Reviewed on 24 Oct 2026 · Source: IPO Bulletin explainer; based on BSE and NSE bid-data disclosure practice
Subscription, also written as times subscribed, tells you how many shares investors have applied for compared with how many shares are on offer. It is calculated by dividing the number of shares bid for by the number of shares offered. A subscription of 1 time means the issue is fully covered, 10 times means ten shares were asked for each share available, and below 1 time means the issue is undersubscribed. The figure is reported separately for each category: qualified institutional buyers, non-institutional investors including the small and big sub-categories, retail investors and sometimes employees or shareholders. It is updated through the day by the exchanges, usually every hour, and the last day’s number is the most important because institutions tend to bid late. High subscription indicates strong demand and often a competitive allotment lottery for retail investors, while low subscription indicates weak interest. Subscription alone does not decide whether an IPO is a good investment, since demand can be driven by hype and short-term borrowing, but it is a useful sign of sentiment. IPO Bulletin publishes live subscription tables for every open IPO and the final day-wise numbers after closing.
Example: An IPO offers 1 crore shares and receives bids for 25 crore shares. It is subscribed 25 times overall. If the retail category was subscribed 8 times, roughly one in eight retail applicants would receive shares.
Allotment is the step after an IPO closes in which the company decides who receives shares and how many. Once bidding ends, the registrar prepares the basis of allotment, which explains how the shares were shared between categories and applicants. If an issue is not oversubscribed in a category, most valid applicants get what they asked for. If it is oversubscribed, shares are rationed. In the retail category, successful applicants are chosen by a computerised lottery and each winner usually receives one lot, because the demand is far larger than the supply. Larger categories receive shares in proportion to their bids. After allotment, shares are credited to the demat accounts of successful applicants, and money for unsuccessful applications is released from the ASBA block. SEBI requires the whole process, from issue close to listing, to be completed within three working days. You can check your allotment status on the registrar's website using your application number, PAN or demat details, and on the exchange page for the issue.
A bid is an investor's offer to buy a specified number of shares in an IPO at a price within the announced price band. In a book-built issue, you submit a bid through your broker, your bank's net banking or a UPI-enabled app, stating the quantity in lots and either a specific price or the cut-off option. A bid can be revised upward or downward, or cancelled, while the issue is open, and a revised bid replaces the earlier one. Each bid is recorded in the exchange's order book, and the totals across all prices form the book from which the final price is discovered. The amount blocked for a bid is the number of shares multiplied by the highest price at which you bid, so bidding at the cap blocks the largest sum. If the final price is lower, the extra is released. Only one bid per category per PAN is generally allowed, with bids from the same PAN in the same category treated as duplicates. Bids placed by retail investors on the last day are accepted until the exchange cut-off, typically 5 pm, though UPI approval for the mandate needs to be completed within the same window.
Worked example
An IPO offers 1 crore shares and receives bids for 25 crore shares. It is subscribed 25 times overall. If the retail category was subscribed 8 times, roughly one in eight retail applicants would receive shares.
