Passenger guide
Tatkal booking, explained
Tatkal booking is the last-day quota Indian Railways keeps for people who missed the advance window. Tickets are sold on IRCTC and at PRS counters. IndiaTrainStatus does not sell them. Use this page for the clock, the extra fare, and what a confirmed Tatkal PNR will not refund, then book on IRCTC.
Not a government website. Not IRCTC. If a train has no Tatkal quota, no guide will invent one.
When Tatkal booking opens
IRCTC's Tatkal FAQ is specific. Booking opens one day before the train leaves its originating station. The journey date is not counted.
AC classes (2A, 3A, 3E, CC, and EC where Tatkal exists) open at 10:00. Non-AC classes (SL, 2S, and FC where it exists) open at 11:00. IRCTC's own example: if the train starts on 2 August, AC Tatkal starts at 10:00 on 1 August, and non-AC at 11:00 that same morning.
The clock is for the originating station, not your boarding station. A train that starts at Howrah at night still opens Tatkal the previous calendar day, even if you board at Asansol the next afternoon.
Some trains, and some classes on a train, have no Tatkal quota. If IRCTC is empty at 10:01, that class may not have one. Our train search will still show the regular quota.
How to book on IRCTC
Log in on irctc.co.in or the IRCTC app. Search the train and date. Choose the Tatkal quota (TQ, or the Tatkal checkbox). Fill the names. Pay. Have the passenger list and a payment method ready before 10:00. The form does not wait.
Railway Board notes on the scheme restrict authorised agents at counters in the first half hour: 10:00 to 10:30 for AC, 11:00 to 11:30 for non-AC. Online, the rush is still ugly. A dropped login at 10:00:20 is a lost ticket.
Ladies quota and general quota cannot be mixed into a Tatkal booking. IRCTC's FAQ says so. No concession either: senior citizen, student, and the rest do not apply.
IRCTC's FAQ says Tatkal is not sold in First AC, and Executive class is often left out even though a charge band is listed. Trust the availability screen for that train.
The extra fare
IRCTC publishes Tatkal as a percentage of basic fare: 10% for second sitting, 30% for other classes, inside a min-max band. The table below is what the Tatkal FAQ listed when this page was written. Railways revise charges. The live total on IRCTC is the one you pay.
| Class | Minimum extra (Rs) | Maximum extra (Rs) |
|---|---|---|
| Second sitting (2S) | 10 | 15 |
| Sleeper (SL) | 100 | 200 |
| AC chair car (CC) | 125 | 225 |
| AC 3 tier (3A) | 300 | 400 |
| AC 2 tier (2A) | 400 | 500 |
| Executive (EC) | 400 | 500 |
The fare calculator on this site can show a class-wise break-up, including a Tatkal line when the data source returns one. Treat it as a preview. GST, superfast, and dynamic bits still settle on IRCTC.
Premium Tatkal (PT) is a different quota with dynamic fares. The opening clock matches ordinary Tatkal. RAC and waitlist are generally not sold there. Confirmed PT tickets follow the same “no refund on cancel” idea. Read the IRCTC screen. We do not price that quota.
ID on the train
One passenger on the PNR must carry a prescribed photo ID in original during the journey. If that ID is missing, the whole party can be treated as travelling without a ticket. IRCTC has said that from 19 August 2015 you do not enter ID numbers while booking ordinary Tatkal. Carry the ID anyway. Aadhaar, a voter card, a passport, a driving licence, or another card from the current prescribed list.
After you get a PNR
Check PNR status like any other ticket. TQWL is the Tatkal waiting list. CNF on Tatkal still waits for the chart before a berth number appears, same as general quota.
A fully waitlisted Tatkal e-ticket after the final chart is dropped, same as other waitlisted e-tickets. Do not board that reserved coach.
Cancellation
IRCTC's Tatkal FAQ: no refund on cancellation of confirmed Tatkal tickets. Railway refund rules say the same, with a carve-out when railway services are disrupted (train cancelled, accommodation not provided, and similar cases). File those through IRCTC, not through this site.
Waitlisted Tatkal tickets follow the waitlist and RAC refund clauses, not the confirmed-Tatkal no-refund rule. Mixed PNRs, where some names are confirmed and some waitlisted, have their own paragraph. IRCTC's January 2026 refund note says that if the entire Tatkal ticket is surrendered up to 30 minutes before scheduled departure, full refund less clerkage can apply even for the confirmed names. Read the current refund page on IRCTC before you cancel. The clause is easy to misread.
The night before
Look up the regular quota first on the fare page. If GNWL is already deep, Tatkal may be the only remaining shot, or it may already be hopeless too. Keep a slower train in mind, or a different class.
Festival weeks eat both general and Tatkal. For Diwali and Chhath, the festival special trains hub lists notified extras. Those sell out too. A special is not a way around the 10:00 rush.
Set an alarm for 9:50 if you need AC, 10:50 for sleeper. Use Indian Standard Time. The originating-station date is the one that counts, not the date printed on your boarding station's clock if you join later.