Who can use UPI ASBA for an IPO
UPI ASBA for IPOs is restricted by SEBI to resident individual investors, and to Hindu Undivided Families applying through the karta, for an application value up to the Rs 5,00,000 per-transaction UPI limit. Everyone else, applicants bidding above that limit, non-individuals such as companies and trusts, Qualified Institutional Buyers, and Non-Resident Indians, applies through bank ASBA instead. This article sets out the eligibility line precisely, the amount thresholds that interact with it, the own-account rule that catches even eligible applicants, and the bank ASBA route for those who fall outside.
The restriction is a SEBI design choice, not a broker limitation. When SEBI made UPI the retail payment route for public issues, it confined the UPI mechanism to individual applicants to keep the rail simple and the verification tight. The result is a clean test: an individual bidding within Rs 5,00,000 on their own account can use UPI; cross any of those three boundaries, the amount, the applicant type, or the residency, and the UPI route closes.
Who can use UPI ASBA
Resident individual investors
A resident individual applying for shares in their own name, through a broker such as Zerodha , is the core eligible applicant. SEBI’s UPI-in-ASBA FAQ states plainly that only retail individual investors are allowed to use UPI for payment in public issues. The applicant enters a UPI ID mapped to their own bank account, the registrar verifies the PAN match, and the bank blocks the money under a UPI mandate . For the at-a-glance category placement, a bid up to Rs 2,00,000 is the retail individual investor (RII) band.
HUFs through the karta
A Hindu Undivided Family can apply through UPI ASBA where the karta uses a UPI ID mapped to the HUF’s own bank account, registered under the HUF PAN that matches the HUF demat. The HUF is treated within the individual-applicant bracket for the UPI route through the karta’s operation, within the same Rs 5,00,000 limit. In practice many HUF bidders use bank ASBA because the HUF NetBanking flow is familiar, but the UPI route is open to a HUF folio that meets the own-account and PAN-match conditions.
Amount thresholds that bound eligibility
Eligibility to use UPI is not only about applicant type; it is also bounded by the amount, where two separate ceilings interact.
| Bid value | UPI usable | SEBI investor category |
|---|---|---|
| Up to Rs 2,00,000 | Yes | Retail individual investor (RII) |
| Above Rs 2,00,000 up to Rs 5,00,000 | Yes | Non-Institutional Investor (NII), small |
| Above Rs 5,00,000 | No, use bank ASBA | NII |
The Rs 5,00,000 figure is the NPCI per-transaction cap for the IPO and capital-market category, raised to that level on 9 December 2021. The Rs 2,00,000 figure is the SEBI ICDR retail ceiling. The gap between them is the source of a common surprise: a bid of, say, Rs 3,50,000 is technically deliverable on UPI but is no longer a retail bid. SEBI’s FAQ confirms that applications where the amount exceeds Rs 2,00,000 and is up to Rs 5,00,000 are considered under the Non-Institutional Investor category. So an individual using UPI above Rs 2,00,000 competes in the NII pool , not the retail pool, and loses the retail-reservation and small-bid allotment advantages. See small-HNI versus big-HNI for how the NII sub-bands work.
Who cannot use UPI ASBA
Anyone bidding above Rs 5,00,000
No UPI app or bank can carry a mandate above Rs 5,00,000. A big-HNI applicant bidding several lakh or more must use bank ASBA on NetBanking, where the bank acts as the SCSB and there is no NPCI per-transaction cap. How to apply for an IPO without UPI on Kite covers this route for Zerodha bidders.
Non-individuals and QIBs
Companies, partnership firms, LLPs, trusts, societies, and Foreign Portfolio Investors are not individual applicants and cannot use the UPI route. Qualified Institutional Buyers apply through the syndicate and bank-ASBA process on a non-UPI basis. SEBI’s FAQ confirms that QIBs and high-net-worth applicants continue under the earlier, non-UPI process. The UPI rail was built for individual retail simplicity, and the NPCI mandate construct is not offered to corporate or institutional account types.
Non-Resident Indians
A Non-Resident Indian cannot apply through UPI ASBA, because UPI mandates are not supported on NRE or NRO accounts. An NRI applies through bank ASBA on their NRE or NRO account via NetBanking, with the bank as the SCSB blocking the application money. NRI applications also follow the repatriation distinction: an NRE-account application is on a repatriable basis, an NRO-account application is non-repatriable, and that choice is made at the bank, not on a UPI app.
The own-account rule catches eligible applicants too
Even a resident individual bidding Rs 50,000 is rejected if the UPI ID or bank account is not their own. NPCI’s customer FAQ states that applications made by retail investors using a third-party UPI ID, or by any category of investor using a third-party bank account, are liable for rejection, and that an IPO amount cannot be initiated as a direct pay to a UPI ID. The registrar matches the demat PAN against the bank-account PAN behind the UPI ID. A father applying from his demat using his son’s Google Pay handle, or his son’s bank account, fails this match. Only one application is permitted per bank account in a public issue, which also blocks the practice of routing several family bids through one account. For the account-level detail, see the bank account linked with the UPI ID for an IPO .
The bank ASBA alternative
Everyone outside the UPI eligibility set, and any eligible applicant who prefers it, can use bank ASBA. The bidder logs in to NetBanking, finds the IPO or ASBA section, enters the bid, and the bank blocks the money directly as the SCSB. Bank ASBA carries every investor category, has no NPCI per-transaction cap, and does not depend on the UPI partner list . Its trade-off is a longer NetBanking flow against UPI’s two-minute mandate approval. For a like-for-like comparison, UPI ASBA sets out the two routes side by side, and bank ASBA via NetBanking walks the NetBanking flow.
References
- SEBI, FAQs on the use of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with ASBA in public issues, April 2022 (only retail individual investors may use UPI; QIBs and HNIs continue under the earlier process; amount above Rs 2 lakh and up to Rs 5 lakh treated as NII; one application per bank account).
- NPCI, FAQs on UPI 2.0 IPO for Customer, npci.org.in (third-party UPI ID and third-party bank account liable for rejection; no direct pay to a UPI ID).
- NPCI Circular dated 9 December 2021, Enhancement of UPI per-transaction limit to Rs 5,00,000 for capital-market use cases.
- SEBI (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018, on investor categories and the retail ceiling.
- SEBI Circular SEBI/HO/CFD/DIL2/CIR/P/2019/76 dated 28 June 2019, Phase II implementation, UPI made the mandatory retail payment route.
See also
- UPI ASBA
- ASBA
- Bank ASBA via NetBanking
- UPI mandate
- UPI 2.0 mandate explained
- Which apps and banks support UPI ASBA
- Why some UPI handles are not shown on the Zerodha IPO window
- The bank account linked with the UPI ID for an IPO
- How to create a BHIM UPI ID for an IPO
- Retail individual investor
- IPO investor categories: retail, HNI, QIB
- Small-HNI versus big-HNI
- Non-Resident Indian
- Self Certified Syndicate Bank
- Registrar to an issue
- NPCI
- How to apply for an IPO without UPI on Kite
- How to apply HNI IPO on Zerodha
- How to apply for an IPO on Kite web
- How to release blocked IPO funds
- IPO process in India
- Initial public offering
- Zerodha
- Kite by Zerodha
- SEBI
External references
- SEBI: FAQs on use of UPI in ASBA for public issues
- SEBI investor portal: apply in IPO through ASBA
- NPCI: Apply for IPO using UPI ID, product overview
- NPCI: FAQs on UPI 2.0 IPO for customers
- SEBI: streamlining the process of IPOs with UPI in ASBA, March 2021 circular