List of Top NITs in India: Rankings, Fees, and Placement Records

National Institute of Technology (NITs) are valued as premier government engineering colleges in India, only second to IITs, providing great placement opportunities and notable facilities to students.

National Institute of Technology (NITs) are technical institutes under the Ministry of Education, Government of India, which are funded by the centre. They are at par with both the leading and newer Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

The top NIT colleges in India can be categorised on various bases, such as student life, infrastructure, college campus and location and more. 

Positioned at the 9th (in NIRF 2025), NIT Tiruchirappalli (NIT Trichy) is regarded as the finest and the best NIT in India, making it the only engineering college that is not an IIT.

NITs admit students based on JEE Main scores, followed by JoSAA Counselling. Based on the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), 18 out of a total of 31 NITs in India are ranked in the top 100 engineering colleges in the country.

The List of Top NITs in India will be covered in different categories in the following sections.

Here are the NIRF Rankings of the List of Top NITs in India, along with their websites and a comparison of their older rankings.

NIRF Rankings of Top 10 NITs of 2023, 2024, 2025

NIT Trichy has been consistently ranking in the top 10 engineering colleges among the older and more established IITs. On the other hand, NITs like NIT Rourkela, NIT Calicut, and NIT Patna are stepping up in the rankings, which shows how these NITs are to look out for.

Another factor that would play an essential role would be the placements in NITs in India. NITs are well known for various and strong company connections and MNCs such as Infosys, Google, Microsoft and more. Their average packages often compete with the ones at newer IITs, making them dream colleges for any student.

The following table depicts the average and the highest domestic package for the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) branch in LPA (lakhs per annum). 

List of Top NITs in India placement-wise (CSE branch) 

The highest average package for CSE in NITs is 27.1LPA (lakhs per annum) in NIT Trichy (NITT), with the highest package being 64 lakhs per annum.
The trend follows for all NITs, with NIT Rourkela having 84LPA as its highest domestic CSE package, reflecting the rising demand for NIT CSE graduates.

The seats in the most popular branches at NITs also fill up every year; for example, Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) is sought after in almost every NIT.

The following matrix shows the number of seats along with their closing rank in the CSE Branch. 

(The data is from Round 6 of JoSAA counselling for General Gender Neutral Quota)

* Closing rank for any branch refers to the lowest rank in the corresponding NIT to enter.

All the comparisons provided to you to comprehend and decide which NIT suits you better. Examine factors like the location of the college, the campus’s infrastructure, and your rank to select the right one for you.