GATE 2027 Exam Cities: 300+ Centres, How to Pick Your 6 Zones

The GATE 2027 Exam Cities list looks simple until you actually sit down to fill it in, and then a small detail catches almost everyone off guard: you don’t rank 6 of your favourite cities from anywhere in India. You pick one zone, out of eight, and every one of your 6 preferences has to come from inside that single zone. Pick a metro from the wrong zone by mistake and GOAPS won’t let you save it, no matter how close that city is to your home.

This post breaks down how the GATE 2027 Exam Cities structure actually works, the full zone-wise list published on the official portal, and a practical way to pick your 6 preferences so you don’t end up allotted a centre three hours from where you live.

GATE 2027 Exam Cities: Zones, Full List & How to Choose

Also learn: GATE 2027 Preparation Strategy

GATE 2027 Exam Cities at a Glance

IIT Madras, the organizing institute for GATE 2027, has published a tentative list of exam towns and cities spread across the country. Going strictly by distinct entries on that list, it works out to a little over 230 cities and towns. Some coaching sites round this up to “300+ centres,” and that’s not entirely off, several of the listed options are actually twin-city pairs bundled into one preference (Mumbai – Thane, Surat – Bardoli, Jalandhar-Phagwara, and similar), and big metros typically run more than one physical test centre inside the same city.

Count it that way and the total comfortably crosses 300 individual venues, even though the number of selectable “city” options on the form is smaller. All of these cities are grouped into eight zones, each coordinated by a premier institute:

• IISc Bengaluru Zone
• IIT Bombay Zone
• IIT Delhi Zone
• IIT Guwahati Zone
• IIT Kanpur Zone
• IIT Kharagpur Zone
• IIT Madras Zone
• IIT Roorkee Zone

The One Rule That Trips People Up

The official notice states it plainly: “A candidate can opt for 6 cities from the list given above. All the 6 options must be from the same GATE 2027 zone.” That means you’re not choosing 6 cities from anywhere in India, you’re choosing one zone first, and then ranking 6 preferences from the cities available inside it. A candidate based in Pune (IIT Bombay Zone) can’t slot in Hyderabad as a backup option, because Hyderabad sits in the IISc Bengaluru Zone.

If your work, hostel, or hometown straddles two zones, geographically close as they might be, you have to commit to one. GATE 2027 also keeps the right to reassign you outside your preferences entirely: “GATE 2027 reserves the right to add a new city or remove an existing one, and allot a city that may not be from any of the options provided by the candidate.” In practice this usually only happens when a preferred centre fills up or gets dropped, but it’s worth knowing that none of your 6 picks are a guarantee.

GATE 2027 Zones: Which States Fall Where

The state overlaps are the part worth noting. Uttar Pradesh, for instance, is split across three different zones, Kanpur, Delhi, and Roorkee, depending on which part of the state a city sits in. So don’t assume your entire home state falls under one zone; check the city, not just the state.

Full GATE 2027 Exam Cities List, Zone by Zone

This is the tentative list as published on the official GATE 2027 portal. It’s grouped by state within each zone, exactly as GOAPS will show it to you during registration.

IISc Bengaluru Zone

Andaman & Nicobar: Port Blair
Andhra Pradesh: Anantapur, Kurnool
Karnataka: Bagalkot, Ballari, Belagavi, Bengaluru North, Bengaluru South, Bidar, Chikkamagaluru, Chikkballapur, Davanagere, Hassan, Hubballi/Dharwad, Kalaburagi, Kolar, Mandya, Mangaluru, Manipal – Udupi, Mysuru, Shivamogga, Tumakuru
Kerala: Angamaly, Kannur, Kasaragod, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Pathanamthitta, Thrissur, Wayanad
Telangana: Hyderabad, Nalgonda

IIT Bombay Zone

Goa: Goa
Gujarat: Ahmedabad, Anand, Bhavnagar, Gandhinagar, Rajkot, Surat – Bardoli, Vadodara
Maharashtra: Ahilyanagar (Ahmednagar), Akola, Amravati, Baramati, Chandrapur, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (Aurangabad), Dhule, Jalgaon, Kolhapur, Latur, Mumbai – Thane, Nagpur, Nanded, Nashik, Navi Mumbai – Rasayani, Pune, Ratnagiri, Sangli, Satara, Solapur – Pandharpur, Vasai – Palghar, Wardha

IIT Delhi Zone

Haryana: Faridabad, Gurugram
Jammu & Kashmir: Jammu – Samba, Srinagar
Ladakh: Leh
Madhya Pradesh: Indore, Ujjain
New Delhi: New Delhi
Rajasthan: Ajmer, Bikaner, Hanumangarh, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Sikar, Udaipur
Uttar Pradesh: Greater NOIDA, Mathura

IIT Guwahati Zone

Arunachal Pradesh: Naharlagun, Papum Pare
Assam: Dibrugarh, Guwahati, Jorhat, Silchar, Tezpur
Bihar: Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur, Patna, Purnea
Jharkhand: Bokaro Steel City, Dhanbad
Manipur: Imphal, Thoubal
Meghalaya: Shillong
Mizoram: Aizawl
Nagaland: Dimapur-Kohima
Sikkim: Gangtok
Tripura: Agartala
West Bengal: Asansol, Burdwan, Durgapur, Kalyani, Siliguri

IIT Kanpur Zone

Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Sagar, Satna
Uttar Pradesh: Agra, Aligarh, Ayodhya, Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Prayagraj, Varanasi

IIT Kharagpur Zone

Andhra Pradesh: Bhimavaram, Eluru, Kakinada-Surampalem, Rajamahendravaram (Rajahmundry), Srikakulam, Tadepalligudem, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram
Chhattisgarh: Bhilai-Durg, Bilaspur, Raipur
Jharkhand: Hazaribagh, Jamshedpur, Ranchi
Odisha: Balasore-Bhadrak, Baripada, Bhubaneswar, Brahmapur, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Rourkela, Sambalpur
West Bengal: Bankura, Berhampore, Hooghly, Howrah, Kharagpur-Midnapur, Kolaghat, Kolkata, Suri

IIT Madras Zone

Andhra Pradesh: Amaravati, Chirala-Bapatla, Chittoor, Guntur, Kadapa, Nandyala, Nellore, Ongole, Tirupati
Kerala: Alappuzha, Aluva – Ernakulam, Attingal, Chengannur, Idukki, Kanjirapally, Kollam, Kothamangalam, Kottayam, Muvattupuzha, Thiruvananthapuram
Puducherry: Puducherry
Tamil Nadu: Chennai South, Chennai North, Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Dindigul, Erode, Kanchipuram, Kanyakumari – Nagercoil, Karaikudi, Krishnagiri, Madurai, Namakkal, Ooty, Pollachi, Ramanathapuram, Salem, Thanjavur, Theni, Thoothukudi, Tiruchirappalli, Tirunelveli, Tiruvannamalai, Vellore, Virudhunagar
Telangana: Adilabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Kodad, Kothagudem, Nizamabad, Warangal
Lakshadweep: Lakshadweep

IIT Roorkee Zone

Haryana: Ambala
Himachal Pradesh: Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Kullu, Mandi, Palampur, Shimla-Solan, Una
Punjab: Amritsar, Bathinda, Jalandhar-Phagwara, Ludhiana, Mohali-Chandigarh, Pathankot, Patiala
Uttarakhand: Almora, Dehradun, Haldwani, Pauri-Garhwal, Roorkee
Uttar Pradesh: Ghaziabad, Meerut, Moradabad, Muzaffarnagar, NOIDA

This is explicitly marked tentative on the official notice, “Any changes will be updated on the website,” so treat it as the working list rather than the final word, and give it a final check on GOAPS right before you fill your preferences.

How to Pick Your 6 City Preferences

1. Identify your zone first, not your city: Look up which zone your hometown or current city belongs to using the table above, since that single choice locks in every option available to you afterward.
2. Rank by realistic travel, not by proximity on a map: A city that’s 80 km away with a direct train beats one that’s 40 km away across a hill or a river crossing. Think about how you’d actually get there on exam morning.
3. Put your most reliable option first, not your most convenient one: Preference 1 isn’t guaranteed, but it’s what GOAPS tries to allot before moving down your list, so lead with the city where a seat is most likely, usually the bigger hub in your zone.
4. Spread your 6 picks, don’t cluster them: 6 preferences all within the same small radius don’t add real backup value if that whole area fills up. Include at least one or two options from other parts of your zone.
5. Avoid picking a city purely because a friend is going there: Popular cities fill up faster, and if your first three or four preferences are all high-demand metros, you increase your odds of landing on preference 5 or 6, which may not be where you expected.
6. Lock in your list carefully, GATE has historically treated the city preference as final once submitted: Unlike some personal details, city preferences aren’t typically reopened during the correction window, so review your ranking twice before you hit submit.

What If None of Your Preferred Cities Are Available?

If every one of your 6 preferred cities fills up, or a centre gets dropped after the fact, GATE 2027 can allot you a city outside your submitted list entirely, this is stated directly in the official notice. It doesn’t happen often if you’ve picked a reasonable spread, but it’s the reason preference 5 and 6 shouldn’t be an afterthought. Treat all 6 slots as genuinely usable options, not just the top two followed by four throwaway picks.

Quick Checklist Before You Submit Your City Preferences

• Confirm which of the 8 zones your city actually falls under, don’t assume by state alone.
• Make sure all 6 of your choices are from that same zone, GOAPS won’t accept a mixed list.
• Rank by real-world travel feasibility, not just distance on a map.
• Spread your 6 picks across different parts of the zone instead of clustering them in one city.
• Double-check the list against the official tentative list at gate2027.iitm.ac.in before submitting, since it’s subject to change.

FAQs on GATE 2027 Exam Cities