2021 require a course of at least 54 months taught in English, with a 12-month internship at the same foreign institution. After passing FMGE, the graduate completes a further 12-month supervised internship in India. You can book a consultation to compare your NEET UG 2026 rank with your options in India and Europe.

Conclusion: NEET UG 2026 MCC counselling Round 1 in short

NEET UG 2026 MCC counselling Round 1 ran from 5 August to 1 September 2026, with a final result on 24 August. It offered close to 27,300 MBBS seats to 11.21 lakh qualified candidates, so most families moved on to Round 2, Round 3 and state counselling. Round 1 was the only round with a free exit. Families now need two dates: 9 October for Round 3 reporting, and 12 October for stray vacancy registration.

Frequently asked questions about NEET UG 2026 MCC counselling Round 1

Sources

• MCC: UG medical counselling page

• MCC: UG counselling schedules

• MCC: revised AIQ schedule for Round 1 of UG counselling 2026, 19 August 2026

• MCC: revised UG Counselling 2026 information bulletin, 20 August 2026

• MCC: seat matrix for Round 1, NEET UG MBBS, BDS and B.Sc Nursing 2026

• MCC: notice on start of Round 1 choice filling, 7 August 2026

• MCC: notice on reset registration option, 7 August 2026

• MCC Notice No. 10: Round 1 choice filling extended, 17 August 2026

• MCC Notice No. 14: Round 1 final result and reporting, 24 August 2026

• MCC: final allotment result for Round 1 of UG counselling 2026

• MCC Notice No. 15: Round 1 Float document upload schedule, 29 August 2026

• MCC Notice No. 16: Round 1 resignation for Freeze candidates, 31 August 2026

• MCC Notice No. 17: Round 1 resignation for Float candidates, 31 August 2026

• MCC: final result of UG Round 2 counselling 2026, 12 September 2026

• MCC: UG AIQ counselling schedule for Rounds 2, 3 and 4, 14 September 2026

• MCC: AIQ and state counselling schedule for Rounds 2, 3 and 4, 14 September 2026

• MCC Notice No. 23: Round 1 and Round 2 resignation with forfeiture, 17 September 2026

• MCC Notice No. 25: Round 3 provisional result, 30 September 2026

• MCC: Candidate User Guide, NEET UG Counselling 2026

• NTA: NEET (UG) 2026 result press release, 16 July 2026

• NMC: Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations 2021