Taj Mahal ticket price 2026: what each visitor pays, and how to book

The Taj Mahal ticket price in October 2026 is ₹1,100 for foreign visitors, ₹540 for citizens of SAARC and BIMSTEC countries and ₹50 for Indians, plus ₹200 for any adult going inside the main mausoleum. Children under 15 enter free. Bought online from the Archaeological Survey of India, tickets cost ₹50 less for foreigners and ₹5 less for everyone else.

The window prices are the official Taj Mahal site’s, and the online prices are from the booking site of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which looks after the Taj. Prices can change, so check the ASI site before you pay.

How much is the Taj Mahal ticket for foreigners and Indians?

A foreign visitor pays ₹1,100 at the ticket window, a citizen of a SAARC or BIMSTEC country ₹540 and an Indian citizen ₹50. Holders of an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card pay the Indian price: the official Taj Mahal site lists them with domestic visitors. Otherwise the price follows your passport, and the ASI’s booking site asks you to choose an origin: Indian, foreigner, SAARC or BIMSTEC.

The SAARC and BIMSTEC price covers nine countries besides India: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka belong to both groups, as the SAARC and BIMSTEC secretariats list their members, and the ASI’s booking site lists the same nine.

Each ticket is two charges in one, the ASI’s entry fee and a toll for the Agra Development Authority (ADA), which the booking site shows as “ADA Tax”: ₹10 on an Indian ticket and ₹500 on a foreign, SAARC or BIMSTEC one. The official site’s fee table says its prices include both, so the ₹500 is already inside the ₹1,100 and the ₹540.

Children under 15 go free whatever their nationality, mausoleum included; online you add them as children and the site charges ₹0. So two foreign adults with a 12-year-old, all going inside the tomb, pay ₹2,600 at the window or ₹2,500 online.

Do you need the ₹200 mausoleum ticket?

Only if you want to go inside the tomb itself. The ₹200 ticket is for the main mausoleum, the white marble building that holds the cenotaphs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan; without it you still have the garden, the great gateway, the mosque and every classic view, but not the interior. The official site says to buy it with your entry ticket, and online you choose “Taj Mahal With Mausoleum” instead of “Taj Mahal Only”.

Photography is not allowed inside the mausoleum, and shoes come off or go into covers before the marble: foreign visitors get covers with the ticket, and free shoe racks stand just below the tomb. If this is your one visit, the extra ₹200 is the difference between seeing the Taj and going into it. Our guide to what you see inside the Taj Mahal shows what it buys.

Why do some sites say the Taj Mahal ticket is ₹1,300?

Because they add the mausoleum ticket to the entry ticket. ₹1,300 is what a foreign visitor pays at the window to go inside the tomb: ₹1,100 for entry plus ₹200 for the main mausoleum, or ₹1,250 for the same pair online. A foreign visitor who stays outside the tomb pays ₹1,100 at the window, and that is the figure the official site gives as the entry fee.

The same sum explains the other round numbers you may see quoted: ₹740 for SAARC and BIMSTEC visitors, ₹540 plus ₹200, and ₹250 for Indians, ₹50 plus ₹200. Each is the entry ticket and the mausoleum ticket added together, and children under 15 pay nothing for either.

What does the Taj Mahal ticket for foreigners include?

The ₹1,100 foreign ticket includes shoe covers, a bottle of water, a tourist map of Agra and the battery bus or golf cart between the parking and the gate, all free with the ticket, according to the official ticketing page. Foreign visitors also have their own queue at the entrance, separate from the one for Indian visitors.

Keep the ticket after your visit. The same official fee table lists lower prices at Agra’s other ASI monuments for visitors who have been to the Taj: a foreign visitor pays ₹600 instead of ₹650 at Agra Fort, ₹600 instead of ₹610 at Fatehpur Sikri and ₹300 instead of ₹310 at Akbar’s tomb and Itimad-ud-Daulah, and a SAARC or BIMSTEC visitor ₹40 instead of ₹90 at Agra Fort. Show the Taj ticket at the window and ask. Our Agra Fort guide covers the next stop.

Is it cheaper to book Taj Mahal tickets online?

Yes. Online tickets cost ₹50 less for foreign visitors, ₹1,050 instead of ₹1,100, and ₹5 less for Indian, SAARC and BIMSTEC visitors, and they let you skip the queue at the ticket window. They do not skip the security check, which everyone goes through.

If you would rather pay at the gate, the windows are at the West Gate, near Saheli Burj, and at the East Gate, and they sell from an hour before sunrise until 45 minutes before sunset. The official Taj Mahal site still carries an old banner saying tickets are sold only online, but its own visiting-hours and FAQ pages list both windows, and the ASI’s rules name its counters. The South Gate, on the Taj Ganj side, is exit only.

Since 6 January 2026 the same ASI tickets have also been on sale through a few apps on the government-backed ONDC network, with the same ₹5 and ₹50 discounts, according to the Ministry of Culture. The ASI’s own site remains the simplest place to book.

How to book a Taj Mahal ticket online, step by step

Book on the ASI’s own site, which needs an email address, a mobile number and, for foreign visitors, a passport number. As the site worked on 16 October 2026:

1. Open the ASI’s booking site. Under Circle, Agra is first; under Monuments, tick “Taj Mahal”, not “Taj Mahal Night View”.
2. Choose “Taj Mahal Only” or “Taj Mahal With Mausoleum”, then the visit date and the visit time, forenoon or afternoon, and press Proceed.
3. Select your origin (Indian, foreigner, SAARC or BIMSTEC) and your country, then the number of adults, 15 and over, and children, under 15.
4. Fill in age, email and mobile number; the country-code list takes foreign numbers. Foreign visitors also choose Passport as the ID and type in its number.
5. Check the summary, which shows the ASI fee and the ADA tax separately, tick the box for the Do’s and Don’ts, and pay.
6. The e-ticket is emailed and can be downloaded straight away. If it goes missing, the site’s Regenerate Ticket page finds it again by email, mobile number or transaction ID.

Check every detail before you pay. The ASI’s terms say the entry fee is not refundable and e-tickets cannot be cancelled, and its refund policy rules out changes for a wrong detail or a change of plans. The one exception is a closure for unforeseen reasons, when it refunds in full on an emailed request with proof of purchase. Save the e-ticket on your phone, and print it if you can.

How long is a Taj Mahal ticket valid, and what ID do you need?

A Taj Mahal ticket is for the date printed on it, and it cannot be moved to another day. An online ticket also names the session you chose, forenoon or afternoon, so book the one in which you will arrive.

Once inside, plan on three hours at most. When the barcoded tickets came in, the ASI made each one valid for three hours, as Gulf News reported in 2018, and in 2019 its Agra Circle warned that staying longer could cost the price of another ticket. A ticket is also yours alone: the ASI calls booked tickets non-transferable.

• Everyone: the original of a government-issued photo ID. The ASI’s terms say you must show one at the entry, and a photocopy or a picture on your phone is not the original.
• Foreign, SAARC and BIMSTEC visitors: your passport, which shows the nationality your price depends on.
• OCI cardholders: the OCI card, which is what earns the Indian price.
• Indian visitors: any government photo ID; the online booking asks for no ID number.

When is the Taj Mahal open, and which gate should you use?

The Taj Mahal opens 30 minutes before sunrise and closes 30 minutes before sunset, every day except Friday, when it is closed to visitors. Both times move with the seasons; our guide to the Taj at sunrise has the times month by month. The Friday closure is the rule that catches most people out, so if Friday is your only day, read what to do in Agra on a Friday first.

Two gates let you in. The official site recommends the East Gate to avoid the crowds; the West Gate is the main entrance. No polluting vehicle may come within 500 metres of the Taj, so cars stop at Shilpgram for the East Gate and at Amrood ka Teela for the West Gate, and battery buses and golf carts cover the rest. Our guide from Agra Cantt station to the Taj Mahal has the drive, the fares and the drop-off points.

Security will not let through food, tobacco, knives, tripods, drones, phone chargers or headphones; water is allowed, and big bags only slow the check. Cloak rooms at both gates take what you cannot carry in.

Can you buy a Taj Mahal ticket for night viewing?

Yes, but it is a separate ticket for a separate visit: ₹750 for a foreign adult, ₹510 for an Indian adult and ₹500 for a child aged 3 to 15, booked on the ASI’s site from seven days ahead. Night viewing runs on the full-moon night and the two nights either side, never on a Friday or in Ramzan, in eight half-hour batches of up to 50 people. A day ticket does not cover it, and children who go free by day pay at night.

The official pages do not agree on the hours. The official Taj Mahal site gives 8:00 PM to midnight; the Agra district administration’s Taj Mahal page gives 8:30 PM to 12:30 AM. Your ticket shows your batch, and that is the time that counts.

The dates to March 2027, the rules and what you actually see are in our guide to Taj Mahal night viewing.

How do you avoid Taj Mahal ticket touts and scams?

Buy your Taj Mahal ticket only from the ASI: at a window at the West or East Gate, on its booking site or the ONDC apps that sell its tickets, or through an official ASI QR code at the monument. The ASI’s own rules say the same, and the UK government’s travel advice for India warns that ticket touts target foreign nationals in tourist areas.

• Ignore anyone selling tickets or quicker entry outside the gates. A ticket from the window or the ASI site is all you need, and everyone goes through the same security check.
• Check the address before you pay online. The ASI’s site is asi.paygov.org.in. Tour and resale websites also sell Taj entry, often as “skip-the-line” tickets, at their own prices; compare them with ₹1,050, the ASI’s online price for a foreign visitor.
• Do not pay twice for what the foreign ticket includes: shoe covers, water and the battery bus or golf cart from the parking.
• Hire only approved guides and photographers. The official site and the ASI both say to check their identity cards.
• If someone says the windows are shut, go and look. They sell until 45 minutes before sunset on every day but Friday.

Where the official sources disagree

The official pages do not all say the same thing, and a few of the differences matter. This is what they say, side by side, as of 17 Oct 2026:

• Night-viewing hours. The official Taj Mahal site’s night-view page and its FAQ give 8:00 PM to midnight; the Agra district administration’s site gives 8:30 PM to 12:30 AM. Go by the batch on your ticket.
• The ₹500 toll. The district site says foreign visitors “additionally pay” a ₹500 ADA toll, which reads as if it came on top of ₹1,100. It does not: the official Taj Mahal site’s fee table says its prices include the ASI and ADA fees, and on 16 October 2026 the ASI’s booking site showed ₹550 plus ₹500 ADA tax, ₹1,050 in all, for a foreign ticket online.
• Where to book online. The official site’s visiting-hours and FAQ pages send online buyers to asiagracircle.in, the ASI Agra Circle’s own site, and to asi.payumoney.com, where that site’s booking link points. The official night-view page and the district site link to asi.paygov.org.in, the ASI booking site this guide uses.
• Night tickets. The official FAQ says they can be booked seven days ahead on asi.paygov.org.in, and in another answer that they are bought the day before at the ASI’s office on Mall Road, Agra.

Where to eat after the Taj Mahal

For a proper lunch or dinner after the Taj, Altitude Rooftop Lounge, the rooftop restaurant that publishes this journal, is about 6.5 km away on the top floor above MG Road 2 in Shahganj, roughly 25 minutes by road. It opens every day from 1:00 PM to 11:30 PM, with the last kitchen order at 11:00 PM, and its English menu marks every dish veg, non-veg or egg, from North Indian and Mughlai to Italian. There is a bar, but no Taj view; you will have just seen the real thing.

Booking a table is free and can be cancelled up to two hours before. Keep your passport to hand after the Taj: between 1:00 PM and 7:00 PM, a foreign one gets you buy one, get one free on all drinks, dine-in only. Tell the driver “MG Road 2, Shahganj”; a Domino’s is at street level, and a lift goes to the top floor.

To eat closer to the gates, Taj Ganj’s small cafés by the South Gate open early for breakfast, and Palato at the Taj Hotel & Convention Centre, about ten minutes’ walk from the East Gate, serves buffets from 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM. Our guide to lunch in Agra sorts the rest by area.

Taj Mahal ticket price change log

Every check of the prices in this guide against the official pages, newest first. A check that finds no change is logged too, so the date at the top is always the last time somebody looked.