The provisional AP NEET UG merit list 2026 has given candidates their first clear picture of how competitive this year’s state counselling could be. With 14,310 candidates listed for MBBS and BDS admissions under the Competent Authority Quota, attention is now shifting to the final merit list and the upcoming web-options process. The Dr NTR University of Health Sciences published the provisional merit position after verification of uploaded documents, while candidates were also given an opportunity to raise grievances regarding details such as category, local area and EWS status.
The university has already issued an advisory related to web options, and its official admissions notifications show the provisional merit position was published on August 22. The exact final-merit and web-options dates are still awaited in the official notices currently available.
The 2026 merit list shows a relatively dense pool of candidates in the ranks that matter most for government MBBS seats. A count of the merit data shows that -
362 candidates are within the top 20,000 NEET ranks,
605 within 30,000,
1,214 are within 50,000, and 3,066 are within 1 lakh NEET ranks
That does not mean all these candidates are competing for the same seats. Category, university area, local status and candidate preferences will determine the actual competition. The merit list itself records candidates by category and area, including AU, SVU and APNL classifications.
However, the numbers indicate why candidates should not assume that last year's closing rank will automatically remain available in 2026.
The 2025 Phase-III cutoff data provides a useful benchmark. Some of the key takeaways for the candidates are -
Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam, for example, closed at 18,927 for OC
Guntur Medical College closed at 25,835
Rangaraya Medical College closed at 26,916
Kurnool Medical College's OC closing rank was 26,568.
Sri Venkateswara Medical College closed at 37,897 for the OC category
Among AU-area OC candidates, there are approximately 101 candidates within rank 18,927, the previous OC benchmark for Andhra Medical College.
The corresponding number is around 147 within Guntur Medical College's previous 25,835 closing rank, and 153 within Rangaraya Medical College's 26,916 benchmark
For Kurnool Medical College, the 2025 OC closing rank of 26,568 translates to about 82 SVU-area OC candidates already inside that rank range in the 2026 provisional list
These figures should not be interpreted as the number of candidates who will actually compete for those colleges. They are better viewed as an indicator of the depth of the high-ranking candidate pool.
The 2026 merit list shows how many candidates are already sitting inside these previous-year benchmarks.
With the final merit list expected shortly and web options likely to follow, the next major data point will be the 2026 seat matrix and choice-filling behaviour. That is when the provisional merit-list competition can be converted into a more meaningful college-wise admission forecast.
For now, the 2026 data suggests that top government MBBS seats will remain highly competetive, while candidates with ranks extending beyond the traditional top-tier range may need to be more flexible about college, category and university area.
Disclaimer: This is the Edexlive's analysis based on the previous year's Phase 3 cutoffs and 2026 merit ranks data. The candidates are advised to consider it as a reference to predict admission chances, but offically, NTRUHS AP has not released any analysis on cutoffs and merit ranks.
