Upstox has made a name for itself as one of India’s most talked-about discount brokers, riding on the promise of a seamless, technology-powered trading experience.
But as its user base has grown, so has the volume of complaints and the patterns emerging from the data suggest that the platform’s rapid expansion may be outpacing its ability to serve investors well.
If you are already on Upstox or thinking of joining, here is what the numbers and real user experiences actually look like.
Upstox Complaints Overview
Upstox is a discount broker, backed by marquee investors and known for its sleek, mobile-first trading platform that has attracted millions of users looking for a low-cost entry into the markets.
With a strong push on technology and accessibility, it has positioned itself as a serious challenger to more established names in the broking space.
Exchange Complaints Data
The following analysis examines Upstox’s Exchange Complaint Data across four financial years, from 2022-23 to 2025-26, to understand how investor grievances have trended and what that reveals about the platform’s reliability and service standards.
| Financial Year | Total clients | No. of complaints | % of complaints w.r.t. Total clients | Resolved complaints | % of resolved w.r.t. complaints | Arbitrations |
| 2022-23 | 2516647 | 402 | 0.015 | 366 | 91.04 | 4 |
| 2023-24 | 2516647 | 299 | 0.011 | 290 | 96.98 | 1 |
| 2024-25 | 2747330 | 735 | 0.02 | 735 | 100 | 0 |
| 2025-26 | 2036413 | 877 | 0.04 | 793 | 90.42 | 0 |
This table tells a story of a platform whose complaint numbers have been on a rollercoaster, dropping from 402 in 2022-23 to 299 in 2023-24, which looked promising, before shooting back up to 735 in 2024-25 and then climbing even further to 877 in 2025-26, the highest across all four years.
The resolution rate hitting a perfect 100% in 2024-25 looks good on paper, but the very next year drops to 90.42%, leaving 84 complaints unresolved, which is the largest absolute number of unresolved cases in the entire dataset.
What makes this particularly concerning is that the client base actually shrank between 2024-25 and 2025-26, yet complaints went up, meaning the platform is generating more grievances from fewer clients and that is a pattern that deserves serious attention.
Types of Complaints Against Upstox
These classifications break down investor concerns into specific types, making it easier to spot repeated problems.
They also provide useful insight into where the platform might not be meeting user expectations.
| Complaint type | Description | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 |
| Type I | Delay in payment | 39 | 24 | 39 | 34 |
| Type II | Non- receipt/ delay in securities | – | – | 15 | 9 |
| Type III | Non-receipt of documents | 9 | 4 | 5 | 8 |
| Type IV | Unauthorised trading | 39 | 23 | 117 | 131 |
| Type V | Service related | 78 | 191 | 392 | 581 |
| Type VI | Square off related | – | – | 10 | 16 |
| Type VII | Non implementation of arbitration award | – | – | 3 | – |
| Type VIII | IPO related | 1 | 1 | 14 | 6 |
| Type IX | Others | 103 | 56 | 140 | 212 |
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Delay in Payment and Non-Receipt or Delay in Securities
Payment delay complaints have remained consistently present across all four years with no meaningful improvement, and securities-related complaints appeared from 2024-25 onwards adding a new layer of concern.
Clients being kept waiting on their own funds and securities is a recurring problem that clearly has not been resolved.
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Non-Receipt of Documents
The numbers are small but have actually been creeping upward, going from 4 in 2023-24 to 8 in 2025-26 with no sign of coming down.
Clients consistently not receiving their documents points to a back-office process that has not been fixed despite years of complaints.
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Unauthorised Trading, Service Related and IPO Related
Service complaints have exploded from 78 to 581 over four years, and unauthorised trading complaints more than tripled to 131 in 2025-26.
Together these three categories dominate the complaint landscape and paint a picture of a platform that is seriously struggling to meet basic investor expectations.
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Square Off Related
Square off complaints appeared for the first time in 2024-25 and have since grown to 16, suggesting that forced position closures are becoming an increasingly common source of grievance.
Given the direct financial impact of an untimely square off, even these numbers are worth taking seriously.
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Non-Implementation of Arbitration Award
Three complaints appeared in 2024-25 and then dropped to zero the following year, but the very existence of this category is deeply concerning.
A broker not honouring a legally binding arbitration award is one of the most serious violations an investor can face.
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Others
The Others category, which is simply a bunch of small complaints grouped together, has seen a dramatic rise from 56 in 2023-24 to 212 in 2025-26, which is a significant jump that suggests a growing volume of grievances that the existing classification system simply cannot account for.
Upstox Technical Glitches
Technical glitches in stock market platforms can occur due to server overload, coding errors, or issues during software updates and maintenance.
For instance, users sometimes report Upstox not working during peak trading hours, which can disrupt transactions.
In other cases, Upstox login issue may arise due to backend failures or authentication delays, affecting access to accounts.
Sometimes, third-party dependencies or network failures also play a role, creating instability that affects user experience and raises concerns about platform reliability and preparedness.
|
Financial year |
No. of technical glitches |
|
2024-25 |
1 |
|
2025-26 |
12 |
Upstox went from just 1 technical glitch in 2024-25 to 12 in 2025-26, a twelvefold increase in a single year that is very difficult to explain away.
For a platform that has built its entire reputation on being a reliable, technology-driven broker, this kind of spike in system failures sends a worrying signal about whether its infrastructure is keeping pace with its scale.
Twelve glitches in one financial year on India’s largest retail broking platform means twelve separate occasions where millions of investors were potentially locked out of their own money during live market hours.
Upstox App Reviews
Upstox holds a reasonably strong 4.4 rating on the Play Store, but digging into the reviews reveals a consistent pattern of complaints around app crashes, delayed order execution, and poor customer support response times.
Many users report being unable to reach support during critical trading hours, which is precisely when a reliable platform matters most.
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Complaints Regarding Fee Structure
Charging high fees or not being completely transparent about your fees structure might leave a bad after taste in the investors’ mouths.
It might make it difficult for the user to trust the platform with their hard earned money.
Here’s what some users personally experienced in the app:
This user seems to be quite frustrated with the charges on this app, calling it a “money trap” and urging others to stay away from this app.
He says there are hidden charges on the app and that even customer service has not helped him in this matter.
This user says that there are too many charges on this app and again raises the point of hidden charges.
He claims that the app has degraded over the years and is not worth it anymore.
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Complaints Regarding Performance
The platform needs to do well by its users in order for them to complete the very objective for which they downloaded the app in the first place.
Here’s what we know about Upstox’s performance;
This user has been facing a lot of technical errors on this app which did not get resolved even after applying for a Plus membership.
This has become a huge inconvenience for them as the only way to deal with this issue so far is to force close the app.
This user also faced too many glitches on this platform which do not get fixed even if they complain about it.
There seems to be a delay in showing the correct prices which no doubt hinders with their trading experience.
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Complaints Regarding Customer Support
Customer support representatives are the first responders when it comes to solving issues faced by users on the platform.
Here’s what happens when they do not live up to the mark:
As this user described, they had been facing a lot of technical issues on the app and brought this to the customer support officials.
However, no help was offered and now they have faced losses.
This user was greatly aggrieved by the customer support, calling it the “worst”.
The app kept crashing and despite sharing this with the broker along with proper screenshots and proof of the incident, he received no help from their end.
When To Take Action Against Brokers?
Dig into your account statements and reconcile every single transaction against the confirmations your broker has been sending you such as, SMS alerts, email notifications, contract notes, all of it.
The moment you spot something that you have no memory of authorising, treat it as urgent.
Get your complaint in front of your broker’s grievances team within that first week, because timeliness here is not just good practice, it is evidence in itself that you were not a passive participant.
There are specific circumstances where letting it rest is simply not an option:
- The broker draws a blank when asked to produce documented proof of how the order was placed
- A formal arbitration proceeding concludes that the transaction occurred entirely outside your knowledge or consent
- An inspection carried out by the exchange establishes that the broker violated mandatory order-recording obligations
SEBI’s complaint window gives you three years, and your broker is legally bound to preserve your records across that entire period.
In dispute resolution, an investor who waits is often an investor who loses, because inaction has a habit of being mistaken for acceptance.
So, file your complaint as soon as possible.
How to Report a Complaint Against a Stock Broker?
If your concerns are not resolved through regular support channels, it’s important to follow a structured approach to escalate the issue and protect your interests.
Acting promptly and keeping proper documentation at every step can significantly strengthen your case and improve the chances of a favourable outcome.
1. Find Evidence
Start by putting together a solid evidence file.
Comb through your account and pull out all relevant screenshots, trade confirmations, contract notes, call recordings, and any email or SMS communication tied to the issue.
Arrange it all in the sequence it occurred, because a well-organised file does not just support your case, it makes it significantly easier for anyone reviewing it to understand exactly what went wrong.
2. Contact the Broker
Once your documentation is in order, approach your broker’s official support or grievances channel and lay out the issue clearly, backing every claim with the evidence you have compiled.
Make sure you hold on to a copy of your complaint along with any acknowledgement you receive.
A well-presented, evidence-backed complaint resolves itself at this stage more often than people expect.
3. Lodge a Complaint in SCORES
If the broker fails to respond or gives you an answer that does not hold up, escalate to SEBI’s SCORES platform.
This moves things into formal territory.
The broker is now on a regulatory deadline to respond, and SEBI is watching to make sure the process plays out fairly and transparently.
4. Arbitration in Stock Market
When even that does not bring resolution, arbitration through SEBI’s ODR platform is the route to take.
An independent panel will go through everything both sides have submitted and hand down a decision that neither party can simply ignore.
Need Help?
Working out what went wrong in your trading account while simultaneously trying to navigate a formal complaint process is a lot to take on, especially when real money is involved.
We can help by:
- Carefully combing through your transaction history to spot what does not belong
- Pinpointing trades or activity that happened without your knowledge or consent
- Writing up a complaint that is clear, structured, and hard to dismiss
- Pulling together and organising all the documents that support your case
- Putting together submissions that hold up before SEBI or an arbitration panel
The details matter here, and missing even one can slow things down considerably.
We know exactly what needs to be done, and we will make sure it is done right.
Conclusion
Upstox’s complaint trajectory, combined with a twelvefold spike in technical glitches and consistent user frustration around Upstox excess charges, paints a picture that is hard to dismiss as isolated incidents.
A platform growing this fast has a responsibility to grow its service standards just as quickly and right now, that gap is visible.
If you are facing issues with Upstox, the path forward is clear: act early, keep records of everything, and do not hesitate to escalate through the proper channels when needed.
