Tickets & Tours

9/11 Memorial & Museum Tickets & Tours

Compare every way into the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, from a standalone entry ticket to guided tours and combination passes with One World Observatory. The outdoor memorial plaza is free to walk and needs no ticket, while Museum admission is timed-entry and is best booked ahead. Below you will find what each option includes, how the prices compare, and which one suits the visit you have in mind.

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Best for first-time visitors

New to the site? A guided museum tour pairs timed entry with a storyteller who frames the exhibits, so nothing feels overwhelming on a first visit.

Best premium option

For a dedicated guide and a skyline finale, the private memorial tour with One World Observatory keeps your group small and the pacing entirely your own.

Best budget choice

Just want in? A standalone museum entry ticket is the lowest-cost way to see the exhibitions and the memorial pools at your own pace.

Best combo value

Bundling beats separate tickets: the museum and observatory combo covers the memorial tour, full museum access, and One World’s skyline views in one booking.

Top 9/11 Memorial & Museum Experiences

Start with these standout options — the most popular and most complete experiences.

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9/11 Memorial & Museum Entry Ticket

The Museum entry ticket is $36 for adults in 2026. First responders and children under 6 enter free, while the outdoor Memorial is always free, 8 AM to 8 PM.

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9/11 Memorial & Museum Guided Tour

A professional guide walks you through the 9/11 Museum exhibitions and outdoor Memorial with historical context and personal stories. Skip-the-line admission is included, and tours run multiple times daily.

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Upgraded 9/11 Memorial & Museum Tour Experiences

Early entry and VIP guided tours for a deeper, less crowded visit.

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9/11 Museum Early Access Tour

Skip the queues with early morning access to the 9/11 Museum, available before general admission opens. A guided experience walks you through the exhibitions with fewer crowds and more breathing room.

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9/11 Memorial & VIP Museum Tour

Join a guided tour pairing an outdoor memorial walk with a docent-led VIP museum experience. Expert commentary connects the plaza’s memorial pools with the museum’s historical exhibitions and artifacts.

Private 9/11 Memorial & Museum Tour Options

Your own guide and pace, with optional One World Observatory access.

Private Memorial Tour with One World Observatory

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Private 9/11 Memorial & Observatory

Experience a private guided walk through the 9/11 Memorial plaza at your own pace, with the option to add One World Observatory for skyline views. Perfect for groups seeking personalized access and timing flexibility.

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Private 9/11 Memorial Multi-Site Tour

A private guide leads your group through the 9/11 Memorial at your own pace, extending to St. Paul’s Chapel and the Oculus. Optionally add One World Observatory for a complete downtown experience.

9/11 Memorial & Museum Combo Tickets and Passes

Pair your visit with observation decks, Wall Street, or a multi-attraction pass.

Memorial Tour, Museum & One World Observatory

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9/11 Memorial, Museum & Observatory Tour

This all-in-one ticket includes a guided Ground Zero tour, 9/11 Museum admission, and One World Observatory access—all three major Lower Manhattan attractions.

9/11 Memorial, Wall Street & Statue of Liberty Tour

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9/11 Memorial, Wall Street & Liberty Tour

This guided tour visits the 9/11 Memorial, explores historic Wall Street landmarks, and includes a Statue of Liberty ferry ride. A single ticket covers all three must-sees in one morning or half-day trip.

Top of the Rock + The 9/11 Memorial & Museum

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Top of the Rock + Museum Combo

This combo ticket bundles Top of the Rock’s observation deck with 9/11 Museum admission, allowing you to visit both at your own pace. Combine iconic skyline views with memorial exploration in one discounted package.

Value comparisonMulti-attraction pass

New York Explorer Pass Review

The Explorer Pass bundles 9/11 Museum admission with access to dozens of other NYC attractions at a bundled rate. This guide explains how the pass works, its pricing, and whether it delivers savings for your itinerary.

9/11 Memorial & Museum Tickets

What tickets cost, what’s included, and when to book.

Ticket pricingFree options

9/11 Museum Ticket Prices & Discounts

Adult museum tickets are $36, with discounts for seniors, students, and youth. Children 6 and under, veterans, and 9/11 family members enter free.

Do you need to book 9/11 Memorial & Museum tickets in advance?

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When to Book 9/11 Museum Tickets

Peak-time visits require booking weeks in advance; weekdays may have walk-up availability. Free Mondays sell out quickest. Plan ahead for holiday periods and summer weekends to secure your preferred time slot.

9/11 Memorial & Museum Guided tours and free access at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum

Compare tour options and see what costs nothing to visit.

Guided tours of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum: which is right for you?

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Compare 9/11 Guided Tour Options

Standard, early-access, VIP, private, and combination tours with One World Observatory are available. Each offers different crowd levels, group sizes, and add-ons.

Free vs. paid access: what's free at the 9/11 Memorial?

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Free vs. Paid 9/11 Memorial Access

The outdoor Memorial plaza is always free, open 8 AM to 8 PM. The Museum costs $36 for adults but is free on select Mondays; first responders always enter free.

Which 9/11 Memorial & Museum Ticket Should You Choose?

Use this quick comparison to match the ticket type to your travel style.

Ticket	Best For	Book
9/11 Memorial & Museum Entry TicketTimed museum admission, self-guided	Budget visitors exploring at their own pace	Book Now
9/11 Memorial & Museum Guided TourMuseum entry plus guided tour	Visitors wanting expert historical context	Book Now
Memorial Tour + VIP Guided Museum TourMemorial tour, VIP museum guide	In-depth visitors wanting priority access	Book Now
Memorial Tour, Museum, & One World ObservatoryMemorial, museum, observatory admission	Combo seekers covering downtown highlights	Book Now
Private Memorial Tour with One World ObservatoryPrivate guide plus observatory ticket	Families or groups wanting a private guide	Book Now
New York Explorer PassChoose attractions, one flexible pass	Multi-attraction sightseers across New York	Book Now
9/11 Memorial, Wall Street, and Statue of Liberty TourGuided tour of three landmarks	First-timers covering Lower Manhattan landmarks	Book Now
Top of the Rock + The 9/11 Memorial & MuseumObservation deck plus museum entry	Pairing skyline views with memorial history	Book Now

How to Pick the Right 9/11 Memorial & Museum Experience

A few simple ways to decide based on your timing, travel style, and what kind of visit you want.

First visit to Ground Zero

If you want to move through the memorial plaza and museum at your own pace, a standard museum entry ticket covers everything inside the exhibition halls.
Compare what each option actually includes before you commit, because ticket prices and inclusions vary far more than the entrance fee alone suggests.
Timed entry slots for the museum sell out on weekends and around September 11, so check whether you need to book in advance.

Visitors who want the full 9/11 story

A guide fills in the timeline between artifacts, and a guided museum tour connects the memorial pools to the exhibitions below ground.
For a smaller group and deeper access to the historical exhibition, the VIP guided museum tour pairs the plaza with an in-depth interior walk.
Mornings are the quietest hours in the museum, so an early access tour lets you see the Survivor Stairs and Foundation Hall before crowds build.

Adding One World Observatory to your visit

Seeing the skyline from above after the museum changes the perspective entirely, and the memorial, museum and observatory combo covers both in one booking.
Groups who prefer their own guide and schedule should look at the private memorial and observatory option, which skips the shared-tour pacing.
If the observatory feels like too much for one day, a private memorial tour keeps the visit focused on the plaza and reflecting pools.

Fitting the museum into wider NYC sightseeing

Lower Manhattan works well as a single loop, and the Wall Street and Liberty tour ties the memorial to the harbour and financial district in one morning.
Travellers pairing downtown with Midtown views often choose the Top of the Rock combo, which bundles the museum with a Rockefeller Center observation deck slot.
Anyone planning four or more attractions across several days will usually save more with the New York Explorer Pass than with separate tickets.

Booking Tips & Practical Info

What to know before you buy your 9/11 Memorial & Museum tickets.

🎫 Book online in advance — Timed-entry tickets for the 9/11 Memorial & Museum regularly sell out days ahead, especially on weekends and around September 11. Reserve your slot online rather than queuing at the Museum Pavilion box office, where same-day availability is limited.

⏰ Arrive 15 minutes early — Your ticket admits you during a specific 30-minute entry window, and everyone passes through airport-style security screening first. Turning up a quarter-hour before your slot means the queue doesn’t eat into your visit.

🆓 Visit free on Mondays — The Museum offers free admission on Monday evenings, but the limited tickets are released online in advance and disappear within minutes. Set a reminder for the release rather than hoping for walk-up entry.

↩️ Check cancellation cutoff carefully — Most 9/11 Memorial & Museum tickets are non-refundable, though many third-party sellers allow free cancellation up to 24 hours before your entry time. Confirm the policy at checkout if your New York plans are still flexible.

📱 Keep mobile tickets accessible — Your QR code is scanned straight from your phone at the Pavilion entrance, so no printing is needed. Download or screenshot it beforehand, as signal inside the underground galleries is unreliable.

🎧 Audio guide costs extra — General admission covers the historical exhibition, the In Memoriam gallery and Foundation Hall, but the multilingual audio guide and guided tours are add-ons. The outdoor Memorial plaza with its twin reflecting pools is always free and needs no ticket.

Continue Exploring 9/11 Memorial & Museum

Plan the rest of your visit with these guides.

Plan Your Visit

Practical visitor tips.

Explore planning guides →

What to See

Must-see highlights.

Explore highlights →

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about tours, combos, and choosing the right ticket.

A standard 9/11 Memorial & Museum Entry Ticket costs roughly $36 for adults, with reduced rates for seniors, US veterans, students and children aged 7–12, and free entry for kids under 7. The outdoor Memorial plaza with its twin reflecting pools is free to visit and needs no ticket at all — you only pay to enter the underground Museum. Guided and combo options such as the 9/11 Memorial & Museum Guided Tour or the Memorial Tour, Museum, & One World Observatory package cost more because they bundle a guide and/or a second attraction.

Booking 9/11 Memorial & Museum tickets in advance is strongly recommended because the Museum runs on timed entry and popular slots sell out days ahead in summer, on weekends and around the September 11 anniversary. Walk-up tickets are sometimes available at the ticket desk, but you may be sent to a slot several hours later or find the day sold out entirely. Guided options like the Memorial Tour + VIP Guided Museum Tour have small group sizes and fill fastest of all.

The 9/11 Memorial & Museum ticket types differ mainly in how much guiding and how many sites you get. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum Entry Ticket is plain timed-entry admission you explore alone; the 9/11 Memorial & Museum Guided Tour adds a guide inside the Museum; the Memorial Tour + VIP Guided Museum Tour adds an outdoor plaza tour plus priority museum entry; and multi-site options like Memorial Tour, Museum, & One World Observatory, Top of the Rock + The 9/11 Memorial & Museum, or the 9/11 Memorial, Wall Street, and Statue of Liberty Tour bundle in other Manhattan landmarks.

A guided tour of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum adds context that the exhibits alone cannot — guides explain the timeline of the attacks, the meaning of artifacts like the Survivors’ Stairs and the Last Column, and often share first-hand New York perspective. Visiting the 9/11 Memorial & Museum self-guided with the Entry Ticket is cheaper and lets you linger in the emotionally heavy Historical Exhibition at your own pace, which many visitors prefer. If you want both, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum Guided Tour and the Memorial Tour + VIP Guided Museum Tour release you to explore independently once the guided portion ends.

Several combo tickets include the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, and they are usually cheaper than buying each attraction separately. The main options are Memorial Tour, Museum, & One World Observatory, the Private Memorial Tour with One World Observatory, Top of the Rock + The 9/11 Memorial & Museum, and the 9/11 Memorial, Wall Street, and Statue of Liberty Tour. The New York Explorer Pass also covers 9/11 Memorial & Museum admission alongside a chosen number of other city attractions.

Most 9/11 Memorial & Museum tickets booked through online resellers can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours before your selected time slot for a full refund. Private and VIP experiences such as the Private Memorial Tour with One World Observatory sometimes carry stricter terms, so check the cancellation line on your specific booking before paying. The New York Explorer Pass is refundable while unused, typically within a set period from purchase.

The 9/11 Memorial & Museum uses timed entry, so your ticket admits you during a specific window — usually a 15- or 30-minute slot — rather than at any time of day. Arrive within that window and ideally 10–15 minutes early, since everyone passes through airport-style security screening before entering. Once inside the 9/11 Memorial & Museum there is no time limit, and most visitors stay two to three hours.

There is no true skip-the-line entry at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum because every visitor must clear the same mandatory security screening. What a pre-booked ticket does skip is the ticket-purchase queue, and priority-entry products like the Memorial Tour + VIP Guided Museum Tour move you into a faster admissions lane once screening is done. Booking an early morning or late afternoon slot is the most reliable way to keep waiting at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum to a minimum.

The 9/11 Memorial — the outdoor plaza with the two reflecting pools set in the footprints of the Twin Towers and the bronze parapets bearing the 2,983 victims’ names — is free and open to the public with no ticket required. The 9/11 Memorial Museum below ground is the paid part, and that is what every ticket type on this page covers. Guided products such as the Memorial Tour cover the free plaza but charge for the guide’s storytelling and, where included, museum admission.

Plan on about two to three hours for the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, split roughly between 30 minutes on the Memorial plaza and 90 minutes to two hours inside the Museum’s Historical and Memorial exhibitions. Combo tickets that add One World Observatory or Top of the Rock push the total to a half day or more, and the 9/11 Memorial, Wall Street, and Statue of Liberty Tour takes most of a full day. The Historical Exhibition covering the day of the attacks is emotionally intense, so build in time to move through it slowly.

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