Helping Indian pilgrims snag Tirumala temple tickets: a copy-paste mini extension took it to 2k users in one week around a ticket release

TTD QuickFill is a free Chrome extension built by Niranjan V, a developer in Bengaluru. You store your family's names and 12-digit Aadhaar numbers (India's national ID) once, then click to copy and paste them when booking ₹300 Tirumala temple tickets. When the temple released December tickets on Sep 24, it went from 254 users to 2,000 in one week, then flatlined. What it shows is how demand for a "fixed-date ticket booking form" can spike, and how crowded this category has become.

"My dream came true"

On 2026 Sep 22, a user named Raghu HN left a five-star review for TTD QuickFill on the Chrome Web Store:

"Just wow. With your extension and Swamy's blessings, my dream came true."

The "dream" was a ₹300 Special Entry Darshan ticket at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) temple, roughly ¥25. TTD releases tickets for months ahead on one fixed day each month, and they're gone within minutes. Each booking allows up to 6 people, and each person needs a name, age, gender, ID type, and 12-digit Aadhaar number. Those typing by hand often hit "Quota Full" before they finish.

Two days later, on the morning of Sep 24, TTD released December tickets (TTD official news, announced 9-12 ahead). According to historical user-count data from third-party extension trackers, QuickFill had 21 users on Sep 254, 25 by Sep 1,000, and 27 by Sep 2,000. Since its Aug 22 listing, nearly all of its growth has happened in that one week.

The store has 10 ratings in total, all five stars, and almost all say the same thing: got the ticket, may the developer be blessed.

What it is

How it works: store each pilgrim's details in the extension popup once (up to 5 profiles, e.g. "Family", "Parents", "Solo"). Open the TTD booking page, and a 📋 button sits in the bottom right; click it to open the copy panel. Click "Name", then Ctrl+V into the form. It has a "Rapid mode": after each paste, the next value goes straight to the clipboard, so filling 6 people means clicking a field, pasting, and repeating. Pick age, gender and ID type yourself.

The extension is only 71KB with 4 permissions (storage, clipboard, notifications, alarms), and it doesn't even request access to the TTD website.

Why it took off

The demand shows up on schedule every month, and people will pay for it. On the Reddit subreddit r/TirumalaDarshan, where TTD booking people trade tips, form-filling for hire is an established side business: people on Telegram charge ₹1,000 per booking to fill forms for others, and speed is the whole skill. For a ₹300 ticket, some people will pay more than three times that to have someone else do the typing.

The developer promoted it in that subreddit himself. On Aug 25, the author posted "TTD QuickFill – Free Chrome Extension for TTD Special Entry Darshan 🙏" from the account u/Illustrious-You-3471, got 80 upvotes and 20 comments, and attached a screen recording of a real booking. On Sep 24, the release-day booking, he posted a mobile version teaser that got 38 upvotes. This subreddit is where people discuss TTD online booking tactics, and before each release day someone always asks "what extension do you use?"

Free. Some of the earlier competitors had already started charging, and people in the subreddit complained: "TTD Autofill extension isn't free anymore." One Chrome Web Store review of QuickFill from August reads "best plugin for ttd forms and free too".

The timing worked. The posts, the free offer and the screen recordings built word of mouth, and it paid off on the Sep 24 release day. After that day, new users stopped arriving.

TTD started blocking plugins, and it changed its approach

On Oct 13, the TTD website began intercepting automated form filling: values injected by scripts were cleared. A TTD news account on X posted "Good news … TTD website now blocking autofill extensions", which reached 142k views.

The next day (10-14), QuickFill shipped version 3.0.3, switching from "auto-fill" to the current "click to copy, paste it yourself" model and cutting its permissions from 7 to 4. The store description now says directly: "TTD's booking form only accepts what you type or paste yourself, so QuickFill doesn't fill or submit anything for you." The author also posted a "TTD has blocked auto-fill extensions" notice in the subreddit (37 upvotes, 28 comments), noting his plugin had already been updated. On Oct 25 a user even commented that they had booked a ticket with it.

To be clear, the version users had until 2,000 still auto-filled. The "compliant copy-paste" change came later. It preserved the extension but did not boost it. The October release after the block brought no new growth, and the category was shrinking at the same time: Tirumala Darshan Assistant fell from 9,000 to 8,000, and Autofill Assist fell from 2,000 to 1,000 (Chrome Web Store, November).

Where the money comes from

The Chrome version is free. The money is on mobile: the Android app is free to download, and on release day you buy a 24-hour pass inside the app for ₹50, paid via UPI or card (Dodo Payments). Charging only on the day it's needed keeps the barrier low and matches the demand rhythm.

It can't go on Google Play. The author said on Reddit that it was rejected several times (the app embeds the TTD official site and uses "TTD" in its name), so APKs are distributed from GitHub. The website even has a section: "If an app called TTD QuickFill asks for your camera, contacts or SMS permissions, it is not ours, uninstall it immediately." Total APK downloads are around 236. Even if all of them paid, revenue would be in the low thousands to ten thousand rupees (estimate), pocket money.

Competitors that charge more aggressively: TTD AUTOFILL PRO, sold off-store at ₹1,499 / 3 months; TTD Darshan Autofill, selling passes per use; and the two with the largest user bases (30k and 10k) both have in-app purchases or subscriptions. People are paying, but QuickFill isn't the one collecting it.

Who it's competing with

(Chrome Web Store, 11-06)

The most telling case is the origin of the second-place TTD Autofill Assistant. Early 2026, its author posted in the same subreddit, opening with "My dad lost a ticket because typing his Aadhaar was too slow, my cousin paid ₹1000 to someone on Telegram, they were just faster at typing", saying "I'm not an agent, this is completely free". The post got 138 upvotes and 106 comments. Today it has 10k users and is labeled Premium. QuickFill followed the same path: same community, same "free" pitch, same developer stepping in personally. It just arrived eight months later, when the shelf already had twenty-odd products.

If it were you

Verdict: you can learn a playbook here, but chasing TTD as a category isn't worth it. Twenty-odd extensions are competing for one release day a month, TTD has started blocking automation, and QuickFill itself stopped at 2,000. The transferable pattern: find a place with a fixed release date, tickets that sell out in minutes, and long forms, and get there before others do.

Good fit for: people who are already inside a "booking community" and know its rules and slang: reservations for temples and attractions outside India, visa or consulate appointments in certain countries, hospital registration, popular exam sign-ups. Ideally someone fluent in that language and community who can post in their native tongue and answer questions in the comments.

Not a good fit for: anyone wanting to build another one in a crowded place like TTD or Indian train booking (IRCTC Tatkal); anyone hoping to live on subscriptions (demand appears one day a month, and free alternatives are everywhere); anyone unwilling to post and reply in the community and just wanting to list and rely on search traffic.

How to build it: a tens-of-KB extension that can be finished in one to two weeks. Build it from day one as "user pastes and submits themselves", request as few permissions as possible, and stay away from CAPTCHAs, OTPs and auto-submit. If the platform blocks it, auto-fill dies first. Add a release-day alert and countdown so that "when it opens" becomes part of the product.

How to get users: copy what QuickFill and the 10k-user competitor did: in the forums or groups where people needing these bookings gather, open with a real story, record an actual booking walkthrough, and state clearly that it's free. Post two or three days before the release, then post again on release day. Growth concentrates in the release week; after that it runs on word of mouth and the next monthly release.

When to be early: the sooner the better, and you need to be listed before the next release. In this category, going from the first extension to twenty-odd took only eight or nine months.

What would show the read is wrong: ① QuickFill or a similar product grows again on a later release day (say, past 3,000), which would mean there's more room here than it looks; ② a new similar extension for a booking scenario outside TTD crosses 10k through community posts within one or two releases, which would mean the model replicates and is worth doubling down on; ③ the reverse: if TTD moves to a lottery or forces face or CAPTCHA checks on every field, copy-paste stops saving time and this whole class of extension disappears.