Metropolitan Museum tickets: $30, and who pays less
Pay what you wish is for New York State residents and NY, NJ and CT students. Everyone else pays $30, with exhibitions and the Cloisters included on the same day, and no pass or voucher accepted.
An adult ticket to the Metropolitan Museum costs $30, and almost everyone who travels to New York to see it pays exactly that. The famous pay-what-you-wish rule is real, but it has belonged to New York State residents and to students in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut since 2018. Everyone else pays the posted price, and some visitors only find out when they reach the desk and are asked for proof of address.
The ticket itself is generous. It covers every exhibition, including the Costume Institute's current show, and both Met sites on the same day, and it needs no booking or time slot. You can arrive at 3 pm on a Saturday and still have six hours. What it does not do is get you past security, and no ticket sold by anyone else does either. This page sets out who pays what, who gets in free, and what the three products listed here add to the $30.
If you are not a New York resident and do not want a guide, the cheapest and simplest answer is the museum's own ticket, bought online or at a desk on the day. Buying online saves you the ticket queue and lets you go straight to any gallery entrance. That is the whole advantage, and it costs nothing extra.
Three kinds of reader land on this page. New Yorkers, who should never pay $30: bring proof of address and pay what you like. Visitors who want to wander alone, for whom the museum's own ticket is the right purchase and nothing on this site will beat it. And visitors who want some help but not a full tour, for whom the orientation option described below, thirty minutes with a guide and then the rest of the day on your own, is the product that fits.
Prices appear in two currencies on purpose. The museum sells admission in dollars; the providers list their products in euros. A €44.72 product and a $30 ticket cannot be compared without the day's exchange rate, but the logic holds either way: the difference pays for a guide or an orientation, never for a better ticket.
Met Museum Small-Group Tour: Egyptian, European and Asian Art with Admission
Three departments in two hours: Egyptian Art, European Paintings and Asian Art with a live guide, in a group of 12 at most. Museum admission is included.
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Guided Tour or Orientation with Entry Ticket
Small-group, private or a 30-minute orientation, each with Met entry and same-day access to The Met Cloisters. Private tours come in four languages.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Ticket and Guided Tour with a Storyteller Guide
Egyptian tomb models, famous masterpieces and overlooked oddities, told with wit by a storyteller guide. Groups of 15 or fewer, museum admission included.
Ratings collected by Viator, Tripadvisor and Tiqets
What a ticket to the Metropolitan Museum costs
The museum calls its price list Suggested Admission, a wording it adopted in 2016 to settle a class action over its admission signs. For most visitors the word "suggested" no longer means much: since March 2018 the flexible price has been limited to the groups in the first row below.
| Who | Price | How to buy | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York State residents; students in NY, NJ and CT | Pay what you wish, minimum $0.01 | Online only with a New York State billing address; otherwise at a desk | NJ and CT students must buy in person with a student ID |
| Adults | $30 | Online or at a desk | No booking needed, no time slot |
| Seniors, 65 and over | $22 | Online or at a desk | |
| Visitors with a disability | $22 | In person only | An accompanying care partner is free |
| Students | $17 | Online or at a desk | |
| Children 12 and under | Free | Collect the ticket at a desk | |
| Members | Free, membership from $90 a year | Scan the card at any gallery entrance | No ticket needed |
| Groups of 10 or more | $28 adult, $20 senior, $12 student | Register in advance | One group leader free; passes not accepted |
Pay what you wish is not a discount you ask for; it is a price you set. The museum's wording is precise:
The amount you pay for admission is up to you, but you must pay something ($00.01 minimum per ticket).
At the desk you show proof of residence or study. The museum accepts a New York State driver's licence or ID card, an IDNYC card, a current bill or statement with a New York State address, a student ID or a New York library card. Several guides online say utility bills are refused. The museum's own page lists them among the accepted documents.
If you live elsewhere, there is no free day and no free evening for the general public. The long Friday and Saturday hours, to 9 pm, cost the same $30. The only calendar-based free entry is for specific cardholders, listed below.
At the desk
Where you buy, and what you must collect in person
Tickets are sold on the museum's website and at the ticketing desks on site. Three kinds of visitor have to use a desk whatever they do: anyone with a free ticket, who collects it there; visitors buying the $22 disability ticket, which is sold in person only; and students from New Jersey and Connecticut paying what they wish.
Everyone else can buy online and walk to any gallery entrance.
Whichever way you buy, the security check comes first. The museum asks all visitors and members to pass through it and tells them to expect lines at the entrances. At busy times that is the only queue that matters, and a ticket does not shorten it.
Free admission, and what to show
Most free categories are for New Yorkers or museum professionals, but two schemes work for visitors from anywhere in the United States.
| Who | What to show | When |
|---|---|---|
| Bank of America cardholders (Museums on Us) | A Bank of America card | First full weekend of every month |
| Military (Blue Star Museums) | A military ID | Mid-May to Labor Day |
| IDNYC holders | IDNYC card; includes a free one-year membership | Any open day |
| New York State EBT/SNAP holders (Museums for All) | EBT/SNAP card; free membership for two adults plus children 17 and under | Any open day, up to nine people a visit |
| Museum professionals | AAM or ICOM card, Museum Council of NYC card, or a staff ID from another museum | Any open day |
| Students of seven named institutions | Student ID: Bard Graduate Center, Barnard, Columbia, Macaulay Honors (CUNY), NYC high schools, NYU IFA and ISAW | Any open day |
| Care partners | Accompanying a visitor with a disability | Any open day |
The next Museums on Us weekend is 3 and 4 October 2026. Blue Star entry ends each year on Labor Day and returns in mid-May.
The pass, the voucher and the reseller
Three rules explain why this page has no plain ticket on it.
None of the big city passes includes the Met. We checked the New York CityPASS, the New York C3 and the Go City passes on their own pages on 29 September 2026: they cover other museums, not this one. The museum does not accept vouchers or passes from outside ticket sellers: you have to hold a Met ticket, bought from the Met. And resale is prohibited: the museum's ticketing policy forbids reselling any admission ticket without its prior and express authorisation, and says it may refuse entry to anyone holding one.
So what a third party can legitimately sell is a service with admission included, where the operator buys the tickets and walks you in. That is what the three products below are. Judge them on the service, because the ticket inside is the same one you could buy yourself.
The Met does not accept vouchers or passes from any outside ticket sellers.
The three products on this page
| Product | Price | Reviews | What you get | Check before booking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guided or Self-Guided Tour (Viator) | €44.72 | 65, average 4.0 | Admission plus a choice: group tour, private tour, or a 30-minute orientation then time alone. Up to 15 people | Guided options in English or Spanish; the orientation is in English only |
| Skip The Line Ticket + Guided Tour (Tiqets) | €48.41 | 27, average 4.5 | Admission and a two-hour guided walk starting in the Egyptian galleries, groups of 15 or fewer | It skips the ticket desk, not security. Its rooftop upgrade refers to a roof closed until 2030 |
| Highlights Guided Tour with Admission (Viator) | €53.58 | 3, average 4.3 | Two hours on Egyptian art, European paintings and Asian art, 12 people at most | Only three reviews so far |
Only the first is really a self-guided product. Its orientation option gives you half an hour with a licensed guide, who shows you how the building works, then leaves you with your ticket for the rest of the day. For a first visit, that is the most sensible thing in this category. The other two are two-hour guided walks; the guided tours page has twenty more.
Two of the three meet by an Egyptian statue on the right as you enter the Great Hall from Fifth Avenue. The third lists only the museum's address, so check the voucher for the meeting point.
Visiting on your own
On a well-planned day, going without a guide costs you very little. Here is what works.
Choose two areas before you arrive. The building is too large to browse, and the Great Hall sends you in four directions at once. Egypt lies on one side of the Great Hall and Greek and Roman art on the other, both on the ground floor; the European paintings are upstairs.
Check the closed-galleries list the day before. On 29 September 2026 the museum's own data flagged 51 of the 448 numbered galleries on Fifth Avenue as closed, five Egyptian rooms among them. The Temple of Dendur, marked closed on 26 September, was listed as open again that day, which shows how quickly the list changes. The Cantor Roof Garden, the modern and contemporary galleries and the Ancient West Asian galleries are shut for renovation.
Use Friday or Saturday evening if your schedule allows. The Fifth Avenue building stays open until 9 pm on both days, which gives a late-afternoon arrival four hours instead of one.
Look before you go. Since February 2017 the museum has released more than 406,000 images of public-domain works for free reuse, with their catalogue data. The online collection tells you which gallery a work hangs in, and whether it is on view.
The museum also runs its own highlights tours led by trained volunteers, up to an hour long, in English and on some days in ten other languages. Check the day's schedule on the museum's website; we have not been able to confirm the current timetable.
Included in the price
Exhibitions come with the ticket
Every Met ticket includes every exhibition. There is no surcharge for the big shows, including the Costume Institute's Costume Art, on view until 10 January 2027. The only timed tickets the museum has issued recently were for members-only preview days.
The photograph shows a medieval gallery during Heavenly Bodies in 2018, when fashion filled the rooms of the permanent collection. Next spring will be different: on 31 August 2026 the museum announced that its planned Costume Institute exhibition for spring 2027 will not go ahead as planned.
The same ticket admits you to The Met Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park on the same day, for no extra charge. It does not carry over to the next day.
How the ticket rules got here
Pay what you wish for everyone and the three-day ticket both belong to periods that have ended. Dates from the museum's press releases.
The origins
1878
A lease with the city
The museum signs its lease with the City of New York. The Fifth Avenue building stands on public land.
1970–71
Discretionary admission
The museum introduces discretionary, pay-as-you-wish admission.
The growth
May 2013
Same week, two sites
For the 75th anniversary of the Cloisters, a ticket becomes valid for a week at both sites.
October 2013
Prices need the city
An amendment to the 1878 lease confirms that admission changes remain subject to the city's approval.
2016
Suggested, not recommended
A class action is settled and the museum's signs change from recommended to suggested admission.
March 2018
Residents only
Pay what you wish is limited to New York State residents and NY, NJ and CT students. Tickets last three days across three sites.
Today
August 2020
Timed entry
The museum reopens on 29 August after the pandemic closure, with hourly entry slots. They have since been dropped.
September 2020
Same day again
From 12 September a ticket covers exhibitions and same-day entry to both sites, the rule still in force.
Metropolitan Museum tickets: common questions
Can I buy Met tickets at the door?
Yes. Tickets are sold at the desks on site as well as online, and advance booking is not required.
Is the Met free on Fridays?
No. Friday and Saturday have longer hours, to 9 pm, but the same prices. There is no free day or free evening for the general public; free entry depends on who you are, not when you come.
I am not from New York. Do I have to pay $30?
Yes, unless you qualify for one of the reduced or free tickets in the tables above.
Is Costume Art included in the ticket?
Yes. All tickets include exhibitions, and Costume Art is on view until 10 January 2027.
Can I visit the Cloisters on another day with the same ticket?
No. The ticket covers both sites on the date printed on it. The rule that allowed three consecutive days ended in September 2020.
Does my CityPASS or Go City pass include the Met?
No. Neither pass lists the Met among its attractions (checked on 29 September 2026), and the museum does not accept vouchers or passes from outside ticket sellers.
Want the museum explained as you walk?
Twenty guided tours of the museum, from two-hour group highlights to private visits with an art historian.
Data verified on. Prices, eligibility and ticket rules from the museum's admission, complimentary admission and ticketing policies and its press releases.