KCET reservation categories, explained
What GM, 1G, 2AG, 2BG, 3AG, 3BG, SCG, S1G–S4G and STG mean on a cut-off list — and what they are worth in closing ranks.
In short
A KEA category code names the pool of seats you compete in, not a difficulty level. The letters before the suffix are the category -- GM, 1, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, SC (split into S1-S4 from 2026) and ST -- and each pool closes at its own rank. Jump to the code table for what each stands for and the ranks it drew.
Open any official KEA cut-off list and the ranks are split across columns of codes. They are not difficulty levels or streams — each one is a separate pool of seats with its own closing rank, and the only column that applies to you is the one for the category on your CET admission ticket.
This matters more than it first appears. A branch that looks impossible in the General Merit column may have closed tens of thousands of ranks later in another, and candidates routinely rule out colleges by reading the wrong column.
Not every code on a KEA document is a category. SNQ, the Supernumerary Quota, is a tuition-fee waiver on extra engineering seats, open to candidates of every category — General Merit included — whose family income is below ₹8 lakh a year.
Scheduled Caste is now four columns, not one
Older cut-off lists carry a single SCG column. From 2026 the KEA engineering list does not: Scheduled Caste is split into four, and the key is printed at the foot of every page of the official PDF — S1 is SCA, S2 is SCB, S3 is SCC (80%) and S4 is SCC (20%). On this site they appear as S1G, S2G, S3G and S4G, the codes the publication itself uses.
Each is a separate pool that closed at its own rank, so there is no single “Scheduled Caste” closing rank for 2026 and this site does not print one. Combining the four into an average or taking the loosest of them would produce a figure KEA never published, on the page where being wrong costs a student a seat. The older SCG figures stay where they are, labelled with their year.
Which sub-category applies to you is on your CET admission ticket. It is set by government order, not by this site.
The codes
| Code | Stands for | Verified closing ranks here |
|---|---|---|
| GM | General Merit | 7,359 |
| 1G | Category 1 | 3,918 |
| 2AG | Category 2A | 5,358 |
| 2BG | Category 2B | 3,714 |
| 3AG | Category 3A | 3,965 |
| 3BG | Category 3B | 4,307 |
| SCG | Scheduled Caste | 3,407 |
| S1G | Scheduled Caste — SCA | 809 |
| S2G | Scheduled Caste — SCB | 894 |
| S3G | Scheduled Caste — SCC (80%) | 852 |
| S4G | Scheduled Caste — SCC (20%) | 121 |
| STG | Scheduled Tribe | 3,527 |
Categories 1, 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B are Karnataka’s own backward classes categories, which is why they appear on a KCET list and not on a national one. SC and ST follow the central classification.
What a category is worth, in ranks
The most competitive Computer Science seat in Karnataka, by category, from the KEA 2026 list. Same exam, same branch, same year, same official publication — so these are directly comparable. A category missing from this table is one that publication does not carry.
| Category | Tightest CSE closing rank | College |
|---|---|---|
| GM General Merit | 144 | R V College of Engineering |
| 1G Category 1 | 399 | R V College of Engineering |
| 2AG Category 2A | 741 | R V College of Engineering |
| 2BG Category 2B | 1,495 | R V College of Engineering |
| 3AG Category 3A | 321 | R V College of Engineering |
| 3BG Category 3B | 428 | R V College of Engineering |
| S1G Scheduled Caste — SCA | 2,551 | R V College of Engineering |
| S2G Scheduled Caste — SCB | 2,254 | R V College of Engineering |
| S3G Scheduled Caste — SCC (80%) | 3,271 | R V College of Engineering |
| S4G Scheduled Caste — SCC (20%) | 3,685 | R V College of Engineering |
| STG Scheduled Tribe | 1,768 | R V College of Engineering |
A lower number means the seat was harder to get. These are closing ranks for seats, not a statement about candidates.
Your category rank is not your overall rank
KEA publishes an overall rank and a category rank, and they are different numbers. The cut-off columns above are category closing ranks, so compare them against your category rank — not the rank printed largest on your result. Entering the wrong one into any predictor, including ours, produces a confident and useless answer.
Eligibility and reservation percentages
Which category you belong to, what documents prove it, and what share of seats each category receives are set by government order and have changed in recent years. We do not restate them here, because a figure we cannot cite is worth less than no figure on a page where being wrong costs a seat. Read them from the source:
Karnataka Examinations Authority →Everything on this page that is a figure — every closing rank, every count — comes from KEA’s own published cut-off documents. How we verify data.