Published rate card
Tour guide charges in India — the whole card
A licensed guide is ₹1,200 to ₹3,000 a day depending on the language, and 60% of that for a four-hour half day. Those are the two numbers on this page and there are no others: no per-monument fee, no peak-season rate, no surcharge after you have confirmed. The two competitors holding page one for this search publish no price at all — one keeps its rates in a downloadable sheet and the other says "below tariff".
Cheapest day rate
₹1,200
Dearest day rate
₹3,000
Half day
60% of the day rate
Languages
10
The guide fee
Day and half-day rates, by language
The fee is set by the language the guide is examined in, not by the city and not by the monument. A Japanese-speaking guide costs the same in Agra as in Varanasi.
| Language | Half day · 4 hours | Full day · 8 hours | Who it serves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hindi — हिन्दी | ₹750 | ₹1,200 | Domestic travellers from across India, and NRI families returning with relatives |
| English — English | ₹900 | ₹1,500 | United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Singapore, South Africa |
| Russian — Русский | ₹1,500 | ₹2,500 | Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Armenia |
| French — Français | ₹1,700 | ₹2,800 | France, Belgium, Switzerland, Québec, Morocco, Tunisia |
| German — Deutsch | ₹1,700 | ₹2,800 | Germany, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland, South Tyrol |
| Italian — Italiano | ₹1,700 | ₹2,800 | Italy, Italian-speaking Switzerland, San Marino |
| Portuguese — Português | ₹1,700 | ₹2,800 | Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique |
| Spanish — Español | ₹1,700 | ₹2,800 | Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, United States (Hispanic travellers) |
| Japanese — 日本語 | ₹1,800 | ₹3,000 | Japan — independent travellers and organised group tours |
| Mandarin — 中文 | ₹1,800 | ₹3,000 | Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia |
How the half-day figure is worked out
A four-hour engagement is charged at 60% of the day rate, rounded up to the nearest ₹50. English at ₹1,500 a day is therefore ₹900 for a half day, and Japanese at ₹3,000 is ₹1,800. The rule is printed here rather than left implicit so that you can check the arithmetic on the table above instead of taking the second column on trust.
A half day is four hours from the pickup time. It is not "a morning" — if a sunrise start means the guide is with you from 05:15 to 09:15, that is the half day, and the clock does not stop while you have breakfast.
With a vehicle
Guide, car and driver on one price
The vehicle half of a guided day is the site's published local rental package — 4 hr / 40 km for a half day and 8 hr / 80 km for a full one. The totals below are the guide fee plus that package and nothing else.
Half day
4 hours, 40 km included
₹900guide only
With a vehicle and driver
- Sedan (Swift Dzire / Honda Amaze) — 4 seats
- ₹2,400
- SUV (Ertiga / Innova) — 6–7 seats
- ₹3,100
- Innova Crysta — 7 seats
- ₹3,700
Guide ₹900 plus the published 4 hr / 40 km rental package. Monument entry tickets are paid at the gate and are not included.
Full day
8 hours, 80 km included
₹1,500guide only
With a vehicle and driver
- Sedan (Swift Dzire / Honda Amaze) — 4 seats
- ₹4,000
- SUV (Ertiga / Innova) — 6–7 seats
- ₹5,000
- Innova Crysta — 7 seats
- ₹6,000
Guide ₹1,500 plus the published 8 hr / 80 km rental package. Monument entry tickets are paid at the gate and are not included.
English-speaking guide shown. For another language, add the difference from the table above.
| Package | Sedan | SUV | Innova Crysta | Beyond the included km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Half day — 4 hr / 40 km | ₹1,500 | ₹2,200 | ₹2,800 | ₹12/km – ₹18/km |
| Full day — 8 hr / 80 km | ₹2,500 | ₹3,500 | ₹4,500 | ₹12/km – ₹18/km |
What is not in the fee
Monument tickets, and everything else you will be asked to pay
What the fare covers
- The licensed guide for the hours booked, at the rate confirmed in writing
- The guide’s licence card photographed and sent before any money changes hands
- An AC vehicle and driver on the published package, if you take the bundled rate
- Fuel, tolls and parking within the package distance, and the driver’s allowance
- Ticket-counter help — which tier, which gate, which queue
What it does not
- Monument entry tickets. These go to the monument, not to us, and each city page lists them by monument
- Meals for you and, by convention, a meal for the guide on a full day
- Distance beyond the package’s included kilometres, at the published per-km rate
- Camera and video charges where a monument levies them
- Gratuity. Customary in India, never compulsory, and the day rate is complete without it
On tipping
₹300 to ₹500 at the end of a full day is the customary gesture if you were happy, and ₹500 to ₹1,000 on a multi-day tour. Nobody will ask you for it and no guide will behave differently without it. We state a figure only because "tipping is appreciated" is useless to someone who has not travelled in India before and would rather know the convention than guess at it.
By city
The same card, applied in each of the eight cities
Each city page carries this rate against that city’s own monuments, entry fees and opening hours, plus a half-day and a full-day itinerary written for it.
Questions people ask
Guide charges
Our team is here to help. Contact us for personalized assistance.
Get it in writing before you pay anything
Send the city, the language and the dates. We reply with the guide’s name, a photograph of their licence card, the hours and the total — and none of it changes afterwards.
We send the guide’s licence card before you pay anything. Nothing is charged to confirm.