IIM Ahmedabad PGPX: Fees, Eligibility, GMAT Score and Placements

IIMs love acronyms. PGPX is the one that costs about as much as a small flat in Ahmedabad’s suburbs, and takes you out of the job market for twelve months.

The degree is worth it for some people and a costly detour for others. Below are the official numbers, from the fee and the GMAT averages to the audited placement report, so you can work out which group you are in.

One definition before anything else. PGPX is a 1-year full-time MBA, in the same group as ISB PGP, IIMB EPGP, IIMC MBAEx and IIML IPMX. It is not an Executive MBA (keep your job), and it is not an online or blended MBA. If you need to stay employed, the IIM Online and Blended MBA in India: Programmes, Fees, Eligibility and How to Choose guide is the place to start, and our explainer on executive MBA vs one-year MBA sets out the differences.

IIMA PGPX at a Glance

One labelling point. Since the IIM Act, 2017, IIMs award degrees rather than diplomas, which is why IIMA now calls the programme “MBA-PGPX”. Searches for PGPX, IIMA PGPX and “IIM A one year MBA” all lead to the same programme. IIMA’s other options for working professionals are compared in IIM Ahmedabad Executive Programmes: PGPX, Blended MBA in Business Analytics and AI, ePGD in Advanced Business Analytics Compared.

Who IIMA PGPX Is For

The 4-year minimum is only a filter. The admitted class is older and more experienced than that, as the 2026–27 cohort shows.

Source: PGPX Brochure 2027–28, IIM Ahmedabad

By the brochure’s industry split, the largest groups are media, shipping, telecom and others (21%), defence and BFSI (20%), IT products and IT/ITeS (16%), energy and utilities (14%) and consulting (13%). Manufacturing and engineering account for 9% and FMCG, retail and e-commerce for 7%.

The programme suits three kinds of applicant:

• Consultants and IT services managers who want a step up into strategy, product or client-partner roles. Consulting and IT consulting together took 56 of the 134 accepted offers in 2026.
• Career switchers from defence, government, energy or engineering who need a recognised general-management credential and a placement process to move sectors. Armed-forces and government applicants also qualify for entry scholarships.
• Mid-career managers with 6–12 years of experience who have plateaued and can afford a year away from work. Our guide to the Executive MBA for Mid-Career Managers (8–15 Years): Best Programmes, Eligibility and Fees covers the options that let you keep working.

PGPX Curriculum Snapshot

The year runs across six terms, and the core is front-loaded. IIMA’s published calendar is:

Teaching is case-based, drawing on a repository of more than 5,000 cases. Partner schools for the immersion over the past five years include WU Executive Academy in Vienna, ESADE, ESCP and ESSEC. During the electives you can also take an Individual Research Project, such as a case, an industry note or a business plan, with a faculty advisor. For how this compares with other programmes’ course loads, see One-Year MBA Curriculum and Subjects.

The placement process starts in late November, so for most students it overlaps with the first block of electives.

IIMA PGPX Fees 2027–28

The 2027–28 fee is ₹36.2 lakh with single accommodation, or ₹38.3 lakh with married student housing. That is up from ₹35 lakh for 2026–27. The fee is a bundle covering tuition, books, course material, accommodation, library and computing.

The fee does not cover the International Immersion Programme, meals, or utilities such as electricity, laundry and gym. Budget for those separately.

IIMA also offers a second, staggered payment mode, with three balance instalments running to September 2027. Under that mode the single-accommodation instalments add up to ₹36,59,000.

The scholarships matter more than most applicants realise:

• Entry scholarships can reach up to 25% of the single-accommodation fee. They are open to women and other under-represented genders, transgender students, non-Indian passport holders, armed-forces personnel, central and state government employees, people with not-for-profit experience, differently abled students, and national-level sports or fine-arts achievers.
• Graduation scholarships can reach up to 15% of the fee, awarded for merit or all-round performance.

IIMA lists education-loan schemes with SBI, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank, Central Bank, PNB, IDFC FIRST and HDFC Credila. Our guide to Executive MBA Scholarships, Loans and EMI explains how these loans are typically structured.

For the full instalment detail, see IIMA PGPX fees. To see how ₹36.2 lakh compares, read our one-year MBA fees comparison and the broader Executive MBA Fees table.

PGPX Eligibility

You need a bachelor’s degree with 15 years of education, to be born on or before 31 March 2002, 4 years of full-time post-graduation experience by 31 March 2027, and a test-centre GMAT, GMAT Focus or GRE score. You can apply only once across the two rounds. The detailed rules, including how work experience is counted, are on our IIMA PGPX eligibility page.

PGPX GMAT Score

IIMA sets no minimum GMAT or GRE cut-off. Home-based online test scores are not accepted, and the score must be from the last five years. The class averages show where competitive scores sit:

Source: PGPX Brochure 2027–28, IIM Ahmedabad

An average is not a cut-off. A score below 691 can still get you an admit if your experience and career progression are strong, because the interview weighs those heavily. For how other schools treat test scores, see Executive MBA Entrance Test and Score.

PGPX Admission Timeline 2027–28

Selection has two stages. First, shortlisted candidates submit essays. Then a panel of IIMA faculty interviews them, judging professional background, quality of experience, career progression, academic preparedness, leadership potential and interpersonal skills.

Source: PGPX Brochure 2027–28. Round 2 application fee: ₹10,000

As of late October 2026, Round 1 is over and Round 2 is open until 23 November. Round 2 offers come out on 22 January, which leaves about ten weeks before the April start to resign, serve notice and arrange a loan. Plan your notice period around that date. Step-by-step detail is on our IIMA PGPX admission process page. To track all your applications in one place, use the MBA application tracker sheet.

PGPX Format, Schedule and Campus Life

Being full-time and residential is the defining feature of PGPX. There are no weekend classes and no periodic campus visits; you live on the Ahmedabad campus for the full year.

• You live on campus in single student housing or married student housing. MSH rooms have basic cooking facilities, and there is a daycare centre for children.
• Most work happens in study groups (“syndicates”) built around daily case discussions.
• Each term runs about two months, and the core terms carry 8–9 courses each.
• The September immersion abroad lasts about two weeks, and you pay your own travel and stay.

Speaking about his PGPX year, Manishkumar Pandey (Class of 2021–22, later Senior Manager Operations at Amazon) said, as quoted in IIMA’s 2027–28 brochure: “One year at IIMA has enabled me to transform myself and has given me the right set of skills to succeed in the Corporate World after serving my term with the Indian Armed Forces.”

IIMA PGPX Placements 2026

IIMA publishes PGPX placements under the Indian Placement Reporting Standards (IPRS), and B2K Analytics audits the figures. Few Indian executive programmes have their placement numbers checked by an outside auditor.

134 of the 139 students who sought placement accepted an offer, which works out to 96.4%. More than 200 companies took part and made over 300 offers, including about 65 recruiters new to the programme.

Source: PGPX Finals 2026 IPRS Report, audited by B2K Analytics

Read the fixed-cash row, not the headline. “Maximum earning potential” includes variable pay you may not receive. The median fixed salary is ₹32.2 lakh.

The two international offers paid US$95,145 in fixed salary. Accenture, Amazon, Eli Lilly, EY, FinIQ Consulting, Genpact and NTT Data made the most offers. Other firms that recruited include McKinsey, BCG, Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, Apple, Flipkart, Reliance Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra and Alvarez & Marsal.

The roles on offer included Vice President, Associate Director, Product Head, Client Partner and Senior Manager. Finance placements are thin: only 3 finance-function offers in 2026. If you want an investment-banking switch, take note.

In the rankings, the brochure lists PGPX at #27 worldwide, in the top 6 in Asia-Pacific, and #3 for career progression in the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking 2026. IIMA itself is ranked #1 in NIRF’s management category. More detail by year is on IIMA PGPX placements and salary, and the cross-programme view is in One-Year MBA Placements and Salary.

One-Year MBAs in India Compared

These are the full-time, one-year programmes most applicants shortlist alongside PGPX. This is a short version; the full table, with IIMC MBAEx, IIMI EPGP, SPJIMR PGPM and XLRI’s one-year PGDM, is in our One-Year MBA in India: Programmes, Fees, Eligibility and How to Choose guide.

Programme	Award	Duration	Fee (latest published)	Min / avg work-ex	Batch	Test	Median CTC (year)
IIMA PGPX	MBA (IIM Act)	1 year	₹36,20,000 + immersion (2027–28)	4 yrs / 7–8 yrs	160 (2026–27)	GMAT/GRE	₹32.16 lakh fixed (2026, audited)
ISB PGP	Post Graduate Programme in Management	1 year	₹40,46,520 incl. GST, shared housing (2027–28)	24 months / 4.1 yrs	839 (Class of 2027)	GMAT/GRE	Not published
IIMB EPGP	MBA (IIM Act)	1 year	₹33,71,000 incl. indicative immersion and mess (2025–26)	5 yrs / 6.5 yrs*	74 (Class of 2027)*	GMAT/GRE	₹36.50 lakh (2026)*
IIML IPMX	Degree/diploma status pending (IIML)	1 year	₹26,00,000 incl. basic housing and food (2027–28)	4 yrs / about 8 yrs	114 (Class of 2026)	GMAT/GRE	₹27.00 lakh CTC (2026)

Source: each institute’s programme page, fee document and placement report. *From InsideIIM coverage, not an official IIMB report; IIMB’s site could not be opened

PGPX vs ISB PGP vs IPMX

For most applicants with 4–8 years of experience, the real shortlist is these three. Here they are on the same columns. A full head-to-head lives on the programme comparisons hub.

In short: ISB is younger, five times larger and ₹4 lakh pricier, and it does not publish a median salary. IPMX costs ₹10 lakh less and pays about ₹5 lakh less at the median. PGPX sits in the middle on price, has the oldest class, and is the only one of the three with an independently audited placement report.

Is IIMA PGPX Worth It?

Most PGPX applicants have to quit their job, so the true cost is the fee plus a year’s lost salary. The table runs that arithmetic for three experience bands. The pre-MBA salaries are stated assumptions, not IIMA data; the post-PGPX figure is the official 2026 median fixed cash. IIMA does not split the median by experience, so treat it as a pooled outcome.

The model leaves out the International Immersion cost, loan interest, tax, and raises you would have earned by staying put, which all lengthen the payback. It also leaves out scholarships of up to 25%, the median one-time payment of ₹2 lakh, and the faster promotions a senior post-MBA role can bring, which all shorten it. A 25% entry scholarship (₹9,05,000) would cut the 4–6-year band’s payback to about 31 months.

The higher your current salary, the weaker the financial case. Above about ₹30 lakh, the median outcome barely beats what you already earn, so PGPX only makes sense as a deliberate switch of sector or function, and the 8–12-year band needs an above-median offer to pay back inside five years. To plug in your own numbers, download the Executive MBA ROI calculator; it and the other sheets are on our Free Executive MBA Tools: ROI Calculator and Application Tracker page.

PGPX Questions Answered: Degree, Age and Career Switch

Is PGPX a full MBA degree?

Yes. IIMA awards an MBA under the IIM Act, 2017, and renamed the programme MBA-PGPX to reflect it. It is a full-time, residential programme with a placement process, which is what separates it from an executive MBA you do while working. Our page on Executive MBA Degree Type, Recognition and Alumni Status explains how awards differ across programmes.

Do placements work if you are over 30?

The programme is built for that age group. The 2026–27 cohort’s average age is 31, so most students in each placement season are over 30. IIMA does not publish placement results by age, but 134 of the 139 students who sought placement in 2026 accepted offers, at roles up to Vice President and Associate Director. There is no upper age limit for applying.

Can you switch domain after PGPX?

Into consulting, product and general management, the data supports it: those three functions took 77 of the 134 offers in 2026. Into finance, it does not, with just 3 finance-function offers. IIMA does not publish what share of the class changed function or industry. For comparison, IIML reports that around 79% of its IPMX Class of 2026 shifted function.

FAQs on IIM Ahmedabad PGPX

What is PGPX IIM Ahmedabad?

PGPX is IIM Ahmedabad’s one-year, full-time residential MBA for experienced professionals, now officially called MBA-PGPX (One Year MBA). It needs at least 4 years of post-graduation work experience and a GMAT or GRE score. The 2027–28 fee is ₹36.2 lakh, and graduates receive an MBA degree.

What is IIM Ahmedabad PGPX?

It is the institute’s flagship one-year MBA, designed for mid-career managers. Each cohort has about 160 students, with an average age of 31 and 7–8 years of experience. The year runs April to March across six terms, including a two-week international immersion, and ends with an audited campus placement process.

What is the PGPX program in IIM Ahmedabad?

It is a six-term programme. Four months of core “Building Blocks” courses come first, then a “Preparing for Top Management” module, an international immersion in September, electives, and a capstone business simulation. Teaching is case-based and fully residential on the Ahmedabad campus.

What is PGPX IIMA?

PGPX IIMA is the same programme under its short name: the one-year MBA for executives at IIM Ahmedabad. The Class of 2026 recorded a median fixed salary of ₹32.16 lakh and a median maximum earning potential of ₹37.78 lakh. 134 of the 139 students who sought placement accepted offers.

Last updated: 29 October 2026