In their cladistic analysis of the newly described taxa Bannykus and Xiyunykus, Xu et al. (2018) recovered Tugulusaurus as a member of Alvarezsauria.
In a cladistic study of the newly described species Bannykus and Xiyunykus, Xu et al. (2018) determined that Tugulusaurus belongs to the Alvarezsauria group.