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Plan your trip · Agra

How much does a trip to Agra cost?

Rough daily budgets for Agra and how to handle money on the ground. Pair it with getting around.

By Touristoo · Updated

What Agra costs

Agra is cheap by north-Indian standards, with one enormous exception: entry to the Taj Mahal costs a foreign visitor more than everything else in a two-day trip combined. Outside that ticket, this is a ₹1,500–2,500-a-day city for a careful traveller, ₹4,000–7,000 for a comfortable one, and unlimited at the top end if you want a room with the Taj out of the window.

🎟️ Sightseeing — the two-tier price and the discount

The Taj Mahal, 2026 rates:

  • Indian and OCI cardholders — ₹50
  • SAARC and BIMSTEC nationals — ₹540
  • Other foreign visitors — ₹1,100
  • Main mausoleum (the inner chamber with the cenotaphs) — +₹200 for everyone, paid separately at a counter inside. Totals: ₹250 / ₹740 / ₹1,300.
  • Children under 15 — free, any nationality.

Some 2026 sources quote ₹1,300 as the foreigner headline figure. That is the total including the mausoleum, not the base ticket — the published ASI rate is ₹1,100 plus an optional ₹200.

What the foreigner ticket already includes, which most visitors do not know: shoe covers, a 500 ml bottle of water, and an e-rickshaw token from the parking area to the gate. Do not pay again for these.

Booking online through the ASI portal saves about ₹5 on an Indian ticket and ₹50 on a foreign one — trivial money, but what you are really buying is the right to skip the counter queue, which at sunrise in peak season can eat the exact half-hour of good light you got up early for. Tickets are valid for three hours, and foreign nationals need a passport at the gate.

Night viewing is separate: ₹510 for Indian adults, ₹750 for foreign adults, ₹500 for children aged 3–15, free under three. It runs on only five nights a month — the full moon plus two nights either side — and never on Fridays or during Ramadan. 400 visitors a night in eight batches of 50, half an hour each, roughly 8:00 PM to midnight. You must book at least 24 hours ahead at the ASI office or online; there are no walk-up night tickets. Report at Shilpgram near the East Gate about 30 minutes early for security, with photo ID.

Free entry days occur during Shah Jahan's annual Urs and World Heritage Week, 19–25 November, when the ASI waives entry. The ₹200 mausoleum surcharge may still apply — confirm at the gate.

Other monuments:

That Taj-linked discount is the one saving worth planning around. Keep your Taj ticket and present it at Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri and Sikandra and you pay the lower rate at each. There is no Agra-wide composite ticket, unlike Jaipur's ₹550 / ₹1,700 two-day pass — so do not go looking for one.

Guides. A government-licensed guide is about ₹1,800 for a group of up to five — a fixed fee, not per person, so it is ₹360 each for a full group and the whole ₹1,800 for a solo traveller. Men offering 'free' or ₹500 guiding at the gates are unlicensed and legally barred from the marble platform, so you pay and then lose them. Budget ₹1,800–2,500 for a real guide at the Taj, or ₹0 and a good guidebook.

🛏️ Where you sleep

Location matters more in Agra than almost anywhere, because of the 4:30 AM start. Stay in Taj Ganj or on Fatehabad Road and you can walk or take a two-minute e-rickshaw to the East Gate.

  • Hostel dorm and budget guesthouse, Taj Ganj — ₹500–1,500. Rooftops with Taj views start in this bracket, which is absurd value.
  • Budget hotel, Fatehabad Road or Sadar — ₹1,200–2,500
  • Mid-range hotel — ₹2,500–6,000
  • Taj-view room — ₹6,000–15,000. The view is real and worth it if you are not going in at sunrise anyway.
  • Heritage and business luxury (ITC Mughal, Trident, Jaypee Palace) — ₹8,000–20,000
  • The Oberoi Amarvilas — every single room has an unobstructed view of the Taj from a balcony, at roughly ₹50,000–1,00,000+ a night. The most expensive hotel view in India and genuinely unique.

October to March is peak and prices rise sharply; book ahead for Diwali, Christmas, New Year and Republic Day. April to June is brutally hot, often above 45°C, and rooms drop 30–50%. July to September is monsoon and cheapest.

🍛 Food

Agra's food is cheap and specific, and the famous things are all street-level:

  • Bedai with aloo sabzi and jalebi — ₹30–50 a plate. The Agra breakfast, sold 6:00–10:00 AM at Deviram near Jama Masjid and on MG Road. A complete meal for under ₹100.
  • Chaat — ₹20–80. Golgappe, dahi bhalle, aloo tikki, papdi chaat, bhalla. Best 5:00–8:00 PM in Sadar Bazaar's Chaat Gali, Kinari Bazaar and MG Road.
  • Petha — ₹100–500 a kg at ordinary shops, ₹300–800 at the premium names. Buy by weight and taste before you buy; most shops will give you a sample if you ask.
  • Dalmoth — ₹200–400 a kg. The take-home snack.
  • Malai lassi — ₹40–90 in Kinari Bazaar.
  • Chole bhature, paratha, samosa — ₹60–150
  • A meal at a budget restaurant — ₹150–300
  • Mughlai main course — ₹200–500 a dish
  • Dinner for two at a mid-range restaurant — ₹500–1,000
  • Esphahan at the Oberoi Amarvilas or Peshawri at ITC Mughal — ₹5,000–15,000 for two. The Mughal fine-dining experience, and the only place in Agra where food is the destination rather than the fuel.

Unlike Jaipur, Agra is not a vegetarian city. Mughlai meat cooking is the local tradition, so kebabs, korma and biryani are everywhere. Vegetarians are still well served — Dasaprakash for South Indian, Joney's Place for small cheap vegetarian meals, and the Jain bhojanalayas — but the city's centre of gravity is meat.

Carry cash. Many street stalls and small restaurants are cash-only, though UPI is increasingly accepted. ₹2,000 in small notes covers a day.

🚕 Transport

  • Metro — ₹10–30 a trip, Taj East Gate to Mankameshwar
  • E-rickshaw — ₹20–80 shared, ₹150–200 for the vehicle. The best value in the city.
  • Auto-rickshaw — ₹50–200 in-city; ₹200–350 from Cantt to the Taj. Meters are not used; the fair fare is about 40% of the first quote.
  • Uber / Ola — ₹100–300 typical, ₹250–450 Cantt to Taj. Scarce before 6:00 AM, which is exactly when you need one.
  • Cycle rickshaw — about ₹40 from the Taj to Agra Fort
  • Full-day car with driver — ₹1,500–2,500
  • Fatehpur Sikri return by taxi — ₹1,500–2,500, or fold it into an onward Agra-to-Jaipur transfer

Daily transport budget: ₹300–700 for a normal sightseeing day using e-rickshaws and one app cab.

🛍️ Shopping

  • Petha and dalmoth — ₹200–800 a kg. The standard gift.
  • Marble inlay (parchin kari) — coasters and small boxes ₹300–2,000; tabletops ₹3,000–50,000+. Real inlay is stone set flush into marble and is heavy and cold; imitations are paint or glued chips and are light.
  • Zari and zardozi embroidery — borders by the metre from ₹200; embroidered panels ₹1,500–25,000 depending on thread and density
  • Leather goods — sandals ₹400–2,000, bags ₹800–5,000. Agra is a manufacturing centre, so prices here are better than in Delhi or Jaipur.
  • Miniature Taj replicas — ₹200 for painted plaster, ₹5,000+ for carved marble

Haggle 20–40% off the first quote in the bazaars; do not haggle in Shilpgram or the hotel emporiums, where prices are closer to fixed. Kinari Bazaar is closed on Tuesdays.

Do not buy gemstones from anyone who approaches you. The resell-abroad-at-a-profit story told in Agra and Jaipur is a misleading offer in every instance.

💰 Three daily budgets

Shoestring — ₹1,500–2,500 a day (excluding the Taj ticket). Guesthouse or dorm ₹500–900, street food and one cheap restaurant meal ₹250–450, e-rickshaws and the metro ₹150–300, one paid monument besides the Taj ₹30–50, water and chai ₹100.

Mid-range — ₹4,000–7,000 a day. Mid-range hotel ₹2,500–4,000 between two, restaurant lunch and dinner ₹700–1,200, app cabs and autos ₹500–800, the Taj plus Fort plus Sikandra with the discount ₹1,300–2,000 for a foreign couple, shopping allowance ₹500+.

Comfort — ₹15,000+ a day. Taj-view or heritage hotel ₹8,000–20,000, Esphahan or Peshawri dinner ₹5,000–15,000 for two, a private car and driver ₹1,500–2,500, a licensed guide at the Taj ₹1,800, night viewing if the moon cooperates ₹1,500 for two.

A one-day foreign visitor doing the Taj properly — ticket ₹1,300, mausoleum included, licensed guide share ₹360, transport ₹400, food ₹600 — comes to roughly ₹2,700 before accommodation, about $32. That is remarkably little for one of the seven wonders, and the reason Agra rewards budget travellers.

🌫️ The season caveat nobody budgets for

December and January mornings are frequently fogbound, and dense fog can hide the Taj entirely at sunrise — the exact moment you paid to see. Trains and the Yamuna Expressway slow down too. If you are travelling then, build a two-night stay rather than a day trip from Delhi, so you have a second morning, and favour late-morning or sunset light over sunrise.

April to June runs above 45°C. Monument prices do not change but your day does: sight at dawn, sleep or eat indoors 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and go to Mehtab Bagh at sunset.

💳 Money practicalities

UPI works widely in Agra — Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm at sweet shops, chaat stalls and many auto drivers. Foreign cards work in hotels and larger restaurants but not in the bazaars. ATMs are plentiful on Fatehabad Road and in Sadar Bazaar.

Carry ₹2,000–3,000 in small notes — ₹10, ₹20, ₹50, ₹100. E-rickshaw drivers, chaat stalls and shoe deposits all need exact change, and 'no change' is how a negotiated fare quietly becomes a higher one.

Tipping is not obligatory: ₹50–100 to a driver who waits all day, 5–10% in a sit-down restaurant if no service charge appears on the bill, ₹10–20 to a shoe-keeper at a monument. Check for a service charge before tipping on top of it — upscale restaurants add 5–10% automatically.

For getting between all of these, see the Agra transport guide.