The Nobel Prize 2026 season opens today, Monday 5 October, and runs for a week. Six laureate announcements will come from Stockholm and Oslo between 5 and 12 October, starting with Physiology or Medicine this afternoon and ending with Economic Sciences next Monday. For readers in India, every announcement lands in the afternoon, between 2:30 PM and 4:30 PM IST. Here is the full Nobel Prize 2026 schedule, the timings converted to Indian time, the prize money, and how to watch live.

Nobel Prize 2026 schedule: dates and timings in IST

The prize-awarding institutions confirmed the dates in a Nobel Foundation press release in February. Sweden is on Central European Summer Time (CEST, UTC+2) for the whole week, so each announcement is three and a half hours later in India. Note the words "at the earliest": the committees announce once the final decision is made, so a reveal can slip by a few minutes.

Physiology or Medicine: Monday 5 October, 11:30 CEST at the earliest, which is 3:00 PM IST. Announced by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet in Solna.

Physics: Tuesday 6 October, 11:45 CEST at the earliest, 3:15 PM IST. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm.

Chemistry: Wednesday 7 October, 11:45 CEST at the earliest, 3:15 PM IST. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm.

Literature: Thursday 8 October, 13:00 CEST at the earliest, 4:30 PM IST. The Swedish Academy, at the Börssalen in Stockholm's old town.

Peace: Friday 9 October, 11:00 CEST, 2:30 PM IST. The Norwegian Nobel Committee at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo. This is the only slot without "at the earliest".

Economic Sciences: Monday 12 October, 11:45 CEST at the earliest, 3:15 PM IST. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm.

How to watch the Nobel Prize 2026 announcements live

All six announcements will be broadcast live on the official digital channels of the Nobel Prize, such as nobelprize.org, according to the Nobel Foundation, whose press release also lists YouTube live streams for the announcements. In-depth material on each prize, including the scientific background, is published on nobelprize.org soon after the names are read out.

The press conferences themselves are closed events. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says attendance is only open to accredited journalists and photographers covering that year's prize, with pre-registration mandatory.

Nobel Prize 2026 prize money

Each prize carries an award of 12 million Swedish crowns, a recently increased amount, Reuters reported in a factbox on 2 October. That is roughly 1.21 million US dollars at the exchange rate Reuters used. When a prize is shared, the money is split between the laureates.

When is the Nobel Prize ceremony?

The laureates receive their medals and diplomas on 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. The Peace Prize is presented in Oslo by the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, while the other prizes are handed over by the King of Sweden at the Stockholm Concert Hall. The evening ends with a banquet for about 1,300 guests at Stockholm City Hall, where the menu is kept secret until it is served.

Who could win the Nobel Peace Prize 2026?

Nobody outside the committee knows. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said in April that 287 candidates are in the running for the 2026 Peace Prize, 208 individuals and 79 organisations. Nominations closed on 31 January, and the full list is locked away for 50 years, so any shortlist you see online is speculation. Reuters noted at the time that US President Donald Trump was likely among the nominees, since several leaders said publicly they had put his name forward. The committee does not confirm names.

Who awards each prize?

Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist and industrialist best known for inventing dynamite, left most of his fortune in his will to fund prizes for those who "conferred the greatest benefit to humankind". He chose the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for physics and chemistry, Karolinska Institutet for medicine, the Swedish Academy for literature, and a committee appointed by Norway's parliament for peace. The first prizes were awarded in 1901. The economics prize was added later: Sweden's central bank, the Sveriges Riksbank, created it in 1968 to mark its 300th anniversary, and it is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on the same principles.

Who won the Nobel Prizes in 2025?

A quick refresher before this week's names arrive:

Medicine 2025: Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi, for discoveries on peripheral immune tolerance.

Physics 2025: John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis, for macroscopic quantum tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.

Chemistry 2025: Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi, for developing metal-organic frameworks.

Literature 2025: Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai.

Peace 2025: Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.

Economic Sciences 2025: Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, for explaining innovation-driven economic growth.

Why Indian readers follow the Nobel week

India's own Nobel story runs from Rabindranath Tagore, who won the Literature prize in 1913, and physicist C.V. Raman in 1930, to economist Amartya Sen in 1998 and child-rights campaigner Kailash Satyarthi, who shared the Peace Prize in 2014. With every 2026 announcement falling in the Indian afternoon, this is one of the easiest Nobel weeks to follow live from India.

The first name of Nobel week arrives with the medicine prize at 3:00 PM IST today.

Sources: Nobel Foundation press release on the 2026 announcements and NobelPrize.org announcement dates; Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; Norwegian Nobel Committee nominations release (30 April 2026); Reuters factbox (2 October 2026).