Upstox Launches US Stocks in India: 8,000+ Stocks, 2,000 ETFs From $1

Indian retail investors just got a new way to own a piece of Apple, Tesla or Alphabet — without leaving their Upstox app.

The Mumbai-based brokerage has rolled out US stock investing on its platform, giving users direct access to more than 8,000 US-listed stocks and 2,000 exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The move positions Upstox alongside a small but growing group of Indian brokers racing to offer international investing as domestic investors look beyond home markets for diversification.

What Upstox’s US Stock Investing Offering Includes

The new offering lets users buy shares in some of the world’s largest companies — Apple, Tesla, Amazon, and Google parent Alphabet among them — through fractional investing, starting with as little as $1. Instead of buying a whole share, investors can purchase a fraction of one, making high-priced US stocks accessible to smaller portfolios.

Upstox is also enabling After Market Orders (AMOs), so Indian users can place trades outside regular US market hours — a practical fix given the time-zone gap between Indian and American trading sessions.

Funding is straightforward on paper: users deposit Indian rupees from supported domestic bank accounts, and Upstox converts the funds into US dollars at the time of investment.

The Regulatory Backbone: GIFT City and IFSCA

Unlike earlier workarounds that Indian brokers used to offer overseas exposure, Upstox’s US stock investing service runs through a regulated structure. It is offered via Upstox Securities Private Limited’s IFSC branch in GIFT City, Gujarat’s international financial services hub. The entity is a wholly owned subsidiary of RKSV Securities India Private Limited and is authorised by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) as a broker-dealer.

The IFSC branch also holds status as a Global Access Provider (GAP) and is a trading member of the India International Exchange (India INX) — the infrastructure that lets Indian brokers route international orders through a domestic, regulated channel rather than relying solely on foreign intermediaries.

Investments are permitted under the Reserve Bank of India’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS), which allows resident individuals to remit up to $250,000 per financial year for permitted purposes, subject to applicable conditions and RBI rules.

Why This Matters: A Race Among India’s Top Brokerages

Upstox isn’t moving in isolation. Zerodha, Groww, and Angel One have all secured regulatory approvals for international investing through the same GIFT City framework and have been building out competing overseas investment products. Zerodha, for instance, has already expanded its own product lineup with fixed deposits on its Coin app, while Dream Sports recently entered the space with its AI-powered stockbroking platform. That makes Upstox’s launch less a solitary bet and more a signal that international investing is becoming a standard feature for India’s major retail brokerages, not a niche add-on.

For context, Indian investors have historically had limited, often clunky routes to US equities — typically through third-party platforms with higher fees or slower onboarding. A GIFT City-based, IFSCA-regulated pathway embedded directly inside a popular trading app changes that calculus considerably.

In Their Own Words

“International investing represents the next significant phase of growth for India’s wealth ecosystem, and launching US stocks feels like a full-circle moment,” said Ravi Kumar, co-founder and CEO of Upstox.

According to the company, the service is designed to give Indian investors exposure to sectors that are underrepresented on domestic exchanges — including artificial intelligence, space exploration, and other emerging technologies — alongside the broader benefits of geographical and currency diversification. It joins a widening set of diversification routes Indian investors are exploring, from equities abroad to avenues like gold trading.

Where US Stock Investing Fits in Upstox’s Broader Product Stack

The launch extends Upstox’s existing suite of offerings, which already spans Indian equities, derivatives, mutual funds, IPO investing, and insurance. Adding US stocks and ETFs rounds out the platform into something closer to a full-spectrum wealth product, rather than a pure domestic trading app — a positioning shift that could matter as competition among Indian brokerages intensifies.

What to Watch Next

A few open questions will shape how meaningfully this launch moves the needle:

• Cost structure — how currency conversion spreads and per-trade fees compare with rivals once they launch similar products.
• Adoption pace — whether India’s LRS remittance limits and tax treatment of foreign assets slow retail uptake.
• Competitive response — how quickly Zerodha, Groww, and Angel One bring their own GIFT City-based US investing products to market.

The Bottom Line

Upstox’s entry into US stock investing reflects a broader shift: Indian retail investors are no longer content with domestic-only portfolios, and brokerages are racing to build the regulated rails to meet that demand. Whether Upstox’s first-mover advantage among this specific product wave translates into market share will depend on pricing, ease of use, and how fast competitors catch up. 

Interested in how India’s brokerage landscape is evolving? Follow KnowStartup News for ongoing coverage of fintech launches, funding rounds, and regulatory shifts shaping the sector.

Author

Sachin

Sachin Sidharth is a Digital Marketing professional with a master’s degree in Digital Marketing from Coventry University, UK. He has 10+ years of blogging and online marketing experience. He currently heads Digital Acquisition for a leading London-based Fintech firm. At KnowStartup.com He focuses on writing Digital Marketing guides and manages...

Sachin Sidharth is a Digital Marketing professional with a master’s degree in Digital Marketing from Coventry University, UK. He has 10+ years of blogging and online marketing experience. He currently heads Digital Acquisition for a leading London-based Fintech firm. At KnowStartup.com He focuses on writing Digital Marketing guides and manages KnowStartup's Digital Agency rankings of firms across multiple cities in India. You can reach him on Linkedin.

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