CSAB 2026 Seat Acceptance Fee

When CSAB allots you a provisional seat at an NIT, IIIT, or GFTI, you must pay a seat acceptance fee within the deadline to confirm your acceptance. This is separate from the institute's tuition and hostel fees — it is a processing/registration charge collected by CSAB to confirm you intend to join.

The exact amount is announced in the official CSAB information brochure each counselling year and can vary — always check the current figure on csab.nic.in rather than relying on last year's number.

Historically, CSAB (and JoSAA, which uses a near-identical fee structure since both counselling bodies share seat-matrix institutes) has charged a two-tier seat acceptance fee: candidates from General, OBC-NCL and EWS categories have typically paid around ₹35,000, while SC, ST and PwD category candidates have typically paid a reduced amount of around ₹15,000. This fee is usually split into a non-refundable processing component and a refundable/adjustable component that depends on whether the candidate freezes, floats, slides, or withdraws their seat in a later round.

Once a seat is allotted in any CSAB round:

1. Log in to the CSAB seat allotment portal with your credentials.
2. Download your provisional allotment letter.
3. Choose to accept the seat (Freeze/Float/Slide as applicable to that round).
4. Pay the seat acceptance fee online via net banking, debit/credit card, or UPI.
5. Complete document verification (online or at a reporting center as instructed).

Missing the payment deadline results in automatic cancellation of the allotted seat — there is typically no manual extension, so mark the deadline clearly on your calendar.

Payment methods accepted on the CSAB portal mirror those used for JoSAA: net banking across most major Indian banks, debit and credit cards (Visa/Mastercard/RuPay), and UPI. A small payment gateway/transaction charge may be added by the bank or gateway provider on top of the base seat acceptance fee — this gateway charge itself is non-refundable even if the main fee is later refunded.

The refundable portion of the seat acceptance fee depends entirely on when and how a candidate exits their allotted seat. Broadly, candidates who withdraw within the officially notified withdrawal window (before document verification locks the seat) receive a partial refund after a processing deduction, while candidates who freeze a seat and later don't report for admission typically forfeit the fee entirely. A candidate who floats or slides to a different seat in a later round usually has the fee carried forward against the new allotment rather than refunded and re-charged.

For the complete round-wise refund percentage and the exact processing deduction amount, see our dedicated JoSAA 2026 refund policy page, which covers the equivalent mechanism in detail since CSAB follows a near-identical structure.