EY vs KPMG India for Freshers (2026): Audit, Tax or Consulting — Pick the Track First

Updated August 2026 · Packages indicative — confirm on each company's official careers page

If you have read our KPMG vs PwC page you already know the headline, and it holds here too: between two Big Four firms, the brand is close to a tie and the specific offer decides everything. So this page does not repeat that argument. It goes one level down, to the question students at this stage are actually stuck on — not EY or KPMG, but audit, tax or consulting, and whether a commerce degree and an engineering degree are even applying for the same thing. They are not, and at both firms the three tracks plus the technology delivery intake are close to four separate employers sharing a logo.

The tracks differ in what your first two years build. Assurance is the largest graduate intake at both firms and teaches you how businesses are actually assembled — testing balances and controls, preparing working papers, and living through a busy season that is real, seasonal and survivable if you expected it. Tax develops a specialisation faster, in direct or indirect tax compliance and advisory support, and increasingly in tax technology for people comfortable with data tools. Consulting — advisory, in KPMG's language — has fewer graduate seats, leans more heavily on postgraduate hiring and case-style conversation, and spans risk, process, technology and business consulting; its first year is mostly gathering scattered information, structuring it and checking it rather than presenting recommendations. Then there is the delivery side: EY Global Delivery Services and KPMG Global Services both hire in volume from India, and at both they are where most engineering graduates actually land, in data, cloud, cyber and enterprise platform work.

Where the two firms genuinely lean differently, the difference is one of emphasis rather than kind, and our company pages reflect it. EY's GDS is an unusually large technology organisation, so for a B.Tech student the EY door is very often a technology door first. KPMG's campus conversation tends to centre on advisory, with risk consulting and internal audit as a large and under-appreciated first job. Neither tendency makes one the better firm, and both change with the year and the practice. What does not change is the parallel-route structure: graduates enter both firms directly, while qualified professionals enter at a different level and band. The rules for any professional qualification — eligibility, training periods, exemptions — belong to the institute that sets them, not to this page or to either firm, so confirm them there before you plan around them.

Packages, side by side

How the exams differ

Choose EY if…

• Your offer is in the track you actually want. That outranks every other line on this page and applies symmetrically — an assurance offer at one firm resembles an assurance offer at the other far more than it resembles a consulting offer at the same firm.
• You are a B.Tech student who wants technology work at a Big Four brand. EY GDS runs a very large engineering intake in application development, data engineering, cloud, cybersecurity and enterprise systems, and the assessment is technical rather than accounting-based — our EY page sets out that track in detail.
• You are a B.Com student aiming at assurance or tax and want the service-line map spelled out before you apply. The EY page is where we lay out all four tracks end to end, including what each one tests.
• The location, team and joining date work better for you. In professional services these are not tie-breakers of last resort — they shape your first two years more than the brand does.

Choose KPMG if…

• Again, the track comes first. If the KPMG offer is in the practice you want, that settles it faster than any comparison.
• You want advisory and you want to know what year one really involves. Our KPMG page leads on exactly that — the groundwork behind a recommendation, the practice split across consulting, risk and internal audit, governance, deal advisory and technology — and interviewers there probe whether you understand it.
• Risk consulting or internal audit appeals to you. It is a large first job that almost nobody prepares for, it suits commerce and engineering graduates alike, and it builds a controls-and-process vocabulary that travels well.
• The process moved faster, the people you met were better, or the specific team fits. These are legitimate reasons, and better than choosing on campus folklore about which firm is the prestigious one.

Frequently asked questions

Which is better for freshers, EY or KPMG?

Neither, as a general statement. Both are Big Four firms with the same broad service lines, both hire commerce and engineering graduates in volume, both run large India delivery organisations alongside their member firms, and a future employer reads two years at either the same way. The question that actually separates your options is which track you are entering — assurance, tax, consulting, or technology and delivery — because those differ from one another far more than the two firms do. Decide the track first. Then, if you hold offers from both in the same track, compare entity, practice, location, fixed pay and team, and treat the brand as a tie.

Audit, tax or consulting — which should a fresher pick?

Pick by what you want the first three years to build, not by which sounds more impressive. Assurance builds a rigorous habit of evidence and a structural understanding of how businesses work, with a seasonal busy period; it is the largest graduate intake and a common entry point into advisory later. Tax builds a specialisation quickly and suits people who like rules, detail and compliance logic, with a growing tax-technology strand. Consulting gives variety and client exposure sooner, at the cost of more ambiguity and fewer graduate seats. None is the prestigious one. If you are genuinely undecided, note that moving from audit into advisory is a more common path than the reverse — a practical consideration, not a rule.

I am a B.Com student. What does my route look like at EY and KPMG?

Assurance and tax are the natural fits at both firms, with consulting open but more competitive and more postgraduate-weighted. The assessment you face is the same shape at each: an aptitude screen, then an accounting and audit conversation — journal entries, the accounting cycle, accruals, depreciation, what an audit is for, internal controls — then behavioural and HR rounds. That domain round is where your degree should be winning, and it only wins if you have revised it properly rather than assuming you remember it. Add Excel to a genuine working level, because it is assumed rather than taught in both firms' assurance and tax teams. Apply to both, since the preparation is one preparation.

I am a B.Tech student. Can I get into EY or KPMG, and in which track?

Yes, through several doors at each. Technology roles in EY GDS and in KPMG's technology consulting and KGS practices take engineers in volume for data, cloud, cyber and enterprise platform work, and those assessments test programming, SQL and your stack rather than accounting. Risk consulting at both takes engineers for technology risk and controls work, which suits people who like systems without wanting to code full time. General advisory also takes engineering graduates, since structured problem solving is not a commerce skill — but that door puts you in a case or guesstimate conversation instead of a coding test. What an engineer should not do is apply to an assurance posting expecting technology work. Choose the door, then prepare for its assessment.

Do I need to be a CA to join, and how does the CA route differ from graduate entry?

You do not need a professional qualification to be hired as a graduate at either firm — assurance, tax, consulting and technology all take graduates directly. Qualified professionals enter at a different level and a materially different band, which is why the qualification question deserves a deliberate decision rather than drift. This page deliberately states no eligibility, articleship, registration or exemption rule for any qualification: those belong to the relevant professional institute, they change, and outdated versions circulate widely among students. Confirm them with the institute directly, check each firm's own careers page for its current entry criteria, and if you plan to study while working, raise it during the process, since support for that varies.

What is the difference between EY GDS and KPMG KGS?

Structurally they are the same idea: a large India-based delivery organisation supporting the firm's member firms in other countries, as distinct from the Indian member firm serving clients in India. In both, the client relationship usually sits with an onshore team, the work tends to arrive more defined, and hours may align to the geography you support. Both carry genuine technical and professional depth. The practical difference for a fresher is mostly scale and mix — EY GDS is an especially large technology employer, while KGS spans technology, process and research roles — and both shift year to year. Whichever you are offered, ask which entity the role sits in and what the shift pattern is. Titles rarely make it obvious.

Which pays more for a fresher, EY or KPMG?

Comparable roles overlap heavily, and the gap is not large enough to decide anything. Indicatively, graduate assurance and tax roles at both sit broadly in the ₹3.5–6.5 LPA region, delivery and technology roles around ₹4–8 LPA, and consulting and advisory analyst roles around ₹5–9 LPA, with postgraduate and qualified entry above those bands. The structural point matters more than any number: the spread across tracks inside one firm is wider than the gap between the two firms, so which track you enter shapes your first offer far more than which logo it carries. All figures are indicative and move with entity, practice, city and year — ask for the fixed component separately when an offer arrives.

I am in the 2027 batch. How should I prepare for both firms at once?

Choose your track first, then prepare once for both firms, because the assessments within a track are close. Everyone needs one timed aptitude cycle, since a common screen sits in front of nearly every service line at both. Commerce students aiming at assurance or tax should revise accounting and audit concepts to interview depth. Anyone aiming at consulting should rehearse two or three guesstimates and short cases aloud with someone who interrupts them. Engineers aiming at technology roles need one language to real depth plus SQL. Get genuinely good at Excel regardless. And prepare a specific answer to why professional services and why that track — vague answers there are common at both firms and cost people offers equally.

The full guides

• EY India hiring (assessment and interviews, varying substantially by service line): pattern, syllabus & prep
• KPMG India hiring (assessment, case or domain interview and behavioural rounds, varying by service line): pattern, syllabus & prep
• Check your eligibility for both · see the real in-hand for each package