GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff 2024–2026: Category-Wise Qualifying Marks

The GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff for General candidates was 25.7 marks in 2024, 25 marks in 2025 and 27.7 marks in 2026. OBC-NCL and EWS candidates needed 23.1, 22.5 and 24.9 marks, while SC, ST and PwD candidates needed 17.1, 16.6 and 18.4 marks. Unlike most papers, the Electrical cutoff fell first and then jumped, so the common idea that it goes up every year does not hold here.

This post uses only the official cutoff and All India Rank pages of IISc Bangalore (GATE 2024), IIT Roorkee (GATE 2025) and IIT Guwahati (GATE 2026). Official pages for 2023 and older are offline, so the GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff here covers just these 3 exams. Before setting your own target, go through the GATE EE syllabus 2027 and our guide to the GATE 2027 marking scheme, since negative marks decide how close to the line you can safely play.

GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff 2024-2026: Category-Wise Qualifying Marks

Here is the GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff for each category, along with its 3-year average and the gap between its lowest and highest value.

Every GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff value here is in marks out of 100 for the Electrical Engineering (EE) paper. The GATE EE cutoff 2026 of 27.7 is the highest in this period, and the GATE EE cutoff 2025 of 25 is the lowest a General cutoff can ever be.

GATE EE Candidates and Toppers 2024-2026

The table below adds the competition side to the GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff: how many candidates registered, how many sat the paper, and what the All India Rank 1 scored.

In GATE EE 2024, 3 candidates shared All India Rank 1 with 77 marks each, and all 3 got a GATE score of 1000. Every year, roughly 1 in 5 registered EE candidates did not appear: 19.2% in 2024, 18.8% in 2025 and 19.7% in 2026. Absent candidates do not affect the GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff, since only the marks of those who appeared are used.

6 Myths About the GATE EE Cutoff, Checked Against Official Data

Students repeat many beliefs about the Electrical cutoff in coaching groups and forums. Here is what the GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff data actually says about each of them.

Myth 1: The GATE EE Cutoff Rises Every Year

Fact: The GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff did not rise every year. The General cutoff went from 25.7 in 2024 down to 25 in 2025, then up to 27.7 in 2026. The GATE EE cutoff 2024 was higher than the 2025 figure, so the line moved in both directions within 3 years. The net rise from 2024 to 2026 was 2.0 marks, and it came entirely from the 2.7-mark jump in 2026.

Myth 2: More Candidates Always Push the Cutoff Up

Fact: EE shows the reverse. In 2025, the number of candidates who appeared grew by 13.6%, yet the GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff fell to 25. In 2026, appeared candidates dropped by 2.8%, from 67,701 to 65,801, and the cutoff rose by 2.7 marks, its biggest jump.

The reason is the official formula. The General qualifying mark is the average mark of all candidates in the paper plus 1 standard deviation, so it depends on how the paper went for the group, not on the size of the group. A paper that the average candidate found easier pushes the line up, even with fewer candidates. That is why the GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff and the candidate count do not move together.

Myth 3: 25 Marks Are Always Enough to Qualify GATE EE

Fact: Only in 1 of the 3 years. The rules never let the General cutoff fall below 25, and EE reached exactly that floor in 2025. In 2024, a General candidate with 25 marks would have missed by 0.7, and in 2026 by 2.7. Treat 25 as the absolute floor of the GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff, not as a safe score.

Myth 4: OBC and SC/ST Cutoffs Are Decided Separately

Fact: They come straight from the General figure. OBC-NCL and EWS get 90% of it, and SC, ST and PwD get 2/3 of it, with extra decimals dropped rather than rounded. Check it with the GATE EE cutoff 2026: 90% of 27.7 is 24.93, shown as 24.9, and 2/3 of 27.7 is 18.47, shown as 18.4.

So the category-wise GATE EE qualifying marks always move together. If the General GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff rises by 1 mark, the OBC-NCL and EWS line rises by 0.9 and the SC, ST and PwD line by about 0.67.

Myth 5: GATE EE and Instrumentation Have Similar Cutoffs

Fact: They share topics like control systems, measurements and analog electronics, but their cutoffs are far apart. The Instrumentation (IN) General cutoff was 32.7 in 2024, 25.6 in 2025 and 39.8 in 2026, while the GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff stayed between 25 and 27.7.

A higher IN cutoff does not make IN harder or EE easier. IN had only about 10,000 to 12,400 candidates in these years, and as a group they scored higher. Among the 3 related papers, EE and EC have stayed close, while IN has swung by more than 14 marks. So judge your EE preparation against the GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff alone, not the IN figure.

Myth 6: Clearing the Cutoff Is Enough for a PSU Job or IIT Seat

Fact: Crossing the GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff only gives you a valid GATE score. By the official score formula, a candidate who scores exactly the General qualifying mark gets a GATE score of 350 out of 1000. Power sector PSUs, IIT M.Tech admissions through COAP and NIT admissions through CCMT all set their own GATE score cutoffs, and for EE these sit far above 350.

The topper data makes the same point. The gap between the AIR 1 marks and the GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff was 51.3 marks in 2024, 56.67 in 2025 and 64.3 in 2026. The ranks that bring real offers lie much nearer the top than the bottom of that range.

How Many Marks Should You Target in GATE EE 2027?

Use the latest GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff as your floor and build 3 levels above it in your mock tests:

• Level 1, qualify safely: 28+ for General, 25+ for OBC-NCL and EWS, and 19+ for SC, ST and PwD. Each is a little above the GATE EE cutoff 2026 for that category.
• Level 2, a usable score: 40+ marks, which moves you well clear of the GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff in every year of this data.
• Level 3, PSU and IIT range: 55+ marks, our suggested target for a competitive GATE score. This is guidance, not an official figure.

For Level 1, General Aptitude (15 marks) and Engineering Mathematics (about 13 marks in recent EE papers) together give about 28 marks, just above the 2026 General cutoff. Electric Circuits and Fields, which averaged about 12.7 marks over the last 3 papers and carried 18 marks in 2026, is the best next step toward Level 2.

Guard against negative marking at every level. A wrong 2-mark MCQ costs 0.67 marks, so even 1 bad guess turns a 28 into 27.33, below the latest GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff for General. For the full weightage picture, read our post on the most scoring subjects for GATE EE 2027, and plan your days with the GATE EE 2027 4 months timetable.

If you are also comparing branches, see the GATE ECE previous year cutoff analysis.

FAQs on GATE EE Previous Year Cutoff