Quick glossary: Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi and Kanpur are two of the 23 campuses) admits undergraduates via JoSAA counselling, which runs in multiple Rounds. The Opening rank is the first JEE Advanced All-India Rank at which a seat was allotted in a specific institute/branch/category; the closing rank is the last such rank. Branches are named things like Computer Science and Engineering (Bachelor of Technology, typically a 4-Years program) or Electrical Engineering — each with its own opening and closing rank per round.
Quick Verdict
On the one branch we can compare directly — Computer Science and Engineering — IIT Delhi's Round 2 2026 cutoff (opening rank 35, closing rank 123) is narrower and more consistent than IIT Kanpur's (opening rank 32, closing rank 276), meaning Delhi's CSE seats were claimed within a tighter, more predictable rank band (jagranjosh.com). This lines up with a broader trend one source describes: IIT Delhi is "the second most competitive choice" after IIT Bombay for the same programme, while "IIT Kanpur tends to close a bit wider than Bombay, Delhi, and Madras, though it's still tough to get into" (collegedost.in).
Snapshot
| Metric | IIT Delhi | IIT Kanpur |
|---|---|---|
| CSE Round 2 2026 — Opening Rank | 35 | 32 (jagranjosh.com) |
| CSE Round 2 2026 — Closing Rank | 123 | 276 (jagranjosh.com) |
| NIRF Engineering Rank 2025 | 2 | 4 (jagranjosh.com) |
| Institute's least-selective program — Closing Rank 2025 | 10,036 | 10,018* (engineering.careers360.com) |
| Institute's least-selective program — Closing Rank 2026 | 12,244 (Design) | 10,552 (Earth Sciences) (engineering.careers360.com) |
| Change, 2025 → 2026 | +2,208 (among the 10 largest increases nationally) | ~+534 (not among the top 10 largest increases) (engineering.careers360.com) |
| Full branch-wise Round 2 2026 cutoff table available in sourced data | Yes, 18+ programs | No — only the CSE figure above was found |
*This 10,018 figure is inferred: it appears in the sourced comparison table on the row matching IIT Kanpur's position, but the institute name was dropped in the original scrape. We're flagging this rather than presenting it as fully confirmed.
Detailed Analysis
For the one branch with a clean, direct comparison — CSE — the two institutes show different cutoff shapes rather than simply "one is harder." IIT Kanpur's opening rank (32) is marginally better (lower) than IIT Delhi's (35), meaning the single best-ranked candidate who chose Kanpur CSE had a slightly stronger AIR than Delhi's. But IIT Delhi's closing rank (123) is far tighter than IIT Kanpur's (276), meaning Delhi's CSE seats were fully claimed within a narrower, more front-loaded rank band, while Kanpur's CSE admissions extended out to a noticeably wider range of ranks (jagranjosh.com).
Within IIT Delhi alone, the sourced branch-wise Round 2 2026 table shows a steep drop-off in competitiveness as you move away from CSE: Computer Science & Engineering closes at 123, Mathematics & Computing at 320, Electrical Engineering at 593, Mechanical Engineering at 2,131, and Civil Engineering all the way out to 4,798 (cracku.in). The same table shows female-only quota seats close at meaningfully higher (less competitive) ranks across every branch — for instance, CSE female-only closes at 681 versus 123 for the gender-neutral seat (cracku.in). Unfortunately, an equivalent full branch-wise table for IIT Kanpur wasn't captured in the sourced facts — one source promises a "IIT Kanpur branch wise cutoff 2025 for BTech" table, but the actual figures weren't present in what we scraped, so we can't responsibly extend the Delhi pattern to Kanpur's other branches (shiksha.com).
On year-over-year movement, both institutes' least-selective programs became easier to get into between 2025 and 2026, but by very different margins: IIT Delhi's last closing rank jumped by roughly 2,208 (landing it among the 10 IITs with the largest rank increases nationally, in the Design program specifically), while IIT Kanpur's equivalent (Earth Sciences) moved by a much smaller ~534 and didn't make that top-10 list (engineering.careers360.com). Since these are different programs at each institute (Design vs. Earth Sciences), this isn't a same-branch comparison — it mainly tells us Delhi's overall demand curve loosened more than Kanpur's did in 2026, without telling us why.
Verdict
For CSE specifically — the branch with directly comparable data — IIT Delhi is the tighter, more front-loaded admit, while IIT Kanpur's CSE cutoff extends to a meaningfully wider (less selective at the margin) closing rank. If a reader's JEE Advanced rank sits in the low hundreds and they want the best odds at a CSE seat between these two, IIT Kanpur's wider closing rank (276 vs. 123) means it may be the more realistic reach. If their rank is comfortably below 123, both are plausible, and IIT Delhi's narrower, more front-loaded pattern combined with its higher NIRF Engineering rank (2 vs. 4) tips the safety margin toward Delhi. For any branch other than CSE, we simply don't have IIT Kanpur's branch-wise cutoff numbers in the sourced data, so don't assume the Delhi branch-spread pattern (steep drop from CSE to core branches) automatically holds at Kanpur too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What was IIT Delhi's CSE Round 2 2026 cutoff?
Opening rank 35, closing rank 123 (jagranjosh.com).
Q: What was IIT Kanpur's CSE Round 2 2026 cutoff?
Opening rank 32, closing rank 276 (jagranjosh.com).
Q: Which institute's CSE cutoff is wider?
IIT Kanpur's — its closing rank (276) extends far past IIT Delhi's (123), even though its opening rank was marginally better (jagranjosh.com).
Q: Is there branch-wise cutoff data for IIT Kanpur beyond CSE?
Not in the sourced facts — a source references such a table, but the actual figures weren't captured (shiksha.com).
Q: How much does IIT Delhi's cutoff vary across branches?
Substantially — from a closing rank of 123 for CSE to 4,798 for Civil Engineering in the Round 2 2026 data (cracku.in).
Q: Which institute is generally described as "closing wider" in JoSAA trend reporting?
IIT Kanpur, relative to Bombay, Delhi, and Madras — though still described as tough to get into (collegedost.in).
Q: Did cutoffs get easier or harder in 2026 versus 2025?
Easier at both institutes' least-selective programs — IIT Delhi's rose by about 2,208 and IIT Kanpur's by roughly 534, per the sourced data (engineering.careers360.com).
Q: What's the NIRF Engineering rank gap between the two?
IIT Delhi ranks 2nd, IIT Kanpur 4th, in the 2025 NIRF Engineering category (jagranjosh.com).
Related
For the complete picture beyond Branch Cutoffs — placements, academics, campus life, and more — see the full IIT Delhi vs IIT Kanpur comparison.