How much it costs to visit the Taj Mahal: fees, tickets, rules

The Taj Mahal has tiered entry prices, set by who you are and not by when you arrive. The Uttar Pradesh tourism department lists a foreign tourist at Rs 1100, a citizen of a SAARC or BIMSTEC country at Rs 540, and a domestic visitor, Indian citizen or OCI cardholder at Rs 50, each with an optional extra Rs 200 for the main mausoleum.^1,2,3 Those are the headline figures for anyone asking how much it costs to visit the Taj Mahal.

The gap between the tiers is large, and the pages do not explain it, so we will not guess at a reason. What matters for a traveller is to find the line that applies to your passport or card and to read the extra Rs 200 as a separate decision.¹ The extra is optional, which means you can walk the garden and the platform on the basic ticket and still see the monument from every outside angle, so the choice is about the interior alone, not about whether the visit is worth making.

All amounts are in rupees, exactly as the department states them, and we do not convert them. Prices on official pages change from time to time, so check the current table before you travel; the page we use is the department's visiting-hours and ticketing page. A foreign visitor on a private tour usually pays the fee in advance through the operator, but the official table is the place to confirm what a given ticket should cost.

There are two routes. The tourism department says day tickets can be bought either from the ticket windows at both gates or online, and that the Archaeological Survey of India's ticketing sites offer e-tickets to foreign and domestic visitors for the Taj Mahal and other monuments.^23,6 The windows are at the east and west gates, where sales run from one hour before sunrise until 45 minutes before sunset.^10,11

Online is the cheaper route, and usually the faster one. The department says tickets bought online carry a discount of Rs 5 per Indian ticket and Rs 50 per foreigner ticket.⁵ The pages we read list one set of day fees and do not mention a separate ticket for Taj Mahal sunrise tickets, so a dawn visit uses the ordinary day ticket and the same gates, which open 30 minutes before the sun.²⁴

A ticket still has to be shown at the gate, and every visitor is asked to carry an identity proof issued by the authorities.⁹ There are separate queues for foreign and domestic tourists, with signs to direct each group.⁸ If you buy at the window, join the queue early on a busy morning. If you buy online, keep the ticket on your phone, because a flat battery at the gate is a bad start to a day that began at dawn.

Entry at the Taj Mahal is a security procedure as much as a ticket check. The department asks visitors to avoid big bags and books, because they may increase the security check time, and it lists items that are prohibited inside, among them tripods, drones, food, tobacco and knives.^33,34 Drones are strictly prohibited inside and around the monument, and tripods need permission issued by the Archaeological Survey of India.^35,36 The page on what to bring has the full checklist.

Behaviour inside the complex is also covered. Mobile phones are to be kept switched off or on silent, and tourists are advised to stay inside the monument as directed on the ticket or by ASI staff.^37,25 The south gate is closed to entry and allows exit only, so plan your route out as well as in.¹³ None of this is hard, but it explains why queues move faster for visitors who arrive prepared.

If you need to leave a bag, the department says the east gate has a cloak room beside its ticket window and the west gate has one at the shopping complex.³⁸ Use that rather than carrying a large bag through the queue. A small day bag, a ticket, a photo ID and a bottle of water is the lightest kit that still gets you through. The rest can wait at the gate or in the car, with the driver, until you return.