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9/11 Memorial and Museum Tickets: Prices, Free Days, Hours

Nine of the ten results for 9/11 memorial museum tickets are the museum’s own pages, and the museum does not tell you the two things that cost visitors the most: which days it shuts, and how late you can actually walk in.

The 9/11 Memorial and Museum is two places at one address. The outdoor Memorial is free, open every day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and needs no ticket. The Museum underneath it costs $24 to $36, runs on a timed ticket, is closed to the public on September 11, and closes on most Tuesdays.

This guide prints every current price from the operator’s own pages, lists all nine routes to free entry, and works through the rules that cost people their tickets at the door. Where two official pages disagree, and they do in two places, both versions are printed and we say which one the ticketing partners actually use.

What is free and what is not

The Memorial is the outdoor plaza and it costs nothing. The Museum is underground, ticketed, and a separate decision.

The Memorial Plaza fills the block bounded by Fulton Street to the north, Liberty Street to the south, Greenwich Street to the east and West Street to the west. Two pools sit in the footprints of the towers, ringed by bronze parapets carrying the victims’ names. The operator’s own rules state that plaza access is free of charge and open to all during posted hours.

The Museum sits beneath it. Entry is only through the main visitor entrance on the north side of the glass pavilion, and only with a valid ticket paid in full. The Memorial opened in 2011. The Museum opened in 2014.

Why guides print two different victim counts

You will see 2,977 and 2,983 used interchangeably, sometimes on the same reseller’s page. They are not interchangeable. The 2001 attacks killed 2,977 people. The February 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing killed six at the same site. The Names Parapets carry names from both attacks, which the operator’s rules document confirms, so a count that stops at 2,977 is using the 2001 figure for a memorial that commemorates both.

9/11 Memorial Museum tickets: every current price

Museum admission is $24 to $36, and every other product on the operator’s page folds that admission into a higher price.

Combination packages sold through the operator’s own partner

These sit on the official discounts page, which matters because most bundle deals you find elsewhere do not.

If the Statue of Liberty is already on your list, price the $54 package against buying the two separately.

• Tickets can be bought up to six months in advance.
• Timed tickets must be bought in advance. On site availability exists but the operator calls it extremely limited.
• Children aged 6 and under enter free, but still need a ticket.
• Groups of 20 or more go through the operator’s contact page, with volume pricing and reserved slots.

On resellers

Third party prices sit on both sides of the official range. On the day we checked, Google’s ticket panel showed the official site at $36, one reseller at $24.11 and another at $19.95. Other guides advertise the Museum “from $30” and “from $36.”

The refund contradiction

Two official pages give opposite answers, so both are printed.

If a refund matters to your booking, call (212) 312-8800 and get the answer confirmed before you pay.

Nine ways to get in free

There are nine routes to a free Museum ticket, and four of them are open to ordinary travelers.

Tickets are released online the same morning at 7 am Eastern, first come first served. They are not released in advance, so this route suits people already in the city who can commit that day.

Two routes that need proof at the door

New York First Sundays needs ID showing you live, work or study in the New York area. Museums for All needs an EBT card at the box office. Neither is a tourist discount, and both are easy to miss because they sit on the discounts page rather than the main ticket page.

When membership beats a ticket

An individual membership is $75, which is close to the cost of two adult tickets, and this is a calculation almost no guide runs.

Every level also includes complimentary audio guides, an annual commemorative gift, first access to public programs, 20 percent off in the Museum Store and 10 percent off in the cafe.

Two conditions apply. Members still need advance timed reservations, and guest passes take up to 14 business days to arrive, so this is not a same day workaround. Membership questions go to (212) 857-0154, a different line from the main visitor number.

Guided tours compared

Five official tours exist and they are easy to confuse, because four include Museum admission and one does not.

The outdoor Memorial tour runs daily and covers the plaza only. Start times shift, and the operator’s own pages do not agree on them, so check the booking page for your date. Book that tour expecting to walk into the Museum afterward and you will need a second ticket. All Museum tours are in English, and the operator describes them as intended for adult and teenage visitors.

Independent tours are a separate market

Third party operators run 90 minute Ground Zero walking tours from around $39, rising to roughly $84 with Museum admission and $109 or more for packages that add One World Observatory. Those tours typically start at St. Paul’s Chapel or inside the Oculus, cap groups at 25, and ask you to check in 30 minutes before the start time.

Hours, and the four times it closes

The Museum is closed to the public on September 11, and most guides do not mention it at all.

The four closures

Tuesday is the one that changes. The operator publishes a Tuesday schedule that varies month to month, and in some months no Tuesday is open at all. We are not printing this year’s list because it is republished annually and would be wrong for you by the time you read this. If you are planning a Tuesday, the operator’s special and extended hours page is the only reliable source.

Last admission is 5:30, not 6

Two official pages disagree. The Tickets and Tours page says 60 minutes prior to closing, which reads as 6 pm. The Getting Here page says 5:30 pm.

How long you actually need

Five sources give five different answers, and the spread is wide enough to change how you build the day.

Nobody is lying. Google’s figure counts everyone who walks onto the plaza, including people who look at the pools for ten minutes and leave. The operator’s 45 to 90 minutes is a complete self guided pass through the exhibitions. The longer figures come from visitors who also did the plaza, queued through security, sat down partway through, or added a tour.

A workable plan: 90 minutes for the Museum, 30 minutes for the plaza, and 20 to 30 minutes for security and the box office if you have not booked ahead. A 60 minute guided tour is added on top, not instead.

The rules that catch visitors out

The operator publishes a long rules document, and several resellers reproduce the prohibited items list from it almost word for word. Four items change how you plan, and those are less widely repeated.

• Restrooms inside are for ticket holders. Non ticket holders can be granted access only in extenuating situations, at security’s discretion, and must pass through screening and be escorted both ways
• Bags are capped at 19 x 17 x 8 inches. That limit applies to the Memorial plaza as well as the Museum, so an oversized bag is a problem before you have bought anything
• Coat rooms sit on the Concourse Lobby level and the Pavilion Auditorium level. Oversize and jogging strollers are prohibited inside and cannot be stored
• Flash photography is prohibited in all Museum areas at all times
• Photography is prohibited outright in the security screening area, the September 11, 2001 historical exhibition except where posted, In Memoriam, the second floor auditorium, the Rebirth at Ground Zero film and the South Tower Gallery
• No food or drink inside except the cafe area. No gum
• Phones must be silenced. Calls are allowed from the Concourse Lobby and the second floor auditorium level only
• Do not place anything in the pools, including coins

Restrooms, wheelchairs and services

Because Museum restrooms are for ticket holders and there is no re-entry, the useful information is where the public restrooms are outside it, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey publishes exactly that.

The Port Authority also publishes downloadable restroom and elevator maps of the Oculus covering street level, balcony level and main level.

Getting there

The E train to World Trade Center puts you closest, about two minutes on foot.

By bus. M55 southbound at Broadway and Thames Street, M55 northbound at Trinity Place and Rector Street, M20 southbound on South End Avenue between Liberty and Albany, M22 southbound on Vesey Street between North End Avenue and West Street.

By PATH. The PATH runs to the World Trade Center terminal from several points in New Jersey. The operator suggests Harrison as a convenient station to park at and ride in from.

By car. The Memorial provides no parking and on street parking in Lower Manhattan is extremely limited. The Battery Parking Garage at 70 Greenwich Street is the nearest practical option, about a 7 to 10 minute walk.

Pass holders. New York Pass and Explorer Pass holders must redeem on site at the ticket windows on the day. CityPASS holders can reserve in advance, but those reservations are limited. Go City pass holders must book a slot in the app up to 14 days ahead and can cancel up to 3 hours before.

If you are walking the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan end leaves you about ten minutes away. Ferries to the Statue of Liberty leave from Battery Park, roughly fifteen minutes south on foot.

Questions people actually ask

Before you go

The 9/11 Memorial and Museum rewards a small amount of planning more than most New York attractions, because its two halves work so differently. The plaza asks nothing of you and is open every day. The Museum wants a timed ticket, an arrival inside a 30 minute window, a bag under 19 x 17 x 8 inches, and a date that is not September 11, not Thanksgiving, not Christmas and not an unscheduled Tuesday.

Compare the official price against the resellers before you buy, because on the day we checked they sat on both sides of it. If a refund could matter, confirm the policy by phone first, since the official site currently states it two different ways. And if two of you are going more than once, price a $75 membership against two tickets before you check out.