What 'not allotted' actually means
'Not allotted' means the registrar's draw did not select your application, so you receive zero shares. It is not an error or a penalty — on oversubscribed IPOs the vast majority of retail applicants are not allotted. Your blocked money was never debited; only allottees' funds are taken. Check the official result on the registrar's site (Link Intime/MUFG, KFin, Bigshare, Cameo) by PAN, or in your broker app under IPO orders.
Why you weren't allotted — the lottery
When retail subscription crosses about 5x, SEBI rules switch allotment to a lottery: the available retail lots are divided by lot size to get the number of winners, and that many unique PANs are drawn at random for one lot each. If 1 crore people apply for 50 lakh available lots, half are rejected by draw — bidding more lots or more money does not help, because in retail it is one ticket per PAN regardless of bid size.
'Amount blocked but not allotted' — explained
This is the most common confusion. Under ASBA your bid amount is blocked (held) in your bank the moment you approve the UPI mandate — it is not a payment. If you are not allotted, that block had no shares attached, so the bank simply releases it. You were never charged. Seeing 'blocked' during and just after the IPO is completely normal.
When is the blocked money released?
For non-allottees, the block is released on or within 24-48 hours of the allotment date — usually the same day the basis of allotment is finalised. No interest is paid for the blocked period. The UPI mandate expires automatically; you do not need to cancel it. Your full balance becomes spendable again once the hold clears.
Refund / unblock not received — steps
If the hold is still on your balance more than 4-5 working days after the allotment date: (1) confirm on the registrar's site that you were genuinely not allotted; (2) check your bank statement — sometimes the balance is free but the app shows a stale 'hold'; (3) contact your bank's customer care with the IPO name and the ASBA/UPI mandate reference; (4) if unresolved, escalate to the registrar, and finally to SEBI's SCORES complaint portal.
How to improve your odds next time
The honest levers: apply from multiple family PANs (each is a separate ticket, funded from that person's own bank); always bid at cut-off so a price mismatch never voids you; bid just one lot per application in retail; and consider the NII category if you have ≥₹2 lakh, since it is proportionate rather than a pure lottery. See our 'How to Get IPO Allotment' and 'Why IPO Allotment Fails' guides for the full math.
A smarter alternative: buy on listing day
If you believe in the company, not getting allotted is not the end. Once it lists, you can buy from the open market at the listing price — sometimes that is a premium, but on weaker listings it can be at or below the issue price. For fundamentally sound businesses, buying a sensible quantity post-listing is often better than repeatedly chasing low-odds allotments in hyped issues.
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