How to Apply for IPO in Groww: UPI Mandate Steps, Allotment Timeline and Common Errors

Got a Groww demat account? Then figuring out how to apply for an IPO in Groww will take you a few minutes at most. Placing the bid is the easy bit. Where people actually come unstuck is the UPI mandate that follows, bidding in the wrong category, or simply missing a deadline. Below we go through the whole thing in order: placing the bid, approving the mandate, what happens to your money, the allotment and listing timeline, and the errors that sink applications. The steps follow Groww’s own help pages and SEBI’s rules for public issues.

Before you start: what you’ll need

• A Groww demat and trading account that is fully activated.
• A UPI ID linked to your own bank account. The PAN on your IPO application has to match the bank account behind that UPI ID. Using someone else’s UPI ID or bank account can get the application rejected.
• Enough money in that bank account to cover the full bid, because it will be blocked.
• The IPO details: price band, lot size and dates, all in the company’s offer document. Our IPO investing in India pillar explains how to read them.

How to apply for IPO in Groww: step by step

Here’s the process as Groww’s help centre lays it out:

1. Open the Stocks section from the Groww home screen.
2. Tap IPO under “Products & Tools” to see the open and upcoming IPOs.
3. Pick the IPO you want to apply for.
4. Enter the quantity in multiples of the lot size. Groww lets you place up to three bids in one application.
5. Enter the bid price within the price band, or tick the cut-off price box.
6. Enter your UPI ID, something like name@oksbi or a number@ybl handle, which you’ll find in your UPI app.
7. Tap Apply to submit the bid.
8. Approve the UPI mandate in your UPI app with your UPI PIN.

After that, your application status shows up on the same IPO page in the Groww app, according to Groww’s IPO help article.

Why bother with the cut-off price?

For a retail investor, ticking cut-off means you agree to buy at whatever final issue price gets fixed within the band, and that’s usually the top end. Bid at the bottom of the band and see the issue priced at the top, and your bid is simply invalid. If you’re a retail applicant who just wants a fair shot at allotment, cut-off is the easier route. The amount blocked is worked out at the upper end of the band.

Submitting the bid on Groww is only half the application. Until you approve the UPI mandate, you haven’t actually applied.

The UPI mandate: the step people forget

Once you submit, a mandate request lands in your UPI app. NPCI also sends you an SMS confirming the bid and asking you to accept that mandate. When you approve it with your UPI PIN, the bid amount gets blocked in your bank account. Nothing is debited yet.

How long does the mandate take to show up?

Groww’s help page on missing mandates breaks down the timing:

• Pre-apply (before bidding opens): the order goes to the exchange on the opening date, and the mandate arrives within 24 hours of bidding starting.
• During market hours after the bid opens: the mandate can take up to 24 hours.
• After market hours: the order goes in when the market opens the next day, and the mandate follows within 24 hours of that.

If 24 hours pass and there’s still no mandate, Groww says you can cancel and apply again.

Where to look for the mandate

• Groww UPI: open the UPI tab and the IPO request sits at the top. Pending and approved requests also show under UPI Autopay, per Groww’s guide.
• Google Pay: Profile, then Settings, then One-time mandate. You’ll find the request under “pending”.
• PhonePe: a pop-up usually appears. Tap View Details, then Accept.

The mandate deadline

Under SEBI’s T+3 listing timeline, the cut-off for accepting the UPI mandate is 5 pm on the issue closing day (T day), as the SEBI circular states. SEBI’s UPI FAQ adds that mandate requests left untouched lapse by 12 pm on T+1. Our advice: don’t wait for the last afternoon. Apply on the final day and the mandate might show up too late to approve.

Application limits and categories

SEBI’s UPI FAQ sets these limits for individual investors:

• The UPI limit for an IPO application by an individual is ₹5 lakh.
• The retail individual investor category is still capped at ₹2 lakh.
• Applications above ₹2 lakh and up to ₹5 lakh count as non-institutional (HNI) bids.

Which means a ₹2.5 lakh bid placed in the belief that you’re a retail applicant actually lands in the sHNI category, where allotment works differently. Our guide on how to apply for IPO in the HNI category explains how that works.

Where your money goes

• Bid placed and mandate approved: the amount is blocked in your bank account. You can’t spend it, but it hasn’t left your account.
• If you get allotment: the amount for the allotted shares is debited.
• If you don’t: the blocked amount is released.

This is the ASBA (Application Supported by Blocked Amount) system, and UPI is how most individual investors use it through their brokers.

What happens after the issue closes

SEBI requires listing within three working days of the issue closing (T+3), down from T+6 earlier. Roughly, it plays out like this:

• T day: the issue closes. Retail bids are taken until 5 pm.
• T+1: allotment is finalised.
• T+2: refunds or unblocking of funds, and shares credited to demat accounts.
• T+3: listing on NSE and BSE.

You can check allotment on the Groww IPO page, or on the registrar’s and exchanges’ websites. All three methods are covered in our guide on IPO allotment status check online.

A worked example

Take the Bonfiglioli Transmissions IPO, with a price band of ₹558–586, open from 15 to 19 October, which we covered in our Bonfiglioli Transmissions IPO review. A retail investor on Groww would open the IPO page, enter one lot, tick cut-off, put in their UPI ID and tap Apply. Once they approved the mandate, one lot’s value at ₹586 a share would be blocked in their bank account. If the final price is ₹586 and they get shares, that amount is debited. If not, it’s unblocked. This is an illustration of the process, not a recommendation to apply.

Can you cancel or change an IPO application?

Yes, up to a point. SEBI’s UPI FAQ says you can decline a mandate request, even on the last day, provided you haven’t already accepted it. If you have accepted it, you can withdraw or cancel the application through the intermediary you used, Groww here, while the issue is still open. Or you can just leave a pending mandate alone. It expires on its own at 12 pm on T+1, and no money gets blocked. The same FAQ says bid modification requests also have to be acted on before 12 pm on T+1. For the actual cancel and modify buttons, look at the IPO page in the Groww app, since screens get redesigned now and then, and check in your UPI app that the mandate status is what you expect.

The mistakes that sink applications

• Not approving the mandate. The number one failure. The bid goes in but never gets funded.
• Approving after the cut-off. Mandates must be accepted by 5 pm on the closing day.
• PAN and bank mismatch. The UPI ID has to belong to a bank account in the applicant’s own name.
• Not enough balance. The block fails if the account can’t cover the bid.
• Bidding below the final price without cut-off, which makes the bid invalid if the issue is priced higher.
• Several applications under one PAN. Only one application per PAN per category is valid, and duplicates can be rejected.
• Accidentally going over ₹2 lakh and ending up in the HNI category.

Applying is the easy part. The decision that matters is whether the IPO is worth applying for at all, so read the offer document before you open the app.

Is Groww any different from other brokers?

Not where it counts. The core process, a UPI-linked ASBA bid sent to the exchange, is identical at every broker because SEBI and the exchanges define it. What changes is the app layout and where the mandate pops up. If you use Zerodha too, our guide on how to apply for IPO in Zerodha walks through the Kite and Console steps.

The short version

To apply for an IPO in Groww, go to Stocks and then IPO. Pick the issue, enter your lots and the cut-off price, add your own UPI ID, apply, and approve the mandate in your UPI app before 5 pm on the closing day. Stay within ₹2 lakh if you want to be treated as retail, use only your own bank account, and check allotment on T+1. The mechanics get easy after your first try. Deciding which IPOs actually deserve your money is the harder, and far more important, job.

This article is for education only and is not investment advice. App screens and processes can change, so check Groww’s help centre for the latest steps.