How to check that a Research Analyst is actually registered

Four checks, on SEBI's own website, in about five minutes. Written so that you can run every one of them on us.

Published 1 September 2026 · Potoos Research Services

The four checks

1. Find them on SEBI's register yourself

   Open SEBI's register of Research Analysts. It opens on a long list of every registered analyst in India, so do not scroll it. Use the search box at the top, and search the registration number you were given.

   A Research Analyst number begins with INH. An Investment Adviser number begins with INA. They are different registrations with different permissions, so check you are looking at the right register for what you have been offered.

   A screenshot of a certificate is not a check. The register is the check, because it is the only copy nobody can edit.

2. Match the name and the city, not just the number

   A number on its own proves very little. Read what SEBI's entry actually says, then compare it with the website you are on. The registered name and the city should be the same in both places. If the website belongs to one firm and the register returns another name, stop there and ask why.

3. Check that a grievance route exists and is published

   Registered intermediaries participate in SEBI's complaint system. You should be able to find a grievance route on the firm's own website, and you can escalate to SEBI SCORES or to the online dispute resolution portal yourself. Look for those before you pay, not after.

4. Know what the rules already forbid

   Two rules are worth carrying in your head, because they let you judge what you are reading without taking anyone's word for it.

   A registered Research Analyst may not publish past performance, returns, accuracy rates or win rates in public material. SEBI's advertisement code, effective 1 May 2023, prohibits it, along with any promise of assured returns. So a public page showing a return figure is a page to ask questions about.

   There is a legal ceiling on fees. For individual and Hindu Undivided Family clients, a Research Analyst's fees are capped at ₹1,51,000 per family per year, a limit SEBI revises periodically. Different terms may be negotiated with non-individual and accredited clients.

Now run it on us

Here is what our own entry should return. If any line below does not match what SEBI's register tells you, we would want to know before you consider paying us anything.

You will also notice there is no track record, no win rate and no return figure anywhere on this website. That is the rule in step four working as intended, and we have written separately about where our record does live.

How do I check if a research analyst is genuinely SEBI registered before I pay them?

Here is the same method compressed into the exact clicks, for the moment someone is asking you to pay. It needs the registration number they gave you, a browser, and about five minutes. Do it before money moves, not after.

1. Open SEBI's register of Research Analysts

   The register lives on sebi.gov.in, under Intermediaries recognised by SEBI, category Research Analyst. It lists every registered Research Analyst in India, more than two thousand of them. That is why you search for the number instead of scrolling.

2. Search the registration number you were given

   Put the INH number into the register's Registration Number search field and run the search. If you were not given a number, the register also searches by name, contact person, email and location, so the absence of a number is not a dead end. It is, however, already an answer worth noting: a genuine service leads with its number.

3. Read the entry SEBI returns

   A real entry shows the registered name, the registration number, the address and location, the contact person, and how long the registration is valid. Read all of it. Do not stop at the fact that something came back.

4. Match the entry to whoever is asking for your money

   The name and city on SEBI's record should match the website, the invoice and the person on the phone. If you get no result, a different name, or a registration that has expired, stop. Ask them first, then ask yourself whether you want to go on. Pay only after this check passes, and only through the published channels of the registered firm the register just showed you.

Are paid stock tip services in India a scam and how do I tell a genuine one?

Not all of them, and treating it as all-or-nothing is exactly what costs people money. India has both. There are registered Research Analysts working inside SEBI's rules. There are also unregistered operations using the same words. SEBI has passed orders against tip channels that made money by selling to their own followers, and reporters have documented "trading groups" where no trade was ever placed. We have set out those cases, with the orders, on a separate page. Fakes existing does not make the real category fake, any more than fake medicine makes chemists a scam. It just means you have to tell them apart. The ways to do that are simple, checkable and free.

Notice what the six discriminators have in common: none of them requires you to judge research quality, predict the market, or take anyone's word for anything. Each one is a structural fact that either exists or does not, checkable from your own chair before a rupee moves. That is deliberate. The scams are better than you are at arguing about charts and screenshots, because manufacturing conviction is their full-time job. They are helpless against a register they do not appear on, a fee cap they exceed, and a complaint route they cannot fake. Fight on that ground, not theirs.

Run those six against any service, ours included, and the two kinds separate cleanly. If you have already paid someone who fails them, this page covers where to report it and what can realistically be recovered. And if you are weighing a paid service against the free channels, the full comparison, with SEBI's orders as the evidence, is here.

Common questions