TNPSC One Time Registration (OTR): Fee, Documents, Steps and Login

According to the notification, your Aadhaar details are used only to identify you. They go to the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) only for authentication, and they aren't stored or shared. You give your consent inside your OTR. If you registered years ago and never linked Aadhaar, do that first. Without it you can't open your OTR or apply.

• SSLC mark sheet: register number, certificate number, month and year of passing, medium of instruction and board. If you took more than one attempt, use the mark sheet of the attempt you passed.

• Aadhaar number.

• Your own mobile number and email ID. No personal email? The notification asks you to create one and keep it live. Not a browsing centre's, not a friend's.

• Community certificate, for reserved communities. It should cite your father's or mother's name; one citing your spouse's name isn't accepted, and your community claim is rejected.

• Education details after SSLC, and Tamil-medium (PSTM) certificates if you will claim PSTM.

• Photograph and signature files in the sizes below, on the device you will use.

Photo and signature size for TNPSC OTR

For the OTR itself, Annexure I sets only the file sizes, the 200 DPI scan and one rule: the photo must be taken within the last three months. The 4.5 × 3.5 cm size, the studio and white-background rules and the name-and-date strip are for the photo you upload with each application, and that photo must be taken on or after the notification's date: for Group 4 2026, on or after 6 October 2026. So if you are registering now to apply for Group 4, one studio photo taken on or after 6 October 2026, with your name and that date printed at the bottom, meets both sets of rules. A later exam will need a newer photo.

No phone photos, selfies or photocopies, and no pictures from family functions or tourist spots. The upload page accepts only JPG or JPEG. A photo over 50 KB won't upload, a signature over 20 KB won't upload, and neither will a photo that's wider than it is tall. It also refuses a photo more than 300 pixels wide or 450 tall, and a signature more than 450 pixels wide or 200 tall. A 6 cm box scanned at 200 DPI comes out about 470 pixels wide, so resize the cropped signature to about 230 × 75 pixels and the photo to about 130 × 170 (width × height), as the notification gives.

The screens change a little from year to year, but registration on tnpscexams.in runs like this:

1. Open tnpscexams.in (it forwards to apply.tnpscexams.in). Click One Time Registration & Dashboard, then New User Registration (OTR). The site works best in Chrome or Firefox.

2. Create a login ID of 5 to 15 characters, letters and numbers only. Type the captcha and click Check Availability.

3. Set a password of 8 to 15 characters with at least one capital letter, one small letter, one number and one special character. Write both down somewhere safe.

4. Fill in your personal and contact details: name, date of birth and parents' names as in your SSLC certificate, then your mobile number (without 0 or +91; it is verified by OTP) and email ID.

5. Link your Aadhaar and give consent.

6. Enter your SSLC details exactly, then community, place of birth, native district, education and address. Read the pop-up warnings: choosing "Other than Tamil Nadu" as the place your community certificate was issued puts you in "Others" for reservation.

7. Upload your photograph and signature.

8. Check the preview, submit and pay ₹150. After you submit, details can be changed only through OTR Edit with supporting documents.

9. Log in to your dashboard and save or print your profile.

There's one tnpscexams.in login for every TNPSC exam. Go to One Time Registration & Dashboard, click Registered User (Login) and enter your login ID and password. To apply, click Apply against the notification (for Group 4, that's Notification No. 11/2026).

• Forgot your login ID? Click Forgot Login ID?, pick your community certificate number, SSLC register number or SSLC certificate number and enter it with your date of birth, then choose your registered email or mobile and type it in. The ID is sent there. If you don't have those numbers, a link on the same page finds your ID from your name, your father's and mother's names and your date of birth (it still asks for your registered email or mobile).

• Forgot your password? Click Forgot password?, enter your login ID and date of birth, and choose whether the reset link goes to your registered email or mobile. If you can't use either any more, a separate link on that page asks for your login ID, date of birth, an email ID and mobile number, and a community certificate or SSLC number instead.

• Nobody can tell you your password. TNPSC will not give out login IDs or passwords; only you can retrieve or reset them.

For other login problems: toll-free 1800 419 0958 (working days, 10 AM to 5:45 PM), or helpdesk@tnpscexams.in from your registered email.

When you open OTR Edit, a warning tells you two things: the detail you're changing can be edited only once, so get it right the first time, and TNPSC staff check your document before they accept the change. If the document doesn't back up the change, the request is turned down.

Your application copies its details from the OTR, so fix the OTR first. If you find an OTR error after submitting your Group 4 application, the notification gives the order: edit your profile in OTR and save it, then open the application with Edit, save it and submit it again. TNPSC staff check OTR edits before they take effect, so do this early and make sure the corrected detail shows in the reopened application before you submit.

An OTR is valid for five years from the date you registered, and you need Aadhaar linking to renew it. TNPSC's earlier registration site puts the renewal fee at ₹150, the same as a new registration, under G.O. (Ms) No. 32, P&AR (M) Department, dated 1 March 2017 (tnpscexams.net). The 2026 notification doesn't restate it, so check the amount your dashboard shows before you pay. Log in a few days before you plan to apply. If your five years are up, renew the OTR you already have instead of making a new one: it's one registration per person.

The notification names each of these as a ground for rejection after due process, except the last, which means you never applied at all:

• Wrong SSLC details in the OTR. They identify you; an error can get the application rejected at any stage.

• The wrong kind of photo: a phone photo, selfie, photocopy, an old photo, or one without your name and date printed below. Unclear or wrong-sized images count too.

• Names that don't match your certificates. Your name and your father's or mother's name must be spelt as in your certificates and mark sheets.

• A community certificate citing your spouse's name instead of your father's or mother's. This gets your community claim rejected, not the whole application.

• Fee not paid by the last date, or a fee concession claimed falsely, which also brings a one-year ban from TNPSC exams.

• Stopping at the preview. You have applied only when you click Submit; the preview in your email is not an application.

Applying for Group 4 is a separate step. Log in, click Apply against Notification No. 11/2026 and check the OTR details it shows. Fill in the form, upload a photo taken on or after 6 October 2026, pay the ₹100 exam fee unless you're exempt, and submit. Every step, with post-wise vacancies and fee exemptions, is in our TNPSC Group 4 notification 2026 guide.

The last date is 5 November 2026, 11:59 PM: as of 24 October, that's 12 days away. The correction window from 9 to 11 November is only for people who have already submitted; it takes no new applications. TNPSC warns that the site slows near the closing date, so finish both steps well before 5 November.

The exam is on Sunday, 10 January 2027. The Group 4 exam guide explains how the paper and selection work, and the syllabus page lists every topic. Part A (Tamil) carries 150 of the 300 marks, and you need at least 60 of those 150 before the rest of your paper is even marked. So start there. Thervu's Group 4 mock tests are timed, in Tamil and English, and marked the moment you submit. The questions you get wrong come back in your revision queue.