Almost every guide to this question is a funnel to open a broking account. This one is not, and there are no broker links anywhere on this site. What follows is the process itself, which is set by SEBI and the exchanges and works the same way whichever app you use.
What you need before you can apply at all:
- A demat account, which is where allotted shares are credited. No demat account, no application.
- A PAN, and it must match the demat account. A mismatch is one of the most common rejection reasons.
- A bank account with UPI, or net banking with a bank that offers ASBA. This is where the money is blocked.
There are two routes and the difference is only who blocks the money. Through a broker app you enter the bid and approve a UPI mandate in your UPI app, and your bank blocks the amount. Through your own bank net banking you use ASBA directly and the bank blocks it without a mandate step. The application reaching the exchange is identical either way.
When you bid, three things are yours to choose. The number of lots, which must be at least one, because you apply in lots and not in single shares. The price, anywhere inside the band. And whether to bid at cut-off, which only retail investors may do: it means you accept whatever final price is set, usually the cap, and it is the option that maximises the chance of a valid application.
The category you land in is decided by the size of your application, not by anything you choose. Up to Rs 2 lakh is retail. Above Rs 2 lakh is the non-institutional category, the NII or HNI bucket, which is allotted proportionately rather than by lottery. On an SME issue the lot size is much larger, so a single lot can already push you past the retail limit.
One application per PAN. A second one on the same PAN gets both rejected rather than doubling your chances, and the registrar checks this. Separate eligible people, each with their own PAN and demat account, are separate applications.
Now the part that most surprises first-time applicants: the money is blocked, not paid. It stays in your account, earns whatever interest it was earning, and you cannot use it for anything else until allotment is done. If you get no shares it is simply unblocked. If you get a partial allotment, only that part is debited and the rest is released.
Two deadlines are worth knowing, and they are not the same deadline. The issue closes at a time the exchange sets on the last bidding day. Your broker will stop accepting applications earlier than that, and the UPI mandate has its own approval window shown in your UPI app. An application entered in time but with a mandate never approved is not an application. It is the most common way a bid quietly fails.
Until the issue closes, a retail bid can be revised or withdrawn. After it closes, retail can still withdraw but institutional bidders cannot, which is one reason the final subscription figures can move after the last day.
After that the sequence is fixed and out of your hands: the registrar decides allotment, unblocked amounts are released, shares are credited to the demat accounts that got them, and the stock lists. Allotment when an issue is oversubscribed is a lottery in the retail category, which is a separate mechanism worth understanding on its own.
Where to check anything that matters: the registrar named in the offer document publishes the allotment status, and the exchange publishes the basis of allotment. Those are the primary sources. A forwarded message claiming an allotment is not.