MakeMyTrip Myra 2.0 vs ixigo Tara: a head-to-head test on Indian flight searches in 2026
By Vihaan Patel (Vihaan Patel covers the intersection of travel and digital payments — Indian OTAs, airline-direct booking flows, UPI vs credit-card surcharges, RBI tokenisation rules and the booking-funnel mechanics that quietly cost (or save) you money.) · Published · 10 min read
MakeMyTrip's Myra 2.0 and ixigo's Tara are the two most-marketed AI chatbots in Indian OTA land right now. I ran both through identical search scenarios on IndiGo and Air India routes to see which one actually saves you time — and money.
TL;DR — which one wins?
For natural-language query handling, Myra 2.0 edges ahead — it handles multi-condition queries ('cheapest IndiGo flight from Delhi to Mumbai next week, morning only, under ₹4,000') more reliably than Tara, which sometimes defaults to a generic search results page instead of answering directly. Tara's edge is train+flight comparison and its price-trend charts, which are genuinely useful for planning. Neither chatbot should be your only search tool — both have blind spots, and neither is consistently cheaper than going direct to the airline for a clean one-way booking.
What I actually tested — the methodology
I ran both chatbots through eight search scenarios over three days in June 2026, keeping notes on response quality, number of clarifying questions asked, speed to first result, and whether the quoted price matched the booking page. The routes were chosen to be realistic for Indian travellers — not edge cases designed to trip up the bot:
- Delhi (DEL) to Mumbai (BOM), IndiGo, next Saturday, morning flights only.
- Bangalore (BLR) to Chennai (MAA), Air India, cheapest in the next 2 weeks.
- Mumbai (BOM) to Goa (GOI), any airline, under ₹3,500 one-way in July.
- Delhi to Dubai, any airline, roundtrip in October under ₹35,000.
- Kolkata to Singapore, Air India, first week of December.
- Hyderabad to Jaipur, no direct, suggest best connection.
- Bangalore to London, cheapest routing, any month between October and December.
- What is the current baggage allowance on IndiGo for domestic flights?
Scenario 8 was a curveball — factual recall, not a search query. It caught both chatbots in slightly different ways.
Myra 2.0: what it does well and where it stumbles
MakeMyTrip launched Myra as a GPT-powered assistant embedded in its app in 2023 and has iterated to Myra 2.0, which has access to MMT's live inventory. On straightforward searches (scenarios 1, 2, 3), Myra was fast — it returned a filtered result set in about 4–6 seconds and the prices matched the booking page within about a 3–5% range (dynamic pricing means a lag between query and final checkout price is unavoidable on any platform).
Where Myra genuinely impressed me was scenario 4 — the Delhi–Dubai roundtrip with a budget constraint. It surfaced an IndiGo itinerary and two Air India options, explained why one Air India fare was excluded (it exceeded the budget I specified), and flagged that October fares on that route are volatile. That's actually useful contextual output, not just a sorted list.
The stumble: scenario 8, the baggage policy question. Myra gave a confident-sounding answer that was broadly correct but didn't flag that IndiGo's baggage rules vary by fare sub-type (the 'Super Saver' fares have different carry-on policy than 'Flexi'). That's a detail that could cost someone at the airport. A good AI assistant should hedge more on policy questions and point to the official source — always verify baggage rules on IndiGo's official website before travel.
Myra also occasionally upsells MMT's own hotel or add-on products unprompted, which is understandable commercially but mildly annoying when you just want a flight result.
Tara: ixigo's AI and the train integration advantage
ixigo's Tara is built into a super-app that handles trains and buses alongside flights, and this is where it has a structural advantage MMT cannot replicate. On the Hyderabad–Jaipur connection query (scenario 6), Tara offered both the flight connection options and a comparison with the train fare and journey time — a genuinely useful output for a route where the train is often the sensible answer for a budget traveller who has the time.
On pure flight queries, Tara is solid but one step behind Myra in handling complex filter combinations. My 'Mumbai to Goa, any airline, under ₹3,500 in July' query returned a generic search results page rather than a direct answer — Tara seemed to hand off to the standard ixigo search UI rather than resolving the query in the chat interface. Not a dealbreaker, but it's the kind of thing that makes you wonder what the AI layer is actually adding versus the standard search.
Tara's price-trend feature — showing a 30- or 60-day fare history for a route — is legitimately one of the better planning tools in any Indian OTA's arsenal. If you are wondering whether to book now or wait, Tara's trend chart gives you more context than Myra's (which is more booking-journey focused than planning focused).
Price accuracy: does the chatbot fare match the booking page?
This is the question that actually matters. Both chatbots showed fares that were close but not always identical to the checkout price — this is not a flaw, it's the reality of dynamic pricing. By the time you tap 'Book' on any platform, the underlying airline inventory has had up to 30 seconds to change. The gap I observed was typically in the ₹50–₹400 range on domestic queries, and could be ₹500–₹1,500 on international routes where fare class changes happen faster.
Neither Myra nor Tara guarantees price lock until you reach the payment page — which is the same as every other flight booking tool in the world. What a good AI chatbot should do (and Myra does slightly better at this than Tara) is warn you explicitly that the displayed price is a snapshot, not a guarantee.
One thing I noticed: on the BLR–LHR routing query (scenario 7), Myra showed me a fare that included a codeshare segment on Lufthansa, which looked attractive. When I clicked through to the booking page, the codeshare conditions included a separate checked-baggage fee that brought the total cost meaningfully higher. The AI didn't surface that detail. Always check the fare conditions on the checkout page, not just the headline number.
Which OTA is cheaper — MMT or ixigo?
Neither, consistently. Both OTAs pull inventory from airline GDS systems and direct APIs, and their base fares on the same flight are usually within a rounding margin of each other. The real differences are:
- Convenience fees: Both charge per-booking convenience fees that vary by payment method. UPI payments typically attract lower or zero fees; credit card payments attract higher fees, sometimes ₹300–₹600 on a domestic booking. Always check the fee before comparing which OTA is 'cheaper'.
- Cashback and coupon stacking: MMT's 'Black' loyalty programme and ixigo's intermittent coupon drops mean the all-in price after offers can vary meaningfully. But these are promo-dependent and change frequently — not something to build a strategy around.
- Payment method surcharges: RBI tokenisation rules mean both OTAs now store your card as a token, but the surcharge structure varies. If you are paying with a co-branded airline credit card (HDFC Air India card, ICICI IndiGo card), check whether the OTA or the airline's direct site gives you the rewards credit — sometimes direct booking is the only way to earn airline miles on certain fares.
For a clean, unbiased fare comparison across both OTAs and the airlines directly, run the search on a metasearch like FlightGPT first, then book on whichever channel gives you the best all-in price.
Bottom line: Myra, Tara, or something else?
Use Myra 2.0 if you are booking a flight-only query with multiple natural-language filters and you are already in the MMT ecosystem. Use Tara if you want to compare flights against trains on the same route, or if you want a fare trend chart before committing to a date. Neither chatbot replaces a proper metasearch for complex itineraries or multi-airport comparisons — for that, FlightGPT is built specifically for the AI-search use case without being tied to one OTA's inventory. Also worth reading: our Cleartrip Trippy review and the Bengaluru to Europe cheapest routing guide.
Frequently asked questions
Is MakeMyTrip Myra available on the web or only in the app?
Myra 2.0 is primarily available in the MakeMyTrip mobile app (iOS and Android). A limited version is accessible on the MMT website, but the full conversational interface with live inventory integration is best experienced in the app. Features may change — check the current MMT app for the latest Myra capabilities.
Can ixigo Tara book a ticket directly or does it just search?
Tara can hand off to ixigo's booking flow and complete a booking within the ixigo app. The chatbot assists with search and filtering, and once you confirm the flight, the booking proceeds through ixigo's standard checkout. The end booking is on ixigo's platform, not directly on the airline — so ixigo's convenience fees apply.
Does either chatbot have access to real-time fare data?
Both Myra and Tara are connected to their parent OTA's live inventory systems, so the fares they show reflect actual availability at the time of search — not cached data. However, because airline pricing changes in near real-time, the displayed fare may differ by the time you reach the checkout page. This is a known limitation of any flight search tool, not specific to AI chatbots.
Which is better for booking international flights from India — Myra or Tara?
Both handle international searches, but in my testing Myra performed slightly more reliably on complex international queries with multiple filter conditions. Tara's advantage on train comparisons doesn't apply internationally. For international bookings where price accuracy really matters, I'd recommend using a metasearch like FlightGPT to identify the best itinerary, then cross-checking directly on the airline's site or your preferred OTA.
Are there OTA AI chatbots other than Myra and Tara in India?
Yes — Cleartrip has its Trippy AI assistant, and Yatra has rolled out a simpler AI filter tool. EaseMyTrip has also introduced basic AI features. None of these are as marketed or as well-resourced as Myra and Tara as of mid-2026. FlightGPT (flightgpt.in) is a dedicated AI flight metasearch that compares across sources rather than being tied to one OTA's inventory.
Does booking through an AI chatbot cost more than searching manually?
Not inherently — the AI layer doesn't add a fee. The OTA's convenience fee applies regardless of whether you found the flight via chatbot or manual search on the same platform. Where chatbot users can lose money is by not checking the detailed fare conditions (baggage, change fees) before confirming — the conversational flow sometimes buries those details compared to the standard table-view booking flow.