The Himachal Pradesh NEET counselling process 2026 is run by Atal Medical & Research University (AMRU), the state health university, through its centralised online portal at amruhp.ac.in. AMRU conducts admission to the 85% state quota in six government medical colleges, the government dental college, the state-quota and management seats in three private dental colleges, and the private Maharishi Markandeshwar Medical College at Kumarhatti in Solan. The remaining 15% of government college seats go to the All India Quota run by the MCC. The figures below follow the 2025 prospectus (Session 2025-26); AMRU publishes a fresh prospectus each cycle, so confirm the current one before you fill choices.
Official portal: amruhp.ac.in (the entire application and counselling process is online).
How merit works in Himachal Pradesh
Himachal does not build a separate state rank. AMRU prepares a combined and category-wise merit list of all its registered candidates ordered by NEET-UG All India Rank. Your AIR is what positions you for every state-quota seat, so the same number that decides your AIQ chances also drives your Himachal allotment. The list is drawn afresh for each round.
Allotment runs college-wise on merit-cum-choice. You list courses, colleges and quotas in order of preference, and the portal places you against the best available seat your rank and preferences reach.
Who is eligible for the state quota
State-quota (85%) seats are open to NEET-qualified candidates who meet the Himachal eligibility rules. The core route is bonafide Himachali status: you, or your parents, are bonafide residents of Himachal Pradesh, and you have passed at least two of your middle, matric, 10+1 or 10+2 examinations from recognised schools or colleges situated in Himachal and affiliated to HPBOSE, CBSE, ICSE or an equivalent board.
The prospectus carries several exemptions to the two-exams-in-HP schooling rule, for example for children of certain central government and HP government employees posted outside the state, and unconditionally for children of bonafide Himachalis serving in the defence services. Each exemption needs its own prescribed certificate. Children of non-Himachali central government employees working in HP can qualify for state-quota seats under set conditions, but they are treated as unreserved only, because reserved-category seats are meant for bonafide Himachalis.
Management-quota seats in the private colleges are the exception. They carry no bonafide Himachali requirement, so both Himachali and non-Himachali Indian candidates may apply for them on the common merit list. NRI seats also have no domicile condition.
The prospectus sets eligibility by reference to the National Medical Commission’s qualifying criteria rather than stating its own minimum NEET percentile or age cut-off, so check the NMC norms and the current AMRU prospectus for those thresholds.
Registration and the application fee
You apply and fill preferences entirely online at amruhp.ac.in. In 2025 the steps ran like this:
- Register and fill the online application form, then pay the application fee through the portal.
- Upload documents and a photo and signature that meet AMRU’s exact size and background specifications. Wrongly formatted uploads get the form rejected, so this is worth getting right the first time.
- Fill your preferences of course, college and quota, and lock them within the window.
- Generate and keep the confirmation copy. If it does not generate, the application has not been submitted.
The application fee is ₹2,500 for General, NRI, OBC and other categories, ₹1,500 for SC, ST and EWS, and free for candidates with disabilities. It is non-refundable.
Document verification is not centralised. After each provisional allotment you download the allotment letter from the portal and report to the principal of the allotted college with the confirmation copy, the allotment letter, all originals and self-attested photocopies. Admission follows verification of originals, confirmation of eligibility, medical fitness and payment of fees.
The token fee: Himachal’s distinctive lever
Round 1 takes no token. From the second round on, any candidate who wants to take part has to deposit a token amount before a seat can be allocated, and the amount scales with the kind of seat you are chasing:
| Seat type | Token amount |
|---|---|
| Government medical / dental college | ₹10,000 |
| Private dental college (state & management quota) | ₹50,000 |
| MMMC Kumarhatti (state & management quota) | ₹1,00,000 |
| NRI quota seat | ₹2,00,000 |
If you opt for more than one quota or course or college, you pay the highest applicable token. The token is refunded for any round where you are not allotted a seat. It is forfeited if a seat is allotted to you and you do not join. Candidates already admitted in Round 1 to a government medical or dental college, or to a private dental college, are exempt from the token for the second round, and a token paid in the second round carries over so you need not pay it again in the third.
There is no separate freeze button. If you go into a later round for an upgrade and the upgrade does not come through, your earlier seat and category stay exactly as they were.
Round-by-round structure
AMRU runs four centralised rounds. Upgrades are allowed up to the third round; the stray round offers none.
Round 1. You submit preferences with the application form. AMRU publishes the provisional and final merit lists, then allots seats category-wise. Join the allotted college within the joining window. If you are satisfied, you do not have to take part in any later round.
Round 2. Everyone who wants to participate, including fresh registrants, submits new preferences and locks them; old choices do not carry forward. To seek an upgrade you pay the token for the seat type you are targeting. A candidate already admitted in Round 1 must provisionally surrender that seat before re-filling. If you take part but do not get an upgrade, your earlier seat and category are retained unchanged.
Round 3. Fresh preferences again, with the same token rules (carried over if already paid in Round 2). This is the last round for upgrades. NRI and PwD seats left vacant are filled in this round from the unreserved merit list at state-quota fees, and unfilled NRI seats convert to unreserved on overall state merit for this round only. A candidate allotted in Round 3 who does not join is barred from any later round and forfeits that token.
Stray vacancy round. After the third round, AMRU holds a single centralised stray round for the seats still vacant; there is no institutional mop-up. No upgrades happen here. If your name is on the MCC portal on the day of a Himachal Round 3 or stray allocation, you are not considered for a Himachal seat that day, so a live All India allotment quietly removes you from the state queue.
For reference, the 2025 cycle opened on 20 July, ran Round 1 joining on 8-9 August, and finished the stray-round joining by 1 October. The 2026 dates will differ; treat these only as the shape of the calendar.
Seat matrix in government medical colleges
Each of the six government medical colleges had a sanctioned intake of 120 MBBS seats in 2025, split as follows per college:
| Allocation | Per government medical college |
|---|---|
| Total seats | 120 |
| All India Quota (15%) | 18 |
| State quota seats | 102 (66 at Ner-Chowk, where 36 go to the ESI quota) |
| NRI quota | 2 to 4 |
The state-quota block at each college divides into a reserved group (Group-A) and an unreserved group (Group-B), with the per-college counts shown in the categories guide. Note the one exception: Sh. Lal Bahadur Shastri GMC, Ner-Chowk, sets aside 36 of its state-quota seats for the ESI quota, leaving 66 for the general state-quota pool.
The government dental college at Shimla had 75 seats and three private dental colleges run 60-100 seats each, mixing state-quota, management-quota and NRI seats. The private Maharishi Markandeshwar Medical College at Kumarhatti, Solan, had 150 MBBS seats provisionally split 25% state quota (38 seats) and 75% management quota (112), plus NRI seats; that split is subject to pending High Court orders.
Fees at government colleges
Government college fees are modest. First-year MBBS came to ₹60,000 in total (₹40,000 tuition, plus admission, student, medical and dilapidated funds, and a refundable ₹6,000 security deposit); later MBBS years cost ₹50,000. First-year BDS at the government dental college was ₹45,000 total (₹30,000 tuition, refundable ₹5,000 security); later BDS years cost ₹37,000. NRI candidates in government colleges pay US $20,000 a year for MBBS and US $10,000 for BDS. BPL students in government colleges pay no tuition fee, and candidates with more than 40% disability are not charged fees in any AMRU-affiliated course. Private college and management-quota fees run far higher and are set separately by the state government.
How Himachal counselling differs from AIQ
| Himachal state quota | MCC All India Quota | |
|---|---|---|
| Authority | Atal Medical & Research University (AMRU) | Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) |
| Rank used | NEET All India Rank (no separate state rank) | NEET All India Rank |
| Eligibility | Bonafide Himachali for reserved/state seats; open for management/NRI | Open to all India |
| Rounds | 3 + stray vacancy round | Multiple rounds + stray |
| Token before upgrade rounds | Yes, ₹10,000 to ₹2,00,000 by seat type | No token of this kind |
| Document verification | At the allotted college | At the allotted college |
| Registration | amruhp.ac.in | mcc.nic.in |
The exact round-by-round exit rules, deposits and what happens in each scenario are set out in a separate exit-rules guide, and the full list of certificates you need is in a separate documents guide. Read both alongside the current AMRU prospectus before you file your choices.