Aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques and apparatus for enhancing downlink coverage for certain user equipments (UEs) (e.g., low cost, low data rate UEs). Certain types of UEs may have limited coverage or should receive enhanced coverage relative to other types of UEs. For example, some types of low cost UEs may have only a single receive chain, thereby limiting DL coverage, while other types of UEs benefit from multiple receive chains. One example method generally includes identifying a first type of one or more UEs that is to receive enhanced downlink (DL) coverage relative to a second type of UEs and utilizing one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques when communicating with the first type of UEs, the one or more DL coverage enhancement techniques designed to adjust at least for reduced DL processing gain of the first type of UEs relative to the second type of UEs.