AbstractThis paper discusses several topics related to light management that improve our understanding of the performance and potential of the intermediate band solar cell (IBSC). These topics are photon recycling, photon selectivity and light confinement. It is found that neglecting photon recycling leads to underestimate the limiting efficiency of the IBSC in 7 points (56.1 % vs 63.2 %). Light trapping allows to effectively absorbing photons whose energy is associated to the weakest of the optical transitions in the IBSC, allowing also for higher efficiencies with lower device thickness. The impact of photon selectivity on the cell performance is also discussed.