Booking online
Booking Taj Mahal Tickets Online: An Honest Guide
Two official ASI portals, a seven-day booking window and a passport field that rejects long numbers. What actually works.
Check dates and availability ↗The official ASI booking channels, tested August 2026
| Channel | What it sells | How far ahead | Result when tested |
|---|---|---|---|
| asi.payumoney.com | Day tickets, 8 Agra monuments | 7 days | Working — loaded and priced correctly |
| asi.paygov.org.in | Day tickets and night viewing | 7 days | Working — night dates listed |
| asiagracircle.in | Information only | n/a | Live, but publishes pre-2018 prices |
| tajmahal.gov.in | Information only (UP Tourism) | n/a | Live — links onward to ASI |
| Gate ticket counters | Day tickets | Same day | 1 hr before sunrise to 45 min before sunset |
There are two official portals, not one
This is where most visitors get lost. ASI runs two separate ticketing systems. The older one is reached at asi.payumoney.com, which redirects to a booking application covering 166 monuments nationwide, eight of them in Agra. The newer one, asi.paygov.org.in, sells day tickets and is the only place that sells Taj Mahal night viewing. Both are genuine government systems and both worked when tested. Confusingly, ASI's own refund policy document refers to them by two different internal names. Neither portal is the one linked most prominently from search results, which is a large part of why travellers assume the system is broken.
The seven-day window is the real constraint
This is the fact that matters most and the one almost nobody publishes. ASI's booking system will not sell you a ticket more than seven days before your visit. Queried in August 2026, every Agra monument returned a maximum bookable date exactly seven days out, and the same seven-day ceiling appeared on monuments in Delhi and Odisha, confirming it is system-wide rather than an Agra quirk. If you are planning a trip three months ahead, you simply cannot hold official entry tickets yet. You either set a reminder for a week before, buy at the gate on the day, or book through an operator that manages the timing for you.
The passport field problem
Every booking requires an identity document, and the portal's own configuration limits the passport field to exactly eight characters — no more, no fewer. Plenty of nationalities carry nine-character passport numbers, and those travellers find the form simply refuses to accept a correctly typed number. The portal offers alternative document types, including a catch-all “Others” option accepting six to twelve characters, which is how most people get past it. It is worth knowing before you conclude the site is down. Carry the original of whichever document you enter; ASI's terms require you to present photo ID in its original form at the gate.
Decide about the mausoleum before you pay
The booking flow asks you to choose between “Taj Mahal Only” and “Taj Mahal with Mausoleum” at the point of selecting your date, before payment. Once the ticket is generated there is no mechanism to upgrade it, and ASI does not permit modifications of any kind. You will also pick a broad time slot rather than a precise entry time — the system divides the day into a forenoon window and an afternoon window. Group size is capped: a single booking takes a maximum of five adults and three children, so larger parties need to split across multiple transactions.
Refunds barely exist
ASI's published refund policy is unusually blunt. Once a ticket shows as generated or printed, no refund is given, regardless of whether it was used, and regardless of cancellation, changed plans or an incorrect booking. Modifications after generation are not allowed at all. The one genuine protection covers failed transactions: if money leaves your account and no ticket is produced, the amount is refunded automatically within three to seven working days, with a support address for chasing it. Claims must be raised within thirty days. If the monument itself closes unexpectedly, ASI undertakes to refund in full on production of proof of purchase.
Telling an official site from a copy
ASI displays a standing warning on its own booking portal that a site trading on the name “Taj Mahal tickets” is fraudulent, and that ASI accepts no responsibility for transactions conducted with it. Copycat ticket sites are a persistent problem for this monument specifically. The genuine government channels are asi.payumoney.com and asi.paygov.org.in for purchases, with tajmahal.gov.in run by the Uttar Pradesh Department of Tourism for information only — that site says so itself, and directs all ticketing complaints to ASI. Legitimate tour operators are a valid alternative, but they should describe themselves as operators, never as the official ticket office. This site is a guide, not a ticket office.