NEET Exam Fees: What You Pay, Extra Charges and Refunds

NEET Exam Fees: What You Pay, Extra Charges and Refunds

NEET exam fees are a one-time application fee paid online to the National Testing Agency (NTA), and in the latest notified cycle they were ₹1,700 for General candidates, ₹1,600 for General-EWS and OBC-NCL, ₹1,000 for SC, ST, PwBD and Third Gender candidates, and ₹9,500 for anyone choosing an exam centre outside India. Your bank or payment gateway may add a small processing charge plus 18% GST on that charge. The fee is normally non-refundable. Below are the exact amounts, the cheapest way to pay, the fees that come after the form, and the rare cases where NTA does give money back.

How much is the NEET exam fee for each category?

NEET exam fees are fixed by your category and by where you choose to write the paper. Here is the table from the "Information at a Glance" page of the NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin, which is the latest one NTA has published.

Category	Exam centre in India	Exam centre outside India
General	₹1,700	₹9,500
General-EWS / OBC-NCL	₹1,600	₹9,500
SC / ST / PwBD / PwD / Third Gender	₹1,000	₹9,500

Two details about NEET exam fees that people miss. First, the outside India fee is one flat amount. The bulletin prints a single ₹9,500 figure for that column, with no category discount. Second, OBC-NCL means non-creamy layer as per the Central List kept by the National Commission for Backward Classes. If you are OBC but not in the central non-creamy list, you are not in the ₹1,600 band. Our guide to NEET reservation categories explains which certificate proves which category, and futureMBBS shows how NEET reservation quotas work once seats are allotted.

The NEET (UG) 2025 Information Bulletin shows the same four numbers. So for two cycles running, NEET exam fees have not moved.

What do you pay on top of the NEET exam fee?

A few rupees, sometimes nothing, on top of the NEET exam fees themselves. The bulletin says processing charges and GST are chargeable to the candidate "in addition to the examination fee" by the bank or payment gateway, and Appendix VIII sets the GST on those charges at 18%. The GST is on the bank's charge only, not on the ₹1,700 itself.

Appendix VIII lists four gateways (HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Canara Bank and ICICI Bank) and what each one charged in 2026:

Payment mode	HDFC Bank	SBI	Canara Bank	ICICI Bank
UPI	Nil	Nil	Nil	0% up to ₹2,000, 0% plus GST above
Net banking	Nil	₹5 plus GST	₹13 or ₹17 plus GST, by bank	Nil (ICICI), ₹4 plus GST (other banks)
Debit card	0%	Nil	0.40% to 0.85% plus GST (Visa, Mastercard), Nil (RuPay)	0% up to ₹2,000, 0.5% plus GST above
Domestic credit card	Nil	0.80% plus GST	1.10% plus GST	0.40% of transaction value
International credit card	Nil	3.50% of fee plus GST, minimum ₹11	Not listed	2.35% of transaction value

What does that mean in real money? Take a General candidate paying ₹1,700 by domestic credit card through the SBI gateway. The charge is 0.80% of ₹1,700, which is ₹13.60, and 18% GST on that adds ₹2.45. Total extra: about ₹16. Small, but there is no reason to pay it when UPI was free on every gateway for amounts up to ₹2,000.

How do you pay the NEET exam fee without mistakes?

Paying NEET exam fees is Step 3 of the online form, after registration and the application details. It is also the step where most panic happens, usually because money left the account but no confirmation page appeared. Follow this order:

1. Finish and re-read Steps 1 and 2 first. Once the fee is paid and the confirmation page is generated, the bulletin treats almost every field as final. Changes are possible only in the fields NTA opens during the correction window.
2. Choose your mode. Pick UPI or net banking unless you have a reason not to. Keep enough balance and your login or UPI PIN ready before you open the payment page.
3. Pay once and wait. Do not press back or refresh while the gateway is processing.
4. Check the status. It must read "OK" or "Success". If it does not, the transaction is cancelled, and you have to pay again.
5. Download the confirmation page. The bulletin is clear that money leaving your account is not proof of payment. The confirmation page is. Save it and print several copies along with the proof of fee paid.
6. If money left but no confirmation page appeared, contact the gateway's helpline listed in Appendix VIII first, then the NTA helpdesk at 011-40759000 or neetug2026@nta.ac.in. Pay a second time only if the issue still is not resolved.

Before you reach Step 3, our NEET 2027 application form guide lists the documents and photo specifications you need, so the payment is the last thing you do, not something you return to after a rejected upload.

Can you get NEET exam fees refunded?

Normally, no. NEET exam fees are non-refundable, and the bulletin says it in two short sentences: "The examination fee once deposited will not be refunded. The fee will not be carried forward to a future examination." So if you register and then decide not to sit the paper, or you skip the exam because of illness, the money is gone, and you pay again next year. That matters if you plan more than one attempt; futureMBBS has a clear guide on how many NEET attempts you can take, and every one of them is a new fee.

There are three ordinary situations where money does come back:

• A failed transaction. If the status is not OK or Success, any amount deducted "may automatically be refunded" through the same bank or payment mode.
• A duplicate payment. If you paid twice because the first payment did not show, NTA refunds the extra payment through the same mode, but only after the result is declared and NTA has reconciled the fees. Expect to wait months, not days.
• Nothing else. A wrong category, a change of mind or a missed exam does not count.

One trap sits in the correction window. NTA's correction notice of 11 March 2026 says corrections apply only after payment of any additional fee, that candidates "will be charged any excess fee" where a change affects the amount, and that "any excess payments made will not be refunded". Moving from ₹1,000 to ₹1,700 costs you the difference. Moving the other way returns nothing.

The 2026 refund: when NTA did return the fee

The one large exception to the no-refund rule for NEET exam fees came in the 2026 cycle. The paper held on 3 May 2026 was cancelled and NTA held a re-examination on 21 June 2026. NTA's public notice of 25 June 2026 says the agency "had committed to refund the examination fee paid by all candidates" because of that cancellation, and that approximately 20 lakh candidates appeared in the 21 June exam.

How the refund worked, according to NTA's notices:

• Candidates logged in to the NEET portal with their application number and password, passed an OTP check on their registered mobile number and confirmed or entered a bank account number and IFSC code.
• The account had to be active and in the name of the candidate or their parents or family. NTA said it would not be responsible for refunds sent to a wrong account because of an incorrect entry.
• Candidates could also choose "No Refund". Those who had picked it earlier were allowed to change their mind in the final window.
• The deadline was extended several times. The 7 July 2026 notice says only about 10,28,223 candidates had updated and confirmed their accounts, and the 14 July 2026 notice puts the figure at 11,46,401, with a last date of 31 July 2026 (11:50 PM).

Put that against NTA's Key Data Points, which record 22,79,743 registrations for NEET (UG) 2026, and roughly half of the registered candidates had submitted bank details by mid July. If you were one of them and your refund has not arrived, the NTA helpdesk (011-40759000, neetug2026@nta.ac.in) is the place to ask. Do not pay anyone who offers to "speed up" a NEET refund; NTA's notice says it never calls or messages candidates for an OTP or password.

This was a one-time decision after a cancelled exam. It does not change the normal rule for NEET exam fees.

Fees after you submit the form

The application fee is not the last payment NTA asks for in a cycle, although it is by far the biggest of the NEET exam fees. Two small fees came after the 2026 exam, both listed in chapter 15 of the bulletin:

Fee	Amount (2026)	Refundable?
Challenge to the grading of your OMR sheet	₹200 per question challenged	No
Challenge to the provisional answer key	₹200 per answer challenged	No

A correct challenge changes the answer key for every candidate, and the bulletin still describes the ₹200 as a non-refundable processing fee. Challenge only when you can show the official answer is wrong from the NCERT text or a standard reference. Our explainer on the NEET OMR sheet shows how a response becomes a mark, which is what you are disputing.

NEET exam fees end with the result. Counselling is a separate process with its own registration fees and security deposits, set by the Medical Counselling Committee and each state authority, and those amounts are not part of the NTA fee. If your rank points you towards studying abroad instead, futureMBBS compares MBBS abroad fees by country and university.

What will NEET exam fees be for 2027?

Not announced yet. As of 8 October 2026, NTA's NEET public notices list only 2026 cycle items, and no NEET (UG) 2027 Information Bulletin exists. The 2027 amounts will appear in that bulletin's "Information at a Glance" table, the same place they did for 2025 and 2026.

What you can reasonably plan for: the 2025 and 2026 NEET exam fees were identical, so budgeting ₹1,700, ₹1,600 or ₹1,000 by category is sensible until NTA confirms the real figure. Treat any 2027 fee you see quoted elsewhere as a guess. Our NEET 2027 exam date page tracks what has and has not been officially notified.

What should you check before you pay?

A short checklist for the evening you pay your NEET exam fees:

1. Category and certificate. Your band for NEET exam fees follows your category. If you claim OBC-NCL or EWS, the certificate has to hold up at counselling, so get it right now rather than paying a top-up later.
2. Exam city. An outside India centre costs ₹9,500, more than five times the General fee in India. Pick it only if you really will write the paper there.
3. Payment mode. UPI or net banking first. A credit card works, but read the gateway's charge.
4. Bank account for refunds. Use an active account in your own or a parent's name. If a duplicate payment or any refund ever comes back, it goes to the same mode.
5. Confirmation page saved. Not a screenshot of the bank SMS. The confirmation page.

The fee is the cheapest part of NEET. If money is tight, the official free NEET study material from NCERT and NTA covers the syllabus without a coaching bill.

Sources

Every amount and rule above comes from these official documents, opened and read on 8 October 2026.

• National Testing Agency, Information Bulletin NEET (UG) 2026: "Information at a Glance" fee table, chapter 3 (payment of fee, Step 3, non-refund rule), chapter 15 (OMR and answer key challenge fees) and Appendix VIII (gateway charges and helplines): https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s37bc1ec1d9c3426357e69acd5bf320061/uploads/2026/02/202602231394640855.pdf
• National Testing Agency, Information Bulletin NEET (UG) 2025, fee table: https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s37bc1ec1d9c3426357e69acd5bf320061/uploads/2025/02/2025020754.pdf
• National Testing Agency, public notice on correction in particulars, 11 March 2026: https://www.nta.ac.in/Download/Notice/Notice_20260311164514.pdf
• National Testing Agency, public notice "Final Opportunity for Confirmation, Correction or Updation of Bank Account Details for Refund of Examination Fee of NEET (UG) 2026", 25 June 2026: https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s37bc1ec1d9c3426357e69acd5bf320061/uploads/2026/06/20260625141800406.pdf
• National Testing Agency, public notice "Another Opportunity for Confirmation, Correction or Updation of Bank Account Details", 7 July 2026: https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s37bc1ec1d9c3426357e69acd5bf320061/uploads/2026/07/202607071291015974.pdf
• National Testing Agency, public notice "Regarding Refund of Examination Fee of NEET (UG) 2026", 14 July 2026: https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s37bc1ec1d9c3426357e69acd5bf320061/uploads/2026/07/202607141430274592.pdf
• National Testing Agency, "Key Data Points of NEET (UG) over Years", July 2026, table 1: https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s37bc1ec1d9c3426357e69acd5bf320061/uploads/2026/07/202607161539405935.pdf
• National Testing Agency, NEET (UG) official website and public notices: https://neet.nta.nic.in/