Taj Mahal timings 2026–27: opening and closing times, closed days and night hours

The Taj Mahal opens 30 minutes before sunrise and closes 30 minutes before sunset, every day except Friday, when it is closed all day. From November 2026 to March 2027 that means opening between about 5:40 and 6:40 AM and closing between about 4:55 and 6:05 PM. The ticket windows open an hour before sunrise and stop selling 45 minutes before sunset.

What time does the Taj Mahal open and close?

The official rule is short: the Taj Mahal opens 30 minutes before sunrise and closes 30 minutes before sunset on its normal operating days, and it is closed for general viewing on Fridays. On every other day, the visiting-hours page of the official website adds, it is always open. Because both ends of the day are tied to the sun, the Taj Mahal opening hours move through the year by more than an hour and a half: the gates open at about 4:53 AM in mid-June and about 6:38 AM in mid-January.

The ticket windows keep the same clock with a margin at each end. At the West Gate, near Saheli Burj, and at the East Gate they open an hour before sunrise, half an hour before the gates, and stop selling 45 minutes before sunset, a quarter of an hour before closing. The South Gate, on the Taj Ganj side, lets people out but not in, and foreign and Indian visitors queue separately.

No polluting vehicle may come within 500 metres of the Taj, so the last stretch is on foot, by battery bus or by golf cart. The official site still names Shilpgram as the East Gate car park and Amrood ka Teela for the West Gate, but the Shilpgram car park closed at the end of May 2026 for building work, so check where East Gate parking is on the day. Allow for that last stretch when you time your arrival; our guide to Taj Mahal parking covers it gate by gate.

Working out today’s Taj Mahal timings

Look up today’s sunrise and sunset for Agra and take 30 minutes off each. Friday 23 October 2026 is a closed day; on Saturday 24 October, sunrise is at 6:22 AM and sunset at 5:41 PM, so the gates open at about 5:52 AM and close at about 5:11 PM, and the windows sell from about 5:22 AM to 4:56 PM. If the day is a Friday, none of this applies: the Taj does not open.

Taj Mahal opening and closing times, month by month

These are the Taj Mahal’s opening and closing times from late October 2026 to the end of March 2027, worked out from timeanddate.com’s sunrise and sunset for Agra with the official 30-minute rule. Each row runs from the first to the last day of the month, so a date in the middle falls in between; the times move by a minute or so a day.

Two points in the winter are worth knowing. The earliest closing, about 4:53 PM, comes from late November to early December, and the latest opening, about 6:39 AM, in mid-January; from February the days lengthen at both ends. By mid-April the gates open at about 5:24 AM, and our Taj Mahal sunrise guide has mid-month times for every month to September 2027.

Which days is the Taj Mahal closed?

Every Friday, all day. The official site says the Taj is closed for general viewing on Fridays, and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which looks after it, opens the complex that day only for prayers at its mosque, between noon and 2:00 PM. There is no Friday ticket, no early-morning exception and no night viewing on a Friday. These are the Fridays to plan around this winter:

• October 2026: 23 and 30
• November 2026: 6, 13, 20 and 27
• December 2026: 4, 11, 18 and 25, Christmas Day
• January 2027: 1, New Year’s Day, then 8, 15, 22 and 29

Christmas Day and New Year’s Day are the two to check twice. In 2026–27 both fall on a Friday, so the Taj is shut on both, while Thursday 24 December, Saturday 26 December, Thursday 31 December and Saturday 2 January are ordinary open days. If Friday is your only day in Agra, the rest of the city stays open: our guide to Agra on a Friday plans the day, from Agra Fort to the view of the Taj from across the river.

Is the Taj Mahal open on Diwali and public holidays?

Yes, unless the holiday falls on a Friday. The official site lists no closing day but Friday, and on 22 October 2026 we found no notice of a holiday closure for 2026–27 on it or on the ASI Agra Circle’s site. Diwali, on Sunday 8 November 2026, is an ordinary open day by that rule, and so are Republic Day and Holi.

The days that do change are the free ones. During the yearly Urs of Shah Jahan, which has fallen in January in recent years, the ASI waives the fee for part of each day: in 2026 the Urs ran from 15 to 17 January, with free entry from 2:00 PM to sunset on the first two days and all day on the third, Aaj Tak reported. Our guide to Taj Mahal free entry days follows the 2027 dates.

For a same-day check, the official site’s helpline is +91 562 2421204, listed as answered every day from 6:30 AM to 9:30 PM.

Is the Taj Mahal open at night?

Only for the night viewing, on five nights around each full moon: the full-moon night and the two nights either side, never on a Friday and not during Ramzan. Each night is split into eight half-hour batches of up to 50 people, and it needs its own ticket, booked on the ASI’s website from seven days before. A day ticket does not cover it.

The official pages disagree on the clock. The official Taj Mahal site gives 8:00 PM to 11:59 PM; the district administration’s Taj Mahal page and the ASI’s Agra Circle give 8:30 PM to 12:30 AM, and the ASI lists eight slots, the first from 8:30 to 9:00 PM and the last from midnight to 12:30 AM. The ASI runs the viewing and prints the batch on your ticket, so go by the ticket. The official site says to report at Shilpgram, near the East Gate, half an hour before it for the security check; with the Shilpgram car park closed since May 2026 for building work, confirm the reporting point when you book. Leave your phone behind: phones are not allowed at night.

In 2026–27 the nights are 24 to 28 October, 22 to 26 November, 21 to 24 December, 20, 21, 23 and 24 January and 20 to 23 March, with none in February because of Ramzan, according to the ASI’s notice on the official night-viewing page. There is no light show at the Taj Mahal; the evening sound-and-light show is at Agra Fort. Our guide to Taj Mahal night viewing has the tickets, what you see and the rules.

How long do you need, and is there a three-hour limit?

Two to three hours covers most visits: the security check, the great gateway, the walk down the garden, the marble terrace, the red sandstone mosque and guest house on either side, and the main mausoleum if you have the ₹200 ticket for it. Add the Taj Museum, open from 10:00 AM, and the battery bus or the walk from the car park, and a relaxed visit fills a morning.

Three hours is also the safe limit to plan for. When the ASI introduced barcoded tickets, each was made valid for three hours, as Gulf News reported in 2018. We found no mention of the limit on the official pages on 22 October 2026, but the official ticketing page still asks visitors to follow the directions on their ticket, or from ASI staff, about their stay inside. Read your ticket, and do not plan a whole day within the walls.

What is the best time of day to visit the Taj Mahal?

Opening time, if you can face the alarm. The official FAQ points out that an early visit avoids both the heat and the crowds, and that the late afternoon usually draws more visitors than sunrise. Midday brings the harshest light and, from April to June, the worst of the heat.

Our guide to the best time to visit Agra goes through the seasons and has the Taj Mahal hour by hour, the sunrise guide covers the first hour inside the walls, and the Taj Mahal photography guide matches the light to the best spots.

Opening hours of Agra Fort, Mehtab Bagh, the Baby Taj and the Taj Museum

Agra’s other Mughal monuments keep simpler hours: sunrise to sunset, every day of the week, Friday included. The official Taj site’s FAQ says so for all of them, and the district administration and the ASI’s Agra Circle list the same hours monument by monument.

The Taj Museum is the one place where the official pages differ: the official Taj site gives 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and the ASI’s Agra Circle, which runs it, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, except on Fridays. Plan on the shorter window. The museum is in the western Jal Mahal, inside the walls, with Mughal miniatures, royal decrees and old plans of the Taj.

Mehtab Bagh is where to see the Taj at sunset, which you cannot do from inside the Taj itself, and it is the Friday answer too. The guides to Agra Fort, Mehtab Bagh and the Baby Taj have their tickets and the best order to see them.

How much is a Taj Mahal ticket?

At the window, ₹1,100 for foreign visitors, ₹540 for citizens of SAARC and BIMSTEC countries and ₹50 for Indian citizens and OCI cardholders, with ₹200 more for the main mausoleum and free entry for children under 15; online tickets are ₹50 cheaper for foreign visitors and ₹5 for everyone else. Our Taj Mahal ticket price guide has every price, how to book on the ASI’s site and a dated change log.

Dinner after a late-afternoon visit

A late-afternoon visit ends at closing time, around 5:00 PM in December and 5:45 PM at the end of February, which leaves the evening free. Altitude Rooftop Lounge, the rooftop restaurant that publishes this journal, is about 6.5 km away, roughly 25 minutes by road, on the top floor above MG Road 2 at Jaipur House. It is open 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.

There is a bar. There is no Taj view from the roof, so watch the sunset from Mehtab Bagh first if you want one more look. Travellers on a foreign passport get buy one, get one free on all drinks from 1:00 to 7:00 PM, dine-in, under the offer terms, and booking a table is free. To eat nearer the gates, our guide to restaurants near the Taj Mahal sorts them by gate and by meal.