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2026

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15,423 Vacant Seats · Official Tentative Data

CSAB 2026 Vacant Seats — Real Numbers, Not Estimates

15,423 vacant seats confirmed across NITs, IIITs, and GFTIs going into CSAB 2026 Special Rounds — extracted directly from CSAB's official tentative seat vacancy document, broken down by institute, category, and quota.

CSAB 2026 Vacant Seats — The Real Numbers

CSAB publishes a "Tentative Seat Vacancy" document ahead of each Special Round, listing every institute-program-quota-category combination that has at least one unfilled seat. We extracted and aggregated all 5,507 individual rows from the official 2026 document — summed by institute type, by category, and by institute — to give a genuine, numbers-first picture rather than the generic "newer NITs usually have more vacancies" commentary you'll find elsewhere.

The headline number is 15,423 vacant seats across every quota, category, and seat pool combined. Of these, GFTIs (Government Funded Technical Institutes) account for the largest share at 6,945 seats (45%), followed by NITs at 4,850 (31%) and IIITs at 3,628 (24%). This split surprises many candidates who assume NITs dominate the vacant pool — in reality, GFTIs include over 30 institutes of widely varying demand, and that breadth is what drives their higher total.

Remember: this is a tentative snapshot, exactly as CSAB itself labels it. The document explicitly notes that "candidates may also fill those choices which are not listed in this table" — meaning zero-vacancy rows aren't necessarily permanently closed, and the list updates as SR1 and SR2 progress. Use it to calibrate realistic expectations, then verify the live figure on csab.nic.in before locking your final choice list.

Vacant Seats by Institute Type

Institute TypeVacant SeatsShare of Total
GFTI6,94545%
NIT4,85031%
IIIT3,62824%
Total15,423100%

Vacant Seats by Category

CategoryVacant Seats
OPEN7,297
OBC-NCL3,065
SC1,734
GEN-EWS1,235
ST1,042
OPEN (PwD)334
OBC-NCL (PwD)255
SC (PwD)220
ST (PwD)130
GEN-EWS (PwD)111

PwD (Persons with Disability) sub-quotas are listed separately from their parent category.

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Top 10 Institutes by Total Vacant Seats

#InstituteTypeVacant Seats
1Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, RanchiGFTI678
2Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur (SoSET)GFTI493
3Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, HaridwarGFTI489
4Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and TechnologyGFTI447
5IIIT Senapati, ManipurIIIT352
6IIIT BhopalIIIT325
7Institute of Engineering & Technology, Dr. H.S. Gour University, SagarGFTI309
8Birla Institute of Technology, Patna Off-CampusGFTI308
9NIT AgartalaNIT305
10SVNIT SuratNIT294

Counts sum every program, category, quota, and seat-pool row for that institute in the official tentative vacancy list.

Top 10 NITs by Vacant Seats (OPEN Category)

NITOPEN Vacant Seats
SVNIT Surat141
NIT Calicut138
VNIT Nagpur122
NIT Kurukshetra118
NIT Durgapur117
NIT Agartala116
NIT Raipur113
IIEST Shibpur111
NIT Karnataka, Surathkal104
NIT Rourkela101
→ Full NIT vacant seats guide

Top 10 IIITs by Vacant Seats (OPEN Category)

IIITOPEN Vacant Seats
IIIT Bhopal168
IIIT Senapati, Manipur167
IIIT Vadodara135
IIIT Pune95
IIIT Dharwad94
IIIT Bhagalpur94
IIIT Nagpur91
IIIT Kottayam87
IIITDM Kancheepuram78
PDPM IIITDM Jabalpur66
→ Full IIIT vacant seats guide

Top 10 GFTIs by Vacant Seats (OPEN Category)

GFTIOPEN Vacant Seats
BIT Mesra, Ranchi323
Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur222
SLIET Sant Longowal206
Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar202
BIT Patna Off-Campus156
Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh143
IET, Dr. H.S. Gour University, Sagar130
BIT Deoghar Off-Campus124
Puducherry Technological University108
Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, Vadodara104
→ Full GFTI vacant seats guide

How to Use This Data

  • This is a tentative snapshot, not a live feed — CSAB updates the vacancy list as SR1 and SR2 progress.
  • Absence from the list doesn't mean zero vacancy — CSAB's own document says candidates may still fill choices not listed.
  • Use vacancy to calibrate expectations, not as a guaranteed cutoff predictor — always run your rank through the CSAB college predictor for a personalized estimate.
  • Cross-check the live number on csab.nic.in before finalizing your choice list — figures shift as candidates report, float, or withdraw.

Related Pages

NIT Vacant SeatsIIIT Vacant SeatsGFTI Vacant Seats SR1Colleges With VacanciesCSAB Seat MatrixCSAB College PredictorSR1 Date ScheduleChoice Filling Guide

CSAB 2027: complete guide

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CSAB 2026 Vacant Seats – FAQs

Common questions about vacant seat data in CSAB 2026 Special Rounds

1
How many vacant seats are there in CSAB 2026?
The official CSAB 2026 tentative seat vacancy list shows 15,423 vacant seats (summed across every institute, quota, category, and seat pool row) going into the Special Rounds. This breaks down to roughly 6,945 seats at GFTIs (45%), 4,850 at NITs (31%), and 3,628 at IIITs (24%). This is a tentative, point-in-time snapshot published by CSAB — the actual number shifts slightly as SR1 and SR2 progress and more candidates report, float, or withdraw.
2
Which category has the most vacant seats in CSAB 2026?
OPEN category has by far the most vacant seats at 7,297, followed by OBC-NCL at 3,065, SC at 1,734, GEN-EWS at 1,235, and ST at 1,042. PwD (Persons with Disability) sub-quotas across all categories add roughly 1,050 more seats combined. This distribution roughly mirrors each category's share of the overall CSAB seat pool, though OPEN vacancies are proportionally higher because unreserved seats draw candidates from every category who can then vacate them by floating or withdrawing.
3
Which institute has the most vacant seats in CSAB 2026?
Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi tops the list with 678 vacant seats across all its programs, categories, and quotas — the highest of any single institute in the tentative vacancy data. It's followed by Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya's School of Studies of Engineering and Technology, Bilaspur (493), Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar (489), and Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology (447). All four of the top spots are GFTIs, not NITs or IIITs — GFTIs generally carry more vacant seats overall because they include a much larger, more heterogeneous set of institutes with varying demand.
4
Do more vacant seats mean an easier CSAB cutoff?
Generally yes, but not always proportionally. A high vacant-seat count usually signals lower demand for that specific institute-branch-category combination, which typically correlates with a more relaxed closing rank in CSAB Special Rounds compared to JoSAA's final round. However, vacancy count alone doesn't guarantee a specific cutoff — a branch with 50 vacant seats but a large applicant pool from CSAB-eligible candidates can still close at a competitive rank. Use vacancy figures to calibrate realistic expectations, not as a direct cutoff predictor.
5
Is this vacant seats data official and current?
Yes — this page is built directly from CSAB's own official "Tentative Seat Vacancy for CSAB Special Rounds 2026" document, which explicitly states vacant seats listed are tentative and candidates may also fill choices not listed in that table. We extracted and aggregated all 5,507+ individual seat-vacancy rows from that document. Because CSAB updates this list as the Special Rounds progress (SR1 vs SR2 vacancy differs), always cross-check the live figure on csab.nic.in before finalizing your choice list — treat the numbers here as the most recent official snapshot, not a live feed.
6
Are GFTIs really vacant seat heavy compared to NITs and IIITs?
Yes, in absolute terms — GFTIs account for about 45% of all CSAB 2026 vacant seats (6,945 of 15,423), more than NITs and IIITs combined as a share, even though GFTIs are a more varied group with widely differing reputations. This is largely because the GFTI category includes over 30 institutes of very different demand levels — from well-regarded ones like BIT Mesra and PEC Chandigarh, to newer or less widely known state/central universities that simply see fewer applicants relative to their sanctioned intake.
7
Why do NITs and IIITs still show thousands of vacant seats combined?
NITs show 4,850 and IIITs show 3,628 vacant seats combined across all their branches, categories, and quotas — that sounds high, but it's spread across roughly 31 NITs and 25+ IIITs, each offering multiple branches (CSE, ECE, Mechanical, Civil, Chemical, and more) across 10 category/quota combinations (OPEN, OBC-NCL, SC, ST, GEN-EWS, each with a PwD variant, times Home-State/Other-State/All-India quota). When you multiply institutes × branches × categories × quotas, even a handful of unfilled seats per combination adds up to thousands nationally.

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Quick Stats

Total vacant seats15,423
GFTI vacant seats6,945
NIT vacant seats4,850
IIIT vacant seats3,628
Institutes with vacancy114+
Data rows analyzed5,507

CSAB 2026 Round Dates

Registration opensJuly 28, 2026
Choice lockingAugust 5, 2026
SR1 reportingAugust 6–11, 2026
SR2 reportingAugust 12–17, 2026
→ Full CSAB 2026 schedule

Important Links

CSAB College PredictorNIT Vacant SeatsIIIT Vacant SeatsGFTI Vacant Seats SR1CSAB Seat Matrix

Data Source & Disclaimer

Figures on this page are aggregated from CSAB's official "Tentative Seat Vacancy for CSAB Special Rounds 2026" document. CSAB explicitly labels these numbers tentative — candidates may fill choices not listed, and the list updates as rounds progress. Always verify the live figure on csab.nic.in before finalizing your choices.