What Will Be the
UPSC 2026 Cut-Off?
We looked at 3 years of official cut-offs and the actual difficulty of the 2026 paper — and gave you a straight answer. No jargon. No guesswork.
The 2026 GS Paper 1 was noticeably harder than 2025. Difficult questions nearly doubled — from 14 to 26. And the "medium" questions came from tougher subjects like Current Affairs, Science & Technology, and Ancient History — not the familiar Environment and Polity that students find easier. Because the paper was harder, fewer people will score high, and the cut-off is likely to drop slightly compared to 2025.
What Is a Cut-Off, and Why Does It Change Every Year?
Think of the cut-off as a pass mark — but one that changes every year based on how difficult the paper was. Here's the simple logic:
Everyone scores higher → UPSC raises the cut-off to filter the right number of candidates.
Everyone scores lower → UPSC lowers the cut-off so the right number of people qualify.
More students need to qualify → cut-off may come down slightly to let more people through.
A wrong answer costs you −0.66 marks. When a paper is hard, smart students skip difficult questions to protect their score — so overall scores stay lower, which pushes the cut-off down.
Official Cut-Offs: 2023, 2024 & 2025
Here's what UPSC officially announced as the minimum marks to qualify GS Paper 1 (out of 200 marks):
| Category | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Change 23→24 | Change 24→25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General (UR) | 75.41 | 87.98 | 92.66 | +12.57 ↑ | +4.68 ↑ |
| EWS | 68.02 | 85.92 | 89.34 | +17.90 ↑ | +3.42 ↑ |
| OBC | 74.75 | 87.28 | 92.00 | +12.53 ↑ | +4.72 ↑ |
| SC | 59.25 | 79.03 | 84.00 | +19.78 ↑ | +4.97 ↑ |
| ST | 47.82 | 74.23 | 82.66 | +26.41 ↑ | +8.43 ↑ |
| PwBD-1 | 40.40 | 69.42 | 76.66 | +29.02 ↑ | +7.24 ↑ |
| PwBD-2 | 47.13 | 65.30 | 54.66 | +18.17 ↑ | −10.64 ↓ |
| PwBD-3 | 40.40 | 40.56 | 40.66 | +0.16 | +0.10 |
| PwBD-5 | 33.68 | 40.56 | 40.66 | +6.88 ↑ | +0.10 |
🗣️ What Does This Table Mean in Plain English?
- 2023 cut-offs were very low — the paper was very hard. General category only needed 75.41 out of 200.
- 2024 saw a massive jump — the paper became much easier, cut-offs shot up by 12–27 marks across categories.
- 2025 went up again, but only slightly — paper was a bit easier, cut-off climbed a little more to 92.66 for General.
- The rise is clearly slowing down — from +12.57 in 2023→24 to just +4.68 in 2024→25. This deceleration is a key clue for 2026.
How Difficult Was Each Paper? Year by Year
We tagged all 100 questions in each paper as Easy, Medium, Medium-Hard, or Difficult. Here's how the four years compare:
🟡 Medium: 34 questions
🟠 Med-Hard: 34 questions
🔴 Difficult: 29 questions General cut-off: 75.41
🟡 Medium: 47 questions
🟠 Med-Hard: 20 questions
🔴 Difficult: 20 questions General cut-off: 87.98
🟡 Medium: 56 questions
🟠 Med-Hard: 16 questions
🔴 Difficult: 14 questions General cut-off: 92.66
🟡 Medium: 63 questions
🟠 Med-Hard: 0 questions
🔴 Difficult: 26 questions Predicted: 88–94
On paper, 2026 has 63 "Medium" questions — sounds manageable. But those Medium questions came from Current Affairs (17!), Science & Technology (16), and Ancient History (10) — subjects where you either know the answer or you don't. In 2024–25, medium questions were mostly from Geography, Environment, and Polity — where a prepared student can reason through. Also, genuinely difficult questions nearly doubled: from 14 in 2025 to 26 in 2026.
Which Subjects Got More Questions — and Which Got Fewer?
UPSC changed its subject mix significantly in 2026. Here's what went up and what went down:
| Subject | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | What Happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current Affairs | 14 | 8 | 4 | 17 | ↑↑ Huge comeback |
| Science & Technology | 9 | 7 | 14 | 16 | ↑ Rose sharply |
| Ancient History | 4 | 2 | 6 | 10 | ↑↑ Doubled |
| Art & Culture | 3 | 5 | 4 | 6 | ↑ Slight rise |
| Indian Economy | 19 | 17 | 16 | 17 | → Stable |
| Modern History | 3 | 3 | 8 | 5 | ↓ Slight drop |
| Indian Polity | 15 | 19 | 17 | 12 | ↓ Reduced |
| Environment | 15 | 20 | 17 | 9 | ↓↓ Sharp drop |
| Geography | 15 | 18 | 13 | 8 | ↓↓ Lowest in 4 yrs |
| Medieval History | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ↓ Absent |
After just 4 questions in 2025, it jumped to 17 in 2026. Students who stopped reading newspapers were blindsided. These are binary questions — you know them or you don't.
From 6 to 10 questions in 2026. History requires specific facts — rulers, texts, dates. Hard to guess, which drags scores down across the board.
Environment fell from 17 to just 9. Geography at 8 — lowest in 4 years. These subjects let students reason and score. Their drop hurts everyone.
Our 2026 Cut-Off Prediction — Category by Category
Based on the harder paper, the return of unpredictable Current Affairs, and 3 years of trend data — here are our predicted cut-off bands (±3 marks).
| Category | 2025 Actual | 2026 Low | 2026 Central | 2026 High | Vs 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General / UR | 92.66 | 88 | ~91 | 94 | ↓ Slight drop |
| EWS | 89.34 | 85 | ~88 | 91 | ↓ Slight drop |
| OBC | 92.00 | 88 | ~91 | 94 | → Flat |
| SC | 84.00 | 80 | ~83 | 86 | → Flat |
| ST | 82.66 | 79 | ~82 | 85 | → Flat |
| PwBD-1 | 76.66 | 72 | ~75 | 78 | ↓ Slight drop |
| PwBD-2 | 54.66 | 50 | ~53 | 57 | ↓ Some drop |
| PwBD-3 | 40.66 | 39 | ~41 | 43 | → Flat |
| PwBD-5 | 40.66 | 39 | ~41 | 43 | → Flat |
Why Are We Predicting a Slight Drop?
Here are the 4 main reasons, explained simply:
- Difficult questions nearly doubled In 2025, only 14 out of 100 questions were genuinely difficult. In 2026, that jumped to 26 — almost double. Smart candidates skip these to avoid negative marking, which means fewer attempts and lower scores.
- The "medium" questions are deceptively hard this year 63 medium questions sounds fine. But they came from Current Affairs, Science & Technology, and Ancient History — subjects where you either know the answer or you don't. In 2024–25, medium questions were from Geography and Environment where students can reason through. That's a big real-world difference.
- Current Affairs returning after two quiet years caught people off guard In 2024 there were 8 CA questions. In 2025, just 4. Many students stopped following current affairs closely. In 2026, it jumped back to 17 — the second-highest subject. This surprise factor drags down aggregate scores.
- The 3-year rise in cut-offs was already slowing Cut-offs rose sharply from 2023 to 2024 (+12.57 for General), then slowed in 2025 (+4.68). Now that the paper has gotten harder, the cut-off should stop climbing and come down modestly — not dramatically, just 2–4 marks.
📢 What Does This Mean For You?
- If you're General category and scored between 88 and 94, you're in a realistic range. Around 91 is our central estimate.
- If you're OBC and scored between 88 and 94, you're similarly placed.
- If you're SC and scored between 80 and 86, you have a strong chance. Around 83 is the central estimate.
- If you're ST and scored between 79 and 85, you're in the safe zone.
- Don't panic if you scored 2–4 marks below these — our band carries ±3 uncertainty. Wait for the official announcement.
- Don't stop preparing — keep working on Mains in parallel. Time spent waiting is time wasted.
If UPSC increases vacancies — the cut-off may come down further. If any questions are cancelled or given full marks (which has happened before), scores rise across the board, pushing cut-offs up. PwBD-2 is particularly unpredictable — it dropped 10 marks in 2025 for no clear reason. Always check the official UPSC website for confirmed results.
Check Where You Stand — Right Now
Take our interactive 2026 GS Paper 1 quiz to simulate your score and see exactly how you compare against this cut-off band.
Attempt the 2026 GS1 Quiz →
Disclaimer: This is an independent prediction by the Legacy IAS Academy faculty based on publicly available data and paper difficulty analysis. It is not an official UPSC communication. Actual cut-offs are declared by UPSC after the final selection process and may differ. Do not make high-stakes decisions based solely on this prediction. Always refer to the official UPSC website at upsc.gov.in. Legacy IAS Academy bears no responsibility for individual results.
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