JEE Main vs JEE Advanced: Which Rank Gets You Where?

JEE Main is the qualifying exam for NITs, IIITs and GFTIs (and the gateway to JEE Advanced). Your JEE Main CRL (Common Rank List rank) is what those colleges use during JoSAA counselling.

JEE Advanced is taken only by students who clear the JEE Main cutoff, and it decides admission to the 23 IITs. Your JEE Advanced rank is what IIT seats are judged on.

So which rank do you use?

• For IITs → your JEE Advanced rank.
• For NITs, IIITs, GFTIs → your JEE Main rank.

Reserved-category students (EWS/OBC-NCL/SC/ST) also have a category rank in each exam — open seats are filled on the CRL, reserved seats on the category rank.

Our college predictor lets you enter either or both ranks and instantly shows every IIT, NIT, IIIT and GFTI you can realistically get from official JoSAA 2025 closing ranks.