The plain answer
IPO allotment is the step that turns an application into a holding. It happens in the gap between the close of bidding and the first day of trading, and a registrar to the issue runs it. The registrar checks that every application is valid, decides which ones receive shares, publishes that decision as the basis of allotment, credits the winners and releases the money held for everybody else.
Nothing you do during the bidding window is a purchase. You bid for a number of lots at a price inside the band, your bank blocks the money, and the registrar either allots you shares or does not. Until the basis of allotment is published you hold no claim on any shares, which is the real difference between applying and buying: a buy on the exchange settles into your account with certainty, while an application is a bid that a draw may or may not accept.
The four days in between are busy ones behind the screen. The registrar validates each bid, removes the duplicates, runs the draw wherever a category is oversubscribed, and prepares the credit file for the depositories. Your money is not sitting with the company while this happens. It stays in your own bank account under a lien for the cap price of the price band, and only a successful allotment turns that lien into a payment.
Two numbers frame a retail application. The category covers bids up to ₹2,00,000 per PAN, and the rules allow one application per PAN per investor category. Applying for an IPO costs ₹0 in brokerage at the brokers compared on this site, so the only thing an application can cost you is the opportunity it briefly ties up.
The timeline, T to T+3
For a mainboard book-built issue, bidding normally runs for three working days, and the last of them is called T. From that close, the rest of the journey runs to a fixed schedule measured in working days, not calendar days.
- T: bidding closes on the exchange platform
- T+1: the registrar finalises the basis of allotment
- T+1: the exchange approves the basis
- T+2: shares credit to the allotted Demat accounts
- T+2: blocked funds release for everyone else
- T+3: the shares list and trading begins
| Day | What happens | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| T | Bidding closes. The registrar begins validating the applications received through the brokers and the exchange platform. | Your application is submitted and the block sits in your bank account at the cap price. |
| T+1 | The registrar finalises the basis of allotment. The exchange approves it the same day. | The allotment status appears on the registrar site and the exchange issue pages. |
| T+2 | Allotted shares are credited to Demat accounts. Unblock instructions go out for every other application. | A debit for the final issue price, or a released block with no debit at all. |
| T+3 | Listing day. Trading begins on the exchange. | The shares can be sold from the opening bell like any other holding. |
This compressed schedule is mandatory. It comes from SEBI circular SEBI/HO/CFD/TPD1/CIR/P/2023/140 dated 9 August 2023, and it applies to issues opening on or after 1 December 2023. Before that, the same journey could stretch to six working days, which meant a week of blocked money for an outcome that was already decided.
Working days stretch the calendar without stretching the process. Each step still happens one working day after the one before it, so an issue that closes on a Friday finalises its basis on the following Monday and lists on the Wednesday. A market holiday does the same thing. When people say allotment is late, they are usually counting calendar days through a weekend.
Who runs the allotment
Not your broker, and not the exchange. The registrar to the issue runs the allotment, and the registrar for a specific issue is named in that issue's offer document. Before the close your broker is the interface: it carries your bid to the exchange platform and raises the UPI mandate that creates the block. Once bidding closes, the broker's part in the process is over.
India's registrar market is concentrated. Two firms handle the bulk of the work: Link Intime, now MUFG Intime India, and KFin Technologies, alongside a small number of other registered registrars. Which one runs your issue is not a choice you make. It is printed in the offer document, and that firm's website is where your result will appear.
- The registrar. Validates every application, removes duplicates and invalid bids, runs the draw, publishes the basis of allotment, credits the shares and releases the blocks.
- The exchange. Hosts the bidding platform, approves the basis of allotment, and hosts the listing once the shares are credited.
- Your bank. Blocks the application amount at the cap price and then executes the debit or the release, on the registrar's instructions.
- Your broker. Carries your bid before the close, shows the result in the app afterwards, and has no role in the draw itself.
How the draw works
Where the retail category is oversubscribed, allotment runs as a computerised random draw on the basis of allotment. Where the category is not oversubscribed, applicants are allotted in full or on a proportionate basis. The draw is not a person picking names from a list. The registrar runs the software across the set of valid applications, and the exercise happens in the presence of the exchange and the registrar so that the result can be audited afterwards.
Invalid applications never reach the draw. Applications that fail third-party verification, duplicates under one PAN, bids outside the lot size and bids whose mandate was never approved are taken out before the software runs. That is why the number of applications a registrar draws from is almost always smaller than the headline count that circulated during the bidding window.
The odds are arithmetic rather than skill. Retail shares on offer divided by the number of valid retail applications gives the chance that any one application is drawn. The subscription figure in your broker app is the live version of that fraction, and it is the only meaningful predictor of your result. Nothing about the company, nothing about the hour you applied and nothing about the size of your bid moves it.
The price you bid does have one effect, and it is a cliff rather than a slope. A retail bid at the cut-off price accepts whatever price the book discovers, so it is always at or below the final issue price and stays in the draw. A bid below the discovered price cannot be allotted at a price the bidder did not agree to, so the money comes back instead. Within the band, bidding higher does not improve your chance of being drawn.
Why small bids are favoured
Inside the retail category, the allotment process tries first to give at least one lot to as many applicants as possible before it gives a second lot to anyone. A person who applied for one lot is therefore not standing behind a person who applied for ten. The draw decides who is in that first pass, and the first pass decides who receives shares.
The arithmetic shows why the design matters. Suppose the retail portion of an issue holds 5,00,000 shares and the lot size is 50 shares, so 10,000 lots are available. If 40,000 valid retail applications arrive, the first pass can make 10,000 of them whole with one lot each, and there is nothing left for a second pass. Every winner gets exactly one lot, and any single application stands a one in four chance. Had only 8,000 applications arrived, all of them would receive a full lot and the remaining 2,000 lots would be spread as extra lots on top. Same issue, same lot size, and a completely different outcome driven only by how many people applied.
The retail cap and the one-application rule set the boundaries of this. The ₹2,00,000 ceiling per PAN is what keeps an application in the retail category where the small-bid priority applies, and the one-application-per-PAN-per-category rule means a second bid does not buy a second chance: duplicates are treated as invalid and removed before the draw. The design deliberately closes off both of the levers people reach for first, which is more money and more applications.
Read the subscription number with that in mind. A retail category subscribed ten times over does not mean a ten-lot bid has ten times the prospect of a one-lot bid. It means roughly one application in ten can be made whole, and most of the winners will hold one lot.
How to check your status
Once the exchange approves the basis of allotment on T+1, the result becomes public in three places: the registrar's own website, the NSE and BSE issue pages, and your broker's app. The registrar's page is the primary record, because it is the one that also gives the reason when an application was rejected.
The registrar page asks for one of two identifiers: your PAN, or the application number from your bid. You pick the issue from a list, enter the identifier, and the page returns the shares allotted to you or the reason there are none. The application number is the more precise of the two, so keep the confirmation your broker sent when you applied. The PAN route works when you no longer have it, though it returns a single line for the PAN rather than one line per application.
Expect the pages to crawl on the evening of T+1, when a large part of the country checks at the same hour. Refreshing changes nothing: the result is published once for the issue. If a registrar page shows no record of your application at all, the likeliest explanation is that the application never completed, most often because the UPI mandate was not approved before the close, in which case the block will simply release.
DematOpen's own records carry the registrar named in each offer document alongside the rest of the issue details, so the site that will publish your result is known before you apply. The block movement in your bank account is the second confirmation, and the status page and the bank statement should agree. When they do not, that mismatch is the thing to raise.
Allotted, not allotted, rejected
Three outcomes exist, and two of them usually look identical in a bank statement. Read the status line before you read the balance.
| Result | What it means | What happens to your money |
|---|---|---|
| Allotted | The application was valid and the draw selected it. You receive the number of shares shown. | The final issue price is debited on T+2, and any gap between the cap-price block and that price releases. Shares are credited the same day. |
| Not allotted | The application was valid, entered the draw, and was not selected. | The entire block lifts. Nothing is debited and no shares are credited. This is a non-allotment, not a rejection. |
| Rejected | The application was invalid: a PAN mismatch, a duplicate under one PAN, a bid that broke the lot rule, or an unapproved mandate. | The block lifts exactly as it does for a non-allotment. The application is treated as though it had never been made. |
A non-allotment means the system worked and your number did not come up. A rejection means the process stopped before your application reached the draw, and there is a reason attached to it. That reason is worth reading, because it is usually fixable the next time. A PAN mismatch almost always traces to the PAN registered with the bank account that the UPI ID belongs to, and a duplicate usually traces to a second application made in another app under the same PAN.
Neither outcome costs you money. A rejected application releases its block in full, and a non-allotment does the same, so the financial result of every failure is identical and neutral. What differs is what you learn from it.
One further point settles most arguments. An allotment becomes final when the basis is published. There is no waiting list behind the draw, no way to appeal it, and no reserve of shares that the registrar can hand out later. The registrar cannot allot shares the category does not contain, and an exchange that has approved a basis does not reopen it.
What happens to your money
ASBA means Application Supported by Blocked Amount, and the phrase is literal. When you apply, the bank puts a lien on the application amount instead of transferring it. The money stays in your account as your money. The block is placed at the cap price of the price band, the highest price the issue could price at, so the bank holds the worst case rather than the likely one.
- You apply: the bank blocks lot size multiplied by the cap price
- The block sits as a lien; the money stays in your account
- T+1: the registrar publishes the basis of allotment
- Allotted: the issue price is debited, the difference releases
- Not allotted: the block lifts in full, with no debit at all
- T+2: the shares reach the Demat account behind the bid
On allotment, two movements happen on T+2. The final issue price is debited from your account, and the difference between that price and the cap-price block is released. An issue that prices at the floor of its band releases the widest difference; one that prices at the cap releases nothing, because the block and the price are then the same number.
On a non-allotment, one movement happens: the lien is lifted. The money never left your account, so there is no refund to chase and no incoming credit to match against anything. It also means a failed application costs you nothing beyond the days the money was unavailable and the chance you did not get.
The money side is the part of the process with a deadline attached. The same SEBI circular that set the four-day schedule makes delays in releasing application money compensable to the applicant, counted from T+3. In practice the release runs on the same clock as the credit, so a block still sitting in your account on the weekend after listing is worth a call to the registrar.
From your Demat to listing day
Allotted shares arrive on T+2 in the Demat account you wrote into the application. Not a new account, and not the broker's own books: the DP ID and client ID on the bid are where the shares land, which is why the form asks for them and why a PAN mismatch between the application and the Demat account stops a credit.
The holding appears as the new issue's ISIN alongside everything else you own. The holdings screen in your broker app usually shows it first, sometimes within hours of the credit file reaching the depository, and the monthly consolidated account statement records it in the ordinary way at month end. There is nothing to dematerialise here, because an IPO allotment is created in electronic form.
On T+3 the shares list and trading begins. From that morning they are ordinary shares: the same order types, the same T+1 settlement on a sale, the same DP charge when you sell that day. Retail shares carry no lock-in, so nothing prevents a sale from the opening bell. Anchor investors in the same issue do have a lock-in, which is why the shares that reach the market on listing day are never the whole issue.
The listing price is a market result, discovered from the orders that gather before the first trade, and it can open above or below the price you paid. The issue price is what the allotment cost you; the listing price is what the market will pay that morning. The difference between the two is where the entire risk of an IPO application lives, and no part of the allotment process tells you which way it will land.
The capital gains clock starts at allotment rather than at listing, so a sale on listing day is a short-term gain. Whether to sell is a separate question from how the machinery works, and no part of this page answers it.
If the issue is withdrawn
An issuer can pull a public issue before allotment. When that happens, no basis of allotment is finalised, no draw runs and no shares are credited, because the shares were never issued. Every block raised for that issue releases in full, whether or not the application would have been drawn.
Nothing is required from you to make it happen. The release follows the same route as a non-allotment: the registrar instructs the unblock and the bank lifts the lien. An application form has no second signature to withdraw it, and a withdrawn issue needs none, which is why no one ends up chasing a refund.
The withdrawal is announced through the exchange and shown on the registrar's site, so the status page that would have carried your result carries the withdrawal instead. If you want it in writing for your records, that page is where to find it.
Withdrawals are rare, and they are a different event from a weak listing. An issue that lists below its issue price completed normally: the allotment was valid, the shares are yours, and the market simply disagreed with the price. Only a withdrawal leaves you with nothing at all, and it returns your blocked money in full when it happens.
What people usually get wrong
The broker or the exchange decides who gets shares
The registrar to the issue runs the allotment, and the registrar is named in the offer document. The broker carries your bid before the close; the exchange approves the basis and hosts the listing.
Not allotted means my application was rejected
A non-allotment means the application was valid and the draw passed over it. A rejection means the application was invalid and never entered the draw. Both release your money, so only the status line tells the two apart.
Applying for more lots gives me more chances
The process tries to give one lot to as many applicants as possible before giving anyone a second. Extra lots change the size of your holding if you are drawn, not your odds of being drawn.
My application money has gone to the company
Under ASBA the bank blocks the amount at the cap price and the money stays in your account. It moves only on allotment, when the final issue price is debited and the difference releases.
Allotted shares come with a lock-in
Retail shares carry no lock-in and can be sold from listing day. Lock-ins apply to other categories, most visibly the anchor investors who were allotted before the public issue opened.
Questions people ask
The registrar to the issue runs the allotment. Your broker carries your bid to the exchange platform before the issue closes and shows you the result afterwards, but it has no role in the draw itself. The registrar is named in the offer document, and its website is where the basis of allotment is published.
No, and the difference matters. Not allotted means your application was valid, entered the draw, and was not picked. Rejected means the application was invalid and never reached the draw, usually for a PAN mismatch, a duplicate under the same PAN, a bid that broke the lot-size rule, or an unapproved UPI mandate. Both release your money, so the bank statement looks the same either way. The status line is where the difference shows.
Not your chance of getting at least one lot. Within the retail category the allotment process tries first to give one lot to as many applicants as possible before it gives a second lot to anyone. So a ten-lot application does not jump ahead of a one-lot application. Extra lots change how much you hold if you are drawn, not whether you are drawn.
On T+2, one working day after the basis of allotment is finalised. If you are allotted, the final issue price is debited and the gap between that price and the cap-price block releases. If you are not allotted, the whole block lifts with no debit at all, because under ASBA the money was blocked in your own account rather than paid to the issuer.
The registrar site for that issue takes either your PAN or your application number. The NSE and BSE issue pages publish the basis of allotment as well, and the broker app usually shows the same result. The status goes live once the exchange approves the basis on T+1, and it does not change after that, however often you refresh.
No basis of allotment is finalised and nothing is allotted, because the shares were never issued. Every block raised for that issue releases in full, and it releases on its own: the registrar instructs the unblock and the bank lifts the lien without anything being required from you. Check the registrar site if you want the withdrawal in writing.
Where to go next
The allotment sits in the middle of the story. Before it come the application and the UPI mandate that creates the block, and after it come the credit, the listing and whatever you decide to do with the shares. The pages below cover both ends.
Sources
- Securities and Exchange Board of India. Circular SEBI/HO/CFD/TPD1/CIR/P/2023/140 dated 9 August 2023, which reduced the timeline for listing public issues to T+3. Accessed 14 September 2026.
- National Stock Exchange of India. “Upcoming issues and IPO allotment information.” Accessed 14 September 2026.
- BSE Limited. “Public issues: IPO and the basis of allotment.” Accessed 14 September 2026.
- KFin Technologies Limited. “IPO allotment status.” Accessed 14 September 2026.