How to apply for an IPO on Zerodha Kite (web)

This guide walks through applying for a mainboard Initial Public Offering on the Zerodha Kite web platform at kite.zerodha.com. Kite is the canonical surface Zerodha documents for IPO applications as of mid-2026; the same flow is also available on the Kite mobile app (see the Kite app guide) and historically on Zerodha Console (see the legacy Console guide). For the underlying mechanism see the wiki article on UPI ASBA, and for the regulatory background see Initial Public Offering.

Step-by-step procedure

Sign in to Kite

Navigate to kite.zerodha.com and sign in using your Zerodha client ID and password. Complete two-factor authentication by entering the time-based one-time password generated by your authenticator app, the Kite mobile app’s Forgot 2FA recovery flow or the SMS OTP. The Kite dashboard loads with the marketwatch on the left and the funds, holdings and positions tiles on the right.

If this is your first time using Kite, confirm that the bank account marked as primary in Account → Profile is the same account whose UPI ID will be used for the mandate. The registrar’s third-party verification matches the PAN linked to that bank against the PAN on your demat; a mismatch causes silent rejection of the bid.

Navigate to Bids, then IPO

Click Bids in the top navigation, then select IPO from the sub-navigation. The IPO landing page lists all open issues with the issue name, price band, bid opening and closing dates, minimum lot size, the minimum application amount at the cut-off and an Apply button. Past applications, including their allotment status, are accessible through the Bids → Order history sub-tab.

Open the issue and review the prospectus

Before clicking Apply, click through to the issue detail and review the Red Herring Prospectus (RHP). The RHP link is on the issue card or available directly on the SEBI Public Issues portal. The RHP discloses the company’s business, financials for the preceding three fiscal years, risk factors, the objects of the issue, the promoter holding pattern and the price band justification. The RHP is a legally binding document and is the primary source for diligence — broker-generated summaries are not a substitute.

Click Apply and select investor type

Click the Apply button on the issue card. A bid entry form opens. The investor type field defaults to Individual (retail). Change to Shareholder if you hold shares in the parent company spinning off this issue, Employee if you are an eligible employee of the issuer, or HUF if you are applying as karta of a Hindu Undivided Family. The NII option for bids above ₹2,00,000 is not exposed in the UPI ASBA flow on Zerodha; NII bidders must use bank ASBA via NetBanking.

Enter quantity, bid price and UPI ID

Enter your bid quantity in multiples of the lot size (the form rejects any other value). Enter a price within the price band, or tick the Cut-off option to instruct the registrar to accept whatever price the issue is finally priced at. Cut-off bidding is the common retail strategy because it eliminates the risk of being excluded if the issue is priced at the upper end of the band.

You can place up to three bids per application by clicking Add bid within the form. The amount blocked through the UPI mandate is the highest of the three bid values (the highest quantity times the upper price band, regardless of which price was elected).

Enter your UPI ID in the form username@bank — for example, 9876543210@ybl or rajesh@okaxis. Family-member, business and merchant UPI IDs are rejected by the sponsor bank.

Tick the SEBI undertaking and submit

Tick the SEBI undertaking checkbox. The undertaking confirms that the bid is not a duplicate (you have not also applied for this issue under another PAN), that you satisfy retail-category eligibility, and that the bank account linked to the UPI ID is in your own name with matching PAN.

Click Submit. Zerodha transmits the bid to the exchange and triggers the UPI mandate request through the sponsor bank. Within thirty seconds, the bid status on Kite updates to Pending Mandate. According to Zerodha’s published support note, orders placed between 10 AM and 4:45 PM receive a mandate the same day, while orders placed after 4:45 PM receive a mandate the following day.

Approve the UPI mandate in your UPI app

Your UPI app receives a Block Funds for IPO push notification, typically within thirty seconds. Open the UPI app, navigate to the Pending Requests or Mandate section, and tap the IPO mandate. Review the issuer name, block amount, validity period and beneficiary (the sponsor bank). Enter your four- or six-digit UPI PIN to authorise. The bank places a lien on your savings account; the available balance drops by the block amount while the book balance remains unchanged. The lien continues to earn savings interest.

For the per-UPI-app procedure with screenshots, see How to approve a UPI IPO mandate.

Verify bid status under Bids → Order history

On Kite, click Bids → Order history. The bid card shows the current status. Possible statuses:

• Pending — Bid submitted but the exchange has not yet acknowledged.
• Mandate Pending — Bid acknowledged; UPI mandate has not yet been approved.
• Mandate Accepted — UPI mandate approved; bank lien is in place.
• Modified — Bid revised after initial submission.
• Withdrawn — Bid withdrawn before issue close.
• Rejected — Bid rejected at the exchange, sponsor bank or registrar stage.

The status updates in near-real time. After issue close, the status transitions to Allotted (with the number of shares) or Not Allotted on T+1 once the registrar publishes the basis of allotment.

What can go wrong

• UPI mandate notification does not arrive within 15 minutes. Usually a queue at the sponsor bank during peak subscription. Pull-to-refresh your UPI app’s Pending Requests section, log out and back in, or switch to the bank’s own mobile-banking app where the same mandate is discoverable.
• Mandate rejected with code U16 or ZD. Indicates a duplicate mandate at the sponsor bank. Wait fifteen minutes, withdraw the current bid on Kite, and re-submit.
• Mandate rejected with code U30. An issuer-bank-side technical error. Wait fifteen minutes and re-submit, or try a different UPI ID on the same bank account.
• PAN-mismatch silent rejection. The bid was accepted but the registrar’s third-party verification matched against a PAN that differs from your demat. Update the PAN on your bank account through your bank’s KYC channel and re-apply in a future issue.
• Mandate accepted but block not visible in the bank statement. A propagation lag; resolves within a few hours. The available balance display in the bank app is usually correct even when the holds-and-earmarks line item has not yet posted.
• Bid placed after 4:45 PM on the last day. Mandate may not arrive until the following day; if the next day is past the issue close, the bid is treated as unconfirmed and rejected.

Related guides

• How to apply for an IPO on Kite mobile app — the touch-driven flow
• How to apply for an IPO on Console (legacy)
• How to modify or withdraw an IPO bid on Zerodha
• How to check IPO allotment status on Zerodha
• How to approve a UPI IPO mandate

References

1. How to apply for IPOs and how to stay informed of new ones, Zerodha Support Portal, https://support.zerodha.com/category/trading-and-markets/ipo/ipo-application/articles/how-to-apply-for-ipos-and-how-to-stay-informed-of-new-ones.
2. SEBI Circular SEBI/HO/CFD/TPD1/CIR/P/2023/140 dated 9 August 2023, Reduction of timeline for listing of shares in Public Issue from existing T+6 days to T+3 days.
3. NPCI Circular dated 8 September 2025, Enhancement of UPI Per-Transaction Limits for Capital Markets.