UGC NET December 2026: fee payment deadline extended to 11:50 pm tonight, November 1

By TUF News Desk · Published 1 November 2026 · 4 min read

Fact-checked against 2+ independent sources · Editorial policy

If you submitted your UGC NET December 2026 form and still have not paid, tonight is the last chance to finish it. The National Testing Agency has extended the fee payment deadline by one day, to 11:50 pm on November 1, 2026. The earlier deadline was October 31.

The extension is narrow, and that is the part to read carefully. It covers fee payment only. Registration and image uploads closed on October 31 and have not reopened. A candidate who never submitted a form cannot use tonight’s window to register, and a candidate who never uploaded the required images cannot use it to complete that step either. The extra day is for one group: people whose forms are already submitted, with the fee still unpaid.

Payment is made on the official UGC NET website. Log in with your application credentials, open the fee payment section, and pay through one of the online options shown there. Once the payment goes through, check the payment status on the portal rather than assuming it worked, and download the confirmation page. Keep that page safe; it is the proof the application is complete.

What the fee costs

The fee depends on category. General and Unreserved candidates pay Rs 1,150. Candidates in the General-EWS and OBC-NCL categories pay Rs 600. The fee is Rs 325 for SC, ST, PwD and third gender candidates. Service charges and GST may apply on top of the fee, depending on the payment method, so check the final amount shown before confirming.

A failed payment on deadline night leaves little room to recover, so do not leave this to the last hour. Portals slow down when thousands of candidates log in at once, and a payment that stalls at 11:45 pm is a different problem from one that stalls at 8 pm.

What comes after tonight

Paying tonight does not end the process. The next step is the correction window, which opens on November 2 and closes at 11:50 pm on November 4. We covered that window in our report on the UGC NET December 2026 correction window. Use it to read the submitted form line by line, because some fields cannot be changed at all, and no changes are accepted after the window closes.

After that, the schedule moves to the exam itself. The exam city intimation slip will be available from November 23, and admit cards can be downloaded from December 7. The exams run from December 14 to 18 and on December 21, 2026. UGC NET decides eligibility for the Junior Research Fellowship, for Assistant Professor posts, and for admission to PhD programmes in Indian universities and colleges.

For candidates still weighing where to apply for a PhD, our guide to choosing a university in India sets out the trade-offs worth weighing before picking an institution. And before the correction window opens, the admission documents checklist is worth a look, since the details on the form should match those documents exactly.

Frequently asked questions

What is the last date to pay the UGC NET December 2026 application fee?

The fee payment deadline is 11:50 pm on November 1, 2026, after NTA extended it by one day from October 31, 2026.

Who can use the extended UGC NET December 2026 fee payment window?

Only candidates who have already submitted their application forms but have not yet paid the fee. It does not reopen registration or image uploads.

How much is the UGC NET December 2026 application fee?

The fee is Rs 1,150 for General and Unreserved candidates, Rs 600 for General-EWS and OBC-NCL candidates, and Rs 325 for SC, ST, PwD and third gender candidates.

What happens after the UGC NET December 2026 fee payment deadline?

The application correction window opens on November 2 and closes at 11:50 pm on November 4, 2026. The exam city slip follows on November 23, admit cards from December 7, and the exams run from December 14 to 18 and on December 21, 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: Times Now, Careers360, The Times of India