Boston Marathon qualifying times for 2027 and 2028

The B.A.A. says the qualifying standards for the 2028 Boston Marathon are the same as those used for 2027 registration. Your age group is your age on race day, April 17, 2028, not your age when you run the qualifying race. Times are judged on net (chip) time, and the 2028 qualifying window opened on September 19, 2026.

The standards, with the pace each one needs in miles and kilometres, are in the table at the top of this page; the B.A.A. publishes identical times for women and non-binary athletes. The pace is ours, not the B.A.A.'s: the standard divided by the marathon distance. For the splits behind any standard, the marathon pace chart covers every realistic finish time, and 3-hour marathon pace works through the men's 35 to 39 standard in detail.

Looking for a race to run it in? Our BQ Course Index sorts US marathons for a Boston qualifier by net drop, start-line temperature and the B.A.A. downhill penalty.

Source: Boston Athletic Association: Qualify and the B.A.A.'s 2027 registration update, checked 10 October 2026. The current standards were announced on 16 September 2024. Always confirm against the B.A.A. before you plan a qualifying race.

Because more people qualify than the field can hold, the B.A.A. accepts the fastest applicants relative to their standard and publishes, after the fact, how far under the standard you needed to be. That margin is the cut-off. It is the number that actually decided entry.

The other two US majors handle this differently. Chicago runs no cut-off, so a verified time inside its standard is a guaranteed entry (Chicago Marathon qualifying times), while New York ranks non-NYRR qualifiers per category and publishes the margin afterwards, as Boston does: 22:52 for the 2026 race and 13:20 for 2025, per NYRR's March 4, 2026 release (NYC Marathon qualifying times).

Across 2024 to 2027, 40,269 runners who had met their qualifying standard were not accepted. Only 2022 and 2023 had a cut-off of zero. Source: the B.A.A.'s non-accepted qualifiers table on its qualify page, checked 10 October 2026.

How to use this without guessing

Nobody can tell you the 2028 cut-off in advance. It depends on how many people apply, and the B.A.A. publishes it only after registration closes. The record supports a planning margin, not a prediction: the last four cut-offs were 5:29, 6:51, 4:34 and 5:17, an average of 5:33, and a margin of 7:00 would have cleared every cut-off from 2022 to 2027 (the largest was 6:51).

The deficit is the same for every age group. The 2027 cut-off of 5:17 took 2:55:00 down to 2:49:43 for an 18-34 man and 4:00:00 down to 3:54:43 for a 55-59 woman. In pace terms, 5:17 over the marathon is 7.5 seconds per kilometre, or 12.1 seconds per mile.

Since the 2027 registration cycle, qualifying times run on steeply net-downhill courses have time added after submission. The B.A.A. defines net-downhill as the elevation difference between the start and finish.

• 1,500 to 2,999 feet (457.2 to 914.1 m) of net drop: +5:00 added to your submitted time.
• 3,000 to 5,999 feet (914.2 to 1,828.5 m): +10:00 added.
• 6,000 feet (1,828.6 m) or more: the course is not allowed for Boston qualifying.

It is already biting. The B.A.A. reports that 240 of the qualifying times accepted for 2027 came from events that incurred a net-downhill index, and a five-minute index is almost the whole 2027 cut-off of 5:17.

For 2028 the B.A.A. gives two signals. Its qualify page says the indexes will be in place “for at least the next two years”; its 2027 registration update says they “are subject to change ahead of the 2028 registration period.” Check the current rule before you book a downhill race.

A qualifying time only counts if the race itself meets the B.A.A.'s criteria. The requirements it publishes are:

• The course must be certified by USA Track and Field, AIMS, or the national governing body for distance running in the country where it is held, attesting to the exact 26.2-mile distance.
• It must be a full marathon. Shorter distances are never accepted, whatever the equivalent-performance argument.
• Three or more officially entered competitors.
• The event must have been advertised and promoted before race day.
• Transponder timing as the official timing device. Failing that, written 5K checkpoint check-sheets supplemented by video of runners on course and at the finish.
• Run outdoors.

Explicitly not accepted: time trials, handicapped marathons, treadmill marathons, indoor marathons and virtual marathons. An Ironman marathon leg counts only if that leg is separately timed and certified at the exact distance. If a course has been altered since its last certification it must be re-measured and re-certified before the next running.

The B.A.A. also notes that it does not maintain a list of certified races: you contact the event directly to confirm. All times are subject to review and verification, and you are not entered until that verification completes.

The qualifying window for the 2028 race opened on September 19, 2026 and runs through the end of registration week in September 2027. The B.A.A. will announce exact 2028 registration dates after the 2027 race on April 19, 2027.

For 2027, qualifier registration ran September 14-18, 2026 in the B.A.A.'s Athletes' Village platform and was not first-come, first-served. The B.A.A. received 33,649 qualifier applications for a race whose total field, including charity and invited runners, is set at 30,000. It accepted 24,630 qualifiers who were at least 5:17 under their standard, drew 1,000 more in the new Boston Qualifier Selection (a random draw among qualifiers who missed the cut-off) and could not accept 8,019. Source: the B.A.A.'s acceptance announcement of 29 September 2026.