Not banned. Not authorised either. Those two things are not the same, and the difference is what decides whether you have any recourse when something goes wrong.
Quotex is not authorised in India. It appears on the RBI Alert List and holds no SEBI licence — because India has no licence category for binary options at all. The app is not banned and Indian residents use it freely, but there is no regulator behind it and no local dispute resolution.
The Reserve Bank of India publishes a list of entities that are neither authorised to deal in foreign exchange under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) nor authorised to operate electronic trading platforms for forex transactions. Quotex is on it.
Being listed is not a criminal charge and it does not block the website. What it does is remove any pretence of supervision. Concretely:
Every offshore binary options platform available in India is on that list — Binomo, IQ Option, Pocket Option and Olymp Trade included. This is not a Quotex-specific problem; it is the shape of the entire category here.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India regulates securities and exchange-traded derivatives. A fixed-time "will this go up or down in the next 60 seconds" contract is not structured as a derivative in the Indian framework — there is no underlying delivery, no exchange counterparty and no clearing. It falls closer to wagering, which sits outside SEBI's remit entirely.
The consequence is simple and worth being blunt about: there is no licence for a binary options platform to apply for. So the choice facing an Indian trader is not "regulated broker versus unregulated broker". It is "unregulated product, knowingly" versus "a different, regulated product".
If a website tells you Quotex is "SEBI approved" or "RBI registered", it is not exaggerating — it is stating something that cannot exist. You can check the SEBI intermediary register yourself in under a minute.
Under FEMA, remittances abroad must fall within permitted purposes. Funding an unauthorised forex platform does not, which is the technical basis for the exposure. Penalties under FEMA are monetary rather than criminal.
In practice, enforcement attention has fallen on platforms, promoters and payment intermediaries rather than on individual retail depositors — which is one reason deposits still clear at all. That is a description of how enforcement has behaved, not a promise about how it will behave, and not legal advice. If the amounts involved are significant for you, speak to a lawyer before depositing.
A point people routinely get wrong: the regulatory status of the platform has nothing to do with your tax obligation. Winnings are taxable regardless.
| On ₹1,00,000 of winnings | Amount | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| Gross winnings | ₹1,00,000 | Net winnings under Section 115BBJ |
| Losses in the same year | ₹40,000 | No set-off or carry-forward |
| Tax at 30% | ₹30,000 | Flat rate, no slab benefit, no basic exemption |
| Cess at 4% | ₹1,200 | Applied to the tax amount |
| Total payable | ₹31,200 | On a real net gain of ₹60,000 |
| Indian platforms deduct 30% TDS under Section 194BA. Foreign platforms do not, so the full reporting burden falls on you. Sourced from the Income Tax Act. Not tax advice — the head of income can be argued, so confirm before filing. Full detail in our tax guide. | ||
No money leaves India, no forex transaction occurs, no income arises. If you want to learn how the platform works or test a strategy, this is the route with zero regulatory or tax dimension. Our free bot runs on it.
Anyone telling you Quotex is legal in India is wrong. Anyone telling you it is banned is also wrong. It sits in the gap between: tolerated, unsupervised, and entirely at your own risk. Deciding to use it anyway is a legitimate adult decision — but it should be made knowing that if the platform stops paying, there is nobody in India you can take that to.
Quotex is not authorised in India. It appears on the RBI Alert List of entities not permitted to deal in foreign exchange under FEMA, and it holds no SEBI licence.
It is not criminally banned as an app, and Indian residents open accounts every day. But unauthorised and legal are different positions: no Indian regulator supervises the platform, and there is no local body you can escalate a dispute to.
No. There is no order banning the app or blocking the site, and using it is not a criminal offence in itself. What exists is the RBI Alert List, which is a warning that the entity is not authorised to deal in forex — a different and weaker instrument than a ban.
Remitting funds to an unauthorised forex platform can breach FEMA, which carries monetary penalties. In practice, enforcement has targeted platforms and payment intermediaries rather than individual retail users, and we are not aware of a case brought against an ordinary trader for depositing.
That is an observation about enforcement patterns, not legal advice, and it is not a guarantee. The exposure exists on paper.
None, and none can be. SEBI has never created a licence category for fixed-time binary options, because they are not treated as a regulated financial instrument in India — they sit closer to wagering than to derivatives. Any site claiming a platform is SEBI approved is simply wrong, and you can verify it yourself on the SEBI intermediary register.
Index and stock options on NSE and BSE through a SEBI-registered broker. These are genuine regulated options with an exchange counterparty, transparent pricing, investor grievance mechanisms and legal recourse. Different instrument, different skill set — but fully within the framework.
Yes, entirely. A demo account involves no remittance, no forex transaction and no income, so none of FEMA, SEBI or the Income Tax Act is engaged. It is the one part of the platform with no legal dimension at all.
IaTraderPro Bot is a free Python robot with 13 built-in strategies and a web dashboard. Point it at a demo account, let it run, and read the log — you can also read every line of its source before you run it.
Why this matters in India: running the bot on a demo account is completely legal — no FEMA exposure, no RBI Alert List issue, no taxable event. It is the only way to test a strategy here at zero risk.
Enter your email and we send the bot plus a step-by-step install guide.
Risk warning. Binary options are high-risk speculative products and the majority of retail traders lose money. A payout percentage is the return on a winning trade, not an expected return. Quotex is not authorised by SEBI and appears on the RBI Alert List; Indian residents remitting funds to unauthorised platforms may be exposed under FEMA and have no local dispute resolution. Nothing on this page is investment, legal or tax advice. Consult a SEBI-registered adviser and a chartered accountant before acting. Never trade money you cannot afford to lose entirely.