Best GS Notes for UPSC 2027: Vision, Drishti, Vajiram, Shubhra Compared (English and Hindi)

Vision, Drishti, Vajiram and Shubhra Ranjan GS notes for UPSC 2027 compared by medium, edition, booklets and store price.

Competer 12 Nov 2026 9 min read

Students at a long library table with general studies booklets and a cup of chai

For UPSC 2027, there is no single best set of GS notes. The right one depends on your medium and how much reading you can finish. If you prepare in English and want the widest coverage, the Vision IAS GS sets are the largest the store carries (46 to 57 booklets, ₹4999 to ₹7999). Drishti IAS and Vajiram and Ravi offer shorter English sets of 27 booklets (₹4999 and ₹4899). If you prepare in Hindi, choose between Vision IAS Hindi (54 booklets, ₹6999) and Drishti IAS Hindi (18 booklets, ₹3999). Shubhra Ranjan is known for the PSIR optional, not GS, and the store does not stock Shubhra Ranjan GS notes today. The rest of this guide sets the four side by side so you can pick one set and stick to it.

How to read this comparison

This guide compares only what can be checked: the title of each set on the Competer store, the number of booklets, the medium, the edition year and the price on the day this guide was written. It does not rank institutes by results, and it does not quote reviews or counts of buyers, because those cannot be verified honestly.

The syllabus and the scheme of the Civil Services Examination are set by the Union Public Service Commission. The commission publishes the notice for each year on its active examinations page. We could not open that page when this guide was written (12 November 2026), so this guide does not state dates, fees or vacancies for the 2027 cycle. Check the commission’s page for the current notice before you plan your year, and read the syllabus section of that notice once, end to end, before you buy any notes.

Three things matter more than the brand name when you choose a GS set:

Medium. Read in the language you will write the Mains in. Switching between English and Hindi notes wastes revision time.
Volume you can finish. A 57-booklet set read twice beats a 57-booklet set read halfway. Be honest about the hours you have.
Edition year. Static subjects such as history, geography and polity change slowly. Economy, environment and government schemes change every year, so the edition matters most there.

Kartavya Path and India Gate, New Delhi. Photo: Sourabh.biswas003, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

What a GS notes set has to cover

General Studies is the common core that every candidate writes, whatever their optional subject. A complete GS set normally covers history and culture, geography, polity and governance, economy, environment and ecology, science and technology, internal security, international relations, social issues, and ethics. Compare the subject list of any set you are considering against the syllabus in the commission’s notice on the UPSC website; if a topic in the notice has no booklet in the set, you will need another source for it.

Ethics deserves a separate look because many GS sets treat it briefly. Our guide to the UPSC Ethics syllabus and books lists the topics the paper asks for, which helps you judge whether a set’s ethics booklet is enough or whether you need dedicated ethics notes.

Notes do not replace current affairs. Every GS set is a base layer; you still need a monthly current affairs source for the year of your exam. That is why several institutes sell monthly magazines alongside their GS booklets.

Vision IAS GS notes

Vision IAS has the most GS options on the store, in both English and Hindi, and across two edition years.

Vision IAS UPSC CSE 2026–27 Complete GS Notes | Prelims + Mains | 57 Booklets + Freebies at ₹7999 is the largest English set the store carries, covering both Prelims and Mains.
Vision IAS GS 2026-27 Booklets with Value Added Materials – 56 Booklets at ₹6599 is the same edition year with one booklet fewer and a lower price.
Vision IAS Notes – GS 2025-26 Booklets Set of 46 in English at ₹4999 is the previous edition, with fewer booklets.
Vision IAS GS Notes for 2026-27 | Hindi Medium | 54 Booklets at ₹6999 is the current Hindi set.
Vision IAS Hindi Study Material 2025-2026 | Best GS Books at ₹5199 is the previous Hindi edition.

Who it suits: aspirants with a full year ahead who want one set that covers most of the syllabus in detail, and who can commit to reading a large volume. For a 2027 attempt, the 2026-27 edition is the closer match for the dynamic parts of the syllabus; the 2025-26 sets cost less and work for static subjects if you pair them with current affairs.

What to watch: volume. With more than fifty booklets, the risk is not missing a topic but failing to finish revision. Plan your revision cycles before you buy.

Vision IAS also sells monthly current affairs magazines, for example the Vision IAS Current Affairs Magazine January 2026 | English Medium Edition at ₹299 (listed at ₹499), and the Vision IAS Current Affairs Magazine December 2025 | Hindi Medium Edition at ₹225 (listed at ₹599).

Drishti IAS GS notes (English and Hindi)

Drishti IAS is the usual first name for Hindi medium aspirants, and it also has an English set.

Drishti IAS GS Notes in Hindi 2025-26 | 18 Printed Booklets for UPSC CSE at ₹3999. The store also lists Drishti IAS Hindi Study Material 2025-2026 | 18 Booklets for UPSC CSE at the same price of ₹3999; check the contents on both pages before you order so you do not buy the same set twice.
Drishti IAS English Study Material 2025-26 | 27 Printed Booklets for UPSC at ₹4999, also listed as Drishti IAS Notes 2025-26 English GS Printed Booklets Set of 27 at ₹4999.
For ethics in Hindi, there is a separate Drishti IAS Ethics Notes Hindi GS 2025 – 2026 Printed Booklets at ₹488.

Who it suits: Hindi medium aspirants who want a compact GS base, and English medium aspirants who prefer a shorter set they can revise more times. At 18 booklets, the Hindi set is the smallest full GS set in this comparison, which makes it the easiest to finish.

What to watch: the Drishti sets on the store are the 2025-26 edition. For a 2027 attempt, pair them with a current affairs source for the dynamic topics.

Vajiram and Ravi GS notes

Vajiram and Ravi is an English medium institute, and its GS set on the store is in English.

Vajiram GS Notes 2026 | 27 Booklets Edition 2025-2026 English at ₹4899.
Vajiram and Ravi Study Material 2025-2026 | General Studies Booklets Set of 27 at ₹4899. As with Drishti, the two listings have the same booklet count, edition and price; compare the contents before ordering.

Vajiram is also the one institute here that sells subject-wise GS booklets on their own, which helps if you only need to fill a gap:

Vajiram Polity Notes GS Edition 2025-2026 Booklet Set of 2 at ₹788
Vajiram Economy Notes GS 2025-2026 Edition Booklet Set of 2 at ₹788
Vajiram History Notes GS 2025-2026 Edition Booklet Set of 4 at ₹1288
Vajiram Essay Notes GS 2025-2026 Edition English General Studies at ₹488
Vajiram CSAT Complete Booklet Set 2025-26 with Practice Questions at ₹1655

Who it suits: English medium aspirants who want a mid-sized set, and anyone who already has a base and only needs one or two subjects.

What to watch: the store does not stock Vajiram GS notes in Hindi today, so Hindi medium aspirants should look at Drishti or Vision instead.

Shubhra Ranjan: an optional subject, not a GS set

Shubhra Ranjan’s name comes up in GS comparisons, but her material on the store is for the Political Science and International Relations (PSIR) optional, not General Studies. The store does not stock Shubhra Ranjan GS notes today. If PSIR is your optional, the main choices are:

Shubhra Ranjan Notes 2026 | PSIR Optional | English Medium | Set of 4 Booklets at ₹1955
Shubhra Ranjan Handwritten Notes 2026 | PSIR Optional | 11 Booklets at ₹3895
Shubhra Ranjan PSIR Notes 2025-26 Hindi Edition 7 Booklets Printed at ₹1755, for Hindi medium

PSIR overlaps with GS in polity and international relations, so reading these notes helps your GS answers in those areas too. They do not replace a GS set for history, geography, economy, environment or science.

Side-by-side: the full GS sets

Set	Medium	Edition	Booklets	Price
Vision IAS Complete GS Notes	English	2026-27	57	₹7999
Vision IAS GS Booklets with Value Added Materials	English	2026-27	56	₹6599
Vision IAS Notes GS	English	2025-26	46	₹4999
Vision IAS GS Notes Hindi Medium	Hindi	2026-27	54	₹6999
Drishti IAS English Study Material	English	2025-26	27	₹4999
Drishti IAS GS Notes in Hindi	Hindi	2025-26	18	₹3999
Vajiram GS Notes	English	2025-26	27	₹4899
Shubhra Ranjan GS	Not stocked today (PSIR optional only)

Prices are the store prices on the day this guide was written and may change; the product page always shows the current price.

English or Hindi: picking by medium

English medium. You have three real choices. If you want the most coverage and are starting early, take a Vision IAS 2026-27 set. If you want a set you can revise three or four times, take the Drishti IAS or Vajiram 27-booklet set and add current affairs. Do not buy two full English GS sets; the overlap is large, and the second set mostly eats revision time.

Hindi medium. You have two choices. The Vision IAS Hindi 2026-27 set is the larger and more recent one; the Drishti IAS Hindi set is smaller and lower in price. If your time is limited, the smaller set you finish is the better set. Add a Hindi current affairs source in either case.

Gap filling. If you already have notes from coaching or self-study and only one subject feels thin, buy the single subject booklet (for example Vajiram polity or economy) rather than a whole new set.

How to use any GS notes set well

Map the set to the syllabus first. Write the syllabus headings from the commission’s notice on one page and tick off which booklet covers each. Mark the gaps.
Read the standard textbooks alongside. NCERT books give the basic concepts that notes summarise. Free NCERT books, syllabus files and other official material are collected on our free UPSC resources page.
Plan revision before the first reading ends. Fix three revision rounds on your calendar. A large set needs those dates even more than a small one.
Test yourself. Notes are for learning; tests show what you retained. The institutes also sell test series, for example the Vision IAS Prelims Test Series 2026 | UPSC Prelims GS Tests in English Medium at ₹1249 and the Drishti IAS Prelims Test Series Hindi 2026 | UPSC Prelims Test Series in Hindi at ₹899.
Keep current affairs monthly. Add one monthly source and read it in the same month. Catching up on six months at once rarely works.

If you are also preparing for a state civil services exam, much of this GS reading carries over. Our guide to the RPSC RAS syllabus shows how a state exam’s GS overlaps with UPSC.