The plain answer
Shares move between demat accounts two ways: an off-market transfer of specific securities, authorised with your TPIN, and a broker-assisted portfolio transfer that moves the entire account. The off-market route suits partial moves and gifting; the portfolio route suits switching brokers. Both follow the same sequence: open the destination account first, transfer second, close the source third.
One definition clears most of the confusion around this topic: off-market means outside the exchange, not outside the depository. The transfer still runs through the depository systems, still uses your TPIN as the authorisation, and still appears on your CAS. The exchange is simply not part of the chain, because no trade takes place.
The two routes
| Route | What moves | Typical cost | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Off-market transfer | Specific securities and quantities | ₹100 or 1.5%, whichever is lower, plus stamp duty, at Upstox | Partial moves, gifting to family |
| Portfolio transfer | The entire account’s holdings | Commonly no per-scrip fee; confirm with the broker | Switching brokers |
The decision between the two is a size decision. If fewer than all holdings move, only the off-market route fits, because the portfolio route is all-or-nothing. If everything moves, the portfolio route is usually the cheaper and simpler one, since a single bulk instruction replaces a stack of per-scrip requests.
The routes also combine. The common pattern when switching brokers is: run the portfolio route for the bulk, then pick up any stragglers that failed or were excluded with an off-market transfer afterwards. Nothing forces a single attempt, and a failed scrip on the portfolio route is a small fix, not a restart.
The off-market transfer
You fill the transfer instruction in the app or a form with the receiving BO ID, the securities and quantities, and authorise the debit with your TPIN. The receiving DP may require an acceptance from the receiver. The transfer settles within a few working days, and the CAS confirms the movement on both sides.
The fee is the DP’s off-market charge: ₹100 or 1.5% of the transfer value, whichever is lower, at Upstox, plus stamp duty on the transfer instrument. The TPIN is the same code that authorises every demat debit, covered in the TPIN guide; a transfer to another account is simply one more exit from your demat, so it goes through the same gate.
The receiver’s side is mostly passive: the receiving DP may ask for an acceptance of the incoming securities, after which the credit lands. The receiver never needs the sender’s TPIN, because the code guards exits, not entrances. A receiver who is asked for the sender’s TPIN is looking at a red flag, not a step.
The flow itself lives in two places, depending on your broker. Most brokers put the off-market transfer inside their own app under a transfer or portfolio section. The depository also runs its own channels, CDSL’s Easiest facility being the long-standing one for CDSL accounts. Whichever surface you use, the pieces are the same: receiver BO ID, securities, quantities, and your TPIN at the debit.
One granularity note before you start: the fee applies per request, so batching matters. Moving three stocks in one instruction is one request and one fee; moving them across three instructions is three. The instruction can carry multiple securities at once at most brokers, so group the move before you submit rather than dribbling it out.
One mechanical note on quantities: demat records hold whole units, so the instruction moves whole shares, and an entry that exceeds your free balance rejects rather than partially executing. Nothing moves unless the instruction matches what the account actually holds, which is the same reason the debits never silently lose quantity.
The DIS era and the TPIN
Off-market transfers were once a paper job. You filled a Delivery Instruction Slip, the DIS, signed it, and handed it to the broker, who submitted it to the depository. The slip worked, but it was slow, physical, and vulnerable to exactly the kind of misuse that paper instructions invite, because a signed slip in the wrong hands is an instruction in the wrong hands.
SEBI’s move to the TPIN in 2020 replaced the slip with a per-transaction authorisation you enter yourself in the app. The broker carries your instruction to the depository, but only an instruction you authorised in the session itself can move. The change is the same one covered in the TPIN guide, applied to transfers: the authority for every debit now lives with you at the moment of the transaction, not on a piece of paper in a drawer.
The practical upshot: an off-market transfer today needs no courier, no signature scan, no physical visit. The app carries the instruction, the TPIN authorises it, and the CAS confirms it. The paper route survives only as a fallback where a DP still accepts it.
The transfer, step by step
- Open the destination account and note its BO ID
- Start the transfer in the source broker app
- Enter the securities, quantities and the receiver’s BO ID
- Authorise the debit with your TPIN
- The receiver accepts where the receiving DP requires it
- Settlement within a few working days, confirmed on the CAS
Two steps in that chain cause most of the support tickets. The BO ID must be the receiver’s 16-digit demat account number, not their client ID, and the two look similar enough to mix up. And the receiver’s name on the instruction must match the name on their PAN record exactly, because the depository validates the credit against the record it holds.
If you are moving everything to a new broker, the sequence shortens to: open the new account, run the portfolio transfer, close the old account. The same three steps, different route, same discipline.
What the receiver does
The receiver’s job is small but real. On the source side, the sender needs the receiver’s 16-digit BO ID and the name exactly as it appears on the receiver’s PAN record, which is the detail that decides whether the credit lands or bounces. On the destination side, the receiving DP may push an acceptance notification for the incoming securities, which the receiver confirms in their own app.
After settlement, the receiver’s confirmation is the CAS: the holdings appear in the destination account’s statement with the original acquisition details intact. Nothing on the receiver’s side costs anything, and nothing requires the receiver to know the sender’s TPIN or credentials. The receiver is the address, not the authoriser.
Costs, worked out
The off-market fee at Upstox is ₹100 or 1.5% of the transfer value, whichever is lower. The break-even sits at ₹6,667: below that, 1.5% is cheaper than ₹100; above it, the flat ₹100 wins. Two worked examples:
| Transfer value | 1.5% of value | Fee charged |
|---|---|---|
| ₹5,000 | ₹75 | ₹75 (the percentage) |
| ₹25,000 | ₹375 | ₹100 (the flat fee) |
| ₹1,00,000 | ₹1,500 | ₹100 (the flat fee) |
Stamp duty applies on top, on the transfer instrument, as required under state stamp laws. For a move between your own accounts the consideration is often nil, and the DP applies the applicable duty on the instrument; confirm the exact amount on the broker’s pricing page before submitting, so the charge on the statement never surprises you.
The portfolio route changes the arithmetic entirely: because the whole account moves as one instruction, brokers commonly process it without the per-scrip transfer fee. That makes the portfolio route not just simpler but usually free of the fee column above, which is why switching brokers is its natural job.
One more cost sits quietly beside both routes: nothing on the transfer carries brokerage, STT or exchange charges, because no trade takes place. The movement is a depository transaction, not an exchange transaction, which is why the sell-and-rebuy alternative in the next section looks so poor by comparison: it pays all three layers to accomplish what the transfer does for the fee above.
The portfolio transfer
The portfolio route moves everything in one instruction, which is how people switch brokers without transferring scrip by scrip. Because it is a bulk movement, brokers commonly process it without the per-scrip transfer fee, and the confirmation arrives as a single CAS change rather than a dozen debits. The route is the practical answer to “I want to move to another broker”: it is the standard, discounted path for exactly that job.
One limitation defines the route: it is all-or-nothing. Part of the holdings cannot stay behind, so the move only makes sense when the old account will be closed. If the plan is to keep both accounts running, use the off-market route for the shares that move and leave the rest in place.
Two more boundaries are worth naming. The portfolio route moves securities holdings; the cash lying in the trading account is not part of it, so withdraw the balance or let the quarterly settlement sweep return it before closing. And the route needs a clean account: pledged shares, frozen shares or pending corporate actions have to settle first, because a bulk instruction can only carry what is actually free to move.
The three-step sequence
Step one, open the destination account and note its BO ID. The destination must exist before anything moves, because the transfer instruction names it. Opening at Upstox is paperless and takes about 15 minutes, so this step is the quickest part of the whole move.
Step two, run the transfer, either route, and confirm on the CAS. The CAS is the receipt: when the holdings show up in the destination account’s statement and vanish from the source’s, the move is complete. Do not close anything until both statements agree.
Step three, close the source account and keep the closure acknowledgment, which ends its AMC obligation. Skipping step three is the expensive habit: the old account keeps billing while the holdings have already left. The closure guide covers the request itself, including the zero-holdings and zero-balance precondition.
The sequence has one built-in checkpoint: the CAS agreement between the two sides. Before closure, the destination statement must show the holdings arriving and the source statement must show them gone. A mismatch, something still sitting in the source, something missing at the destination, is the signal to chase the transfer reference with both brokers before closing anything. The closure is the last step precisely because it is the irreversible one.
The whole sequence costs nothing to rehearse: the destination account opens free, the transfer is the fee table above, and the closure is free. The expensive versions of this process are all versions that skip the order, closing first, transferring into nothing, leaving the old account open forever. The order is the discipline, and the discipline is free.
Transfer vs sell
The question behind many transfer requests is really this: should I sell in the old account and buy again in the new one? The comparison answers itself once the costs are laid side by side.
| Aspect | Transfer | Sell and rebuy |
|---|---|---|
| Capital gains | None, it is not a sale | Triggered, with tax on the gain |
| Holding period | Carries over | Resets to zero |
| Acquisition cost | Carries over | Resets to the new price |
| Brokerage and statutory charges | None on the movement | Buy and sell brokerage, STT, stamp duty, DP charge |
| Market risk | None, the shares simply move | Exposed between the sell and the rebuy |
The transfer wins every row, which is why the sequence on this page exists. Selling to move money across brokers converts a bookkeeping move into a taxable event, plus two rounds of trading costs, plus the risk of the price moving between the two trades. Transfer the shares; sell only when a sell is what you actually want.
The honest exception: if you plan to exit the position anyway, selling in the old account and buying nothing in the new one is one trade instead of a transfer plus a later trade, and it skips the transfer fee entirely. The choice is exit versus relocation. Exit once, sell; relocate, transfer. Mixing the two, selling to rebuy the same stock in the new account, is the only version with no defence.
Edge cases
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Name mismatch on the receiver | The credit is held or rejected until the record matches the PAN name |
| Pledged or frozen shares | They cannot move; the pledge or freeze must clear first |
| Cross-depository move | The transfer works across NSDL and CDSL; the BO ID is what validates |
| Gifting to a family member | Runs the same off-market route; tax treatment depends on relationship and value |
| Partial transfer | Only the specified securities and quantities move |
The frozen-shares rule is worth underlining: a pledge is a charge, and a freeze is a block, and neither yields to a transfer instruction. Unpledge or clear the freeze first, then the shares become free balance and the normal route applies.
The gifting row carries one tax footnote. When shares move to a family member, the transfer itself is usually not a sale, but whether the gift attracts tax depends on the relationship and the value, and the receiver inherits your original cost and holding period. Work that out with a CA before the transfer, not after; the capital gains page explains the sale-side mechanics for when the gifted shares are eventually sold.
The cross-depository row is the one that surprises people, so it gets a sentence more: a move from an NSDL account to a CDSL account, or the reverse, runs the same instruction flow, and the depositories reconcile the movement between their systems. The BO ID on the instruction is what identifies the destination, not the depository brand, which is why the ID and the name on it are the only two fields that really have to be right.
What people usually get wrong
Transferring shares is a taxable sale
Moving between your own accounts is not a sale. The cost and holding period carry over, and tax applies later when you actually sell.
I can transfer without the destination account ready
The receiving BO ID must exist and be valid. The destination account opens first, always.
The old account closes itself after the transfer
Closure is a separate request, and its AMC runs until then. The acknowledgment is the document that ends it.
Off-market means the transfer skips the depository
Off-market means outside the exchange. The movement still runs through the depository systems with your TPIN, and it still appears on the CAS.
Questions people ask
A transfer between two of your own demat accounts is not a sale, so no capital gains arise, and the acquisition cost and holding period carry over. A transfer to a family member may be a gift for tax purposes depending on the relationship and amount, which is your CA’s territory, not this page’s. Moving shares never resets your cost basis; only selling does.
The off-market transfer settles within a few working days after both sides authorise: the sender with the TPIN and the receiver with an acceptance where the DP requires it. The broker-assisted portfolio route can take a little longer because it moves the entire account at once. The CAS on both sides confirms the movement when it completes, so the statement is the receipt.
The DP’s off-market transfer fee applies per request: ₹100 or 1.5% of the transfer value, whichever is lower, at Upstox, plus stamp duty on the off-market instrument. Broker-assisted portfolio transfers are commonly processed without the per-scrip fee; confirm before choosing the route. The cost section below works out where the ₹100 flat fee beats the percentage.
Yes. The off-market route transfers specific securities and quantities, which suits partial moves and gifting. The portfolio route moves everything, which suits switching brokers. There is no minimum quantity on the off-market route; one share moves as easily as a thousand.
Use the off-market route when only some securities move, or when the two accounts will keep running side by side. Use the portfolio route when the whole account is moving to a new broker and the old one will be closed. The routes are not rivals; they are different tools for different sizes of move.
Yes, and the common causes are fixable: a receiver name that does not match the PAN record, a wrong BO ID, insufficient free balance, or a freeze on the source account. A failed instruction means nothing moved, not that anything was lost. Correct the mismatch and re-run; debits only happen on a verified instruction.
Sources
- Upstox. “Brokerage charges,” off-market transfer fees. Accessed 16 August 2026.
- Central Depository Services (India) Limited. “Official website , depository services,” transfer documentation. Accessed 16 August 2026.
- National Securities Depository Limited. “Official website , depository services,” transfer documentation. Accessed 16 August 2026.
- Securities and Exchange Board of India. “Legal framework , circulars,” demat debit and transfer authorisation. Accessed 16 August 2026.