Many of my fellow local tour guides and I have been going to the American Museum of Natural History since childhood.
It's fabulous no matter what age you are.
Naturally, I preferred not having to pay when I was a child since my parents covered the cost!
This post covers ticket prices, discount offers, free entry, and planning tips for the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).
You'll also find information about the exhibits, both permanent and temporary.
In the video below, Katherine, a tour guide with us, Tours by Foot, explains all this to you.
Now, without further ado, onto the good stuff!
TICKETS
All tickets must be purchased online.
Entry to the museum is by 'timed entry', which means you must choose a date and time slot when you buy your tickets.
The museum has a suggested admission policy but only for residents of NY, CT, and NJ. Read more below in the discounts section.
Below are the prices for residents of any other state.
General Admission
- $28 Adults
- $22 Students (with ID)
- $22 Seniors (60+)
- $16 Children (3-12)
- Children 2 and under are free
Purchase tickets or learn more.
This standard ticket includes access to all 45 halls of the museum as well as the Rose Center for Earth and Space and the Gilder Center.
You will have to pay extra for admission to special exhibits.
There are 2 ongoing exhibits. Other exhibits change and they last between several months up to 2 years.
There are three types of add-ons which are explained in our exhibitions section.
- Special Exhibitions (typically two of them at the same time)
- Giant-Screen IMAX Films (topic changes every few months)
- Hayden Planetarium Space Show
If you want to enjoy any of these activities, the following ticket options are available for all add-on options.
General Admission + 1 Add-on
- $34 Adults
- $27 Students & Seniors (60+)
- $20 Children (3-12)
- Children 2 and under are free
Purchase tickets or learn more.
General Admission + All Add-ons
- $39 Adults
- $31 Students & Seniors
- $24 Children (3-12)
- Children 2 and under are free
Purchase tickets or learn more.
TICKET DISCOUNTS
1. Free or Pay What You Wish
For residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with ID, the museum has a "suggested donation" policy. It's essentially free admission.
Often this is referred to as Pay What You Wish because you can enter without paying anything or donating as little or as much as you want. (See what other free museums are in NYC.)
At the AMNH, you have to pay a minimum of one penny per person.
This policy applies to general admission only. To see more exhibits, you can buy a discounted Resident ticket. Find out prices here.
2. Enter the Museum at the Last Time Slot of the Day
You can enter for free when you go during the last time slot of the day (4:30 pm). The museum closes at 5:30 so you will only have one hour.
I think that's enough time to get a sense of the museum and do a walk-through of the best
Here's how it works: when you go online to reserve a date and time slot, choose the 4:30 pm time slot.
But don't count on this free opportunity as it is often fully booked.
3. Tourist Attraction Discount Passes
You can also skip these ticket lines by using a tourist pass.
Tourist passes typically bundle several attractions and tours into one price that can save you anywhere between 15-50%, depending on the pass.
Here are just a handful of the best attractions you can visit at no extra cost with the use of a tourist pass:
- Madame Tussauds
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
- Whitney Museum of American Art
- New York Botanical Garden
- 9/11 Memorial & Museum
- Museum of Modern Art
- Guggenheim Museum
- Empire State Building
- Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
- And more!
The following include tickets to the American Museum of Natural History.
While most of these tourist passes offer only general admission to AMNH, the CityPass also includes one add-on for free.
If you want to enjoy a special exhibition, a giant-screen film or a space show, consider getting this pass to save money on tickets.
4. Discount Websites
In addition to these options, you might also want to check Groupon or LivingSocial to see if they are offering any price cuts on tickets for the American Museum of Natural History.
5. 10% Off at CitySights
Save 10% when you purchase with the promo code SAVE10 to save 10% on General Admission from CitySightsNY.
6. Military Offers
Free for all active-duty members of the U.S. Military. (Be sure to confirm this with the museum as this is not a posted policy).
Additionally, the American Museum of Natural History is a Blue Star Museum. Accordingly, active-duty members of the military (with ID) and up to 5 members of their family.
For more ideas on saving money in the Big Apple, be sure to read about:
- Free NYC attractions
- Our pay-what-you-wish walking tours
- Which NYC tourist pass is best?
- List of Free and Sometimes Free NYC Museums
PLAN YOUR VISIT
This section goes over practical information to help you plan your visit to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).
Included are how to get here, the best times to visit, how much time to devote, and more.
How to Get Here
The American Museum of Natural History is located across the street from Central Park, on Central Park West between West 77th Street and West 81st Street.
There are three entrances. One is at Central Park West (upstairs) at 79th Street.
The other two, both accessible entrances, are at the Rose Center for Earth and Space (at Central Park West/W. 81st Street) and the Gilder Center (or Columbus Ave. at 79th Street).
There are several ways to get to the museum, but I'll cover a few of the easier options below.
Subway
There is a subway stop right in front of the museum at the corner of Central Park West and W 81st St. This is one of the easiest ways to get here.
If you are unfamiliar with the NYC subway, check out our posts:
Bus
The M10 bus stops next to the museum.
In addition to this option, each of the hop-on-hop-off bus tours in New York City stops next to the museum.
Best Times to Visit
The American Museum of Natural History is almost always busy, but there are times when crowds are a bit smaller than usual.
Hours
- 10 am - 5:30 pm
- Open Daily
- Closed for Thanksgiving & Christmas
As with most attractions in New York City, the American Museum of Natural History is most popular during the middle of the day from about 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm (15:00).
If you want to avoid large crowds, consider coming on a weekday either early at 10 am or later in the day after 3 pm.
It’s important to note that the museum is busier than usual on weekends.
Make sure to visit on a weekday for the quietest experience.
What to Expect
At roughly 4 city blocks wide, the American Museum of Natural History is jam-packed with exciting exhibitions.
Most people spend at least 3 ½ hours wandering around the museum, so plan on being there for a while.
I describe some of the more significant sites below in our Tours and Exhibits sections.
If you decide to focus on a few specific exhibits, it might not take as much time.
TIP: Download the AMNH app. It's so helpful as it comes with floor plans, exhibit information, and more.
There's an option to customize the exhibits you want to see so the app provides relevant information only for those exhibits making it easy to find what you are looking for.
TOURS
There are a few tour options to consider. All tours are free with admission.
There are both public and self-guided tours available depending on when you arrive and how you prefer to tour the museum.
Free Public Tours
The museum offers free tours led by museum staff. Tour availability varies from day to day.
You can view the day’s schedule and sign up for a tour at the information desk in the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall on the 1st Floor.
Self-Guided Tours
If you’re not interested in joining a group for a public tour, you can always guide yourself around the museum.
The following self-guided tours are free to use at any time.
Highlights Tour
This tour will take you to some of the most popular exhibits in the museum.
Rather than focusing on just one or two halls, this will take you all over AMNH to see these exhibitions:
- Blue Whale
- Giant Sequoia
- Easter Island Head
- Tyrannosaurus Rex
- Titanosaur
- And more
Read the self-guided Highlights Tour or download the Explorer app to get more out of this experience.
Night at the Museum Tour
As the name implies, this tour is focused on locations featured in the film Night at the Museum.
It includes these exhibits:
- Easter Island Head
- Capuchin Monkey
- Tyrannosaurus Rex
- American Bison
- Alaskan Moose
- African Elephants
- And more
Read the self-guided Night at the Museum Tour or download the Explorer app to get more out of this experience.
If this sounds like fun, you might want to consider their Night at the Museum sleepover event.
Dino Tour
*Currently not available
This tour covers the major dinosaur exhibits in the American Museum of Natural History. Who doesn't love dinosaurs?
You’ll learn more about Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Apatosaurus, Titanosaur and others.
Earth and Space Tour
*Currently not available
This tour features several notable exhibits focused on both geology and astronomy. It's super cool, and I recommend this tour!
You’ll visit the following locations:
- Scales of the Universe
- Ecosystem Sphere
- Monitoring Earthquakes
- Banded Iron Information
- Harriet and Robert Heilbrunn Cosmic Pathway
EXHIBITS
With 45 different halls to explore on 4 separate floors, there is a lot to see and do at the American Museum of Natural History – and that doesn’t even cover all of the add-ons you can enjoy!
Each hall contains multiple exhibits to experience.
This section covers some of the more interesting permanent exhibits at the AMNH.
Keep in mind that the information included here barely scratches the surface of everything offered at this museum with General Admission.
There are also special exhibits (add-ons) available for visitors who want to learn more about specific subjects and experience more hands-on displays.
You can enjoy one of these special exhibits as a free add-on with the New York CityPass.
The Titanosaur
This is the fossil of one of the largest dinosaurs that ever lived.
At 122 feet in length, the Titanosaur towers over everything and everyone in the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Orientation Center.
This cast is so large that it barely fits in the hall and extends out toward the elevator banks, welcoming visitors to the 4th floor in style.
The Blue Whale
Located in the Irma and Paul Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, this 94-foot long, 21,000-point model of a blue whale hangs over the entire room and commands the attention of all visitors.
This model was based on a whale found in 1925, and it’s a pretty accurate representation of the actual animal – which is the largest mammal alive on the planet today!
The Blue Whale is so amazing that it is etched in the memory of anyone who went to the museum as a child. Ask any native New Yorker what their earliest memory of the museum is and they will nearly all say the Blue Whale.
Butterfly of Peace
In the Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals, be dazzled by a suite of 240 diamonds in the shape of a butterfly.
The gems weigh a total of 167 carats and are arranged in this symmetrical pattern organized by similar cuts and colors.
The Mammoth
If you head to the Hall of Advanced Mammals, make sure to check out their incredible Mammoth fossil.
At the base of this exhibit, you will find the mummified remains of a baby wooly mammoth found in an Alaskan gold mine in 1948.
Despite dying over 21,000 years ago, its remains were preserved in the frozen ground.
The Willamette Meteorite
Be sure to visit the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Hall of the Universe on the lower level of the Rose Center for Earth and Space.
Here you will see the largest meteorite discovered (so far!) in the United States. It’s the sixth largest found in the world.
Most meteorites are very small because they break up while entering the Earth’s atmosphere, but this is a rare example of one that remained quite large even after hitting the surface of the planet.
This is also one of only 600 or so iron meteorites found on Earth.
Easter Island Head
Check out the Hall of Pacific Peoples to be amazed by one of the famous statues of Easter Island.
Although this isn’t one of the actual mysterious sculptures, it is a model taken from a mold created during a museum expedition in 1934-1935.
As if that weren’t enough reason to check it out, this is also the same Easter Island head featured in the movie Night at the Museum!
Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation
On May 4, 2023, the highly anticipated Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation opened.
The 230,000-square-foot, six-story center cost $465 million to build and is a stunning and expansive addition to the museum.
It houses almost 4 million scientific specimens and artifacts, about 12% of the museum’s entire collection.
The center's atrium is made from concrete that seemingly flows like designs found only in nature, like coral reefs or desert canyons.
Exhibits include the Davis Family Butterfly Vivarium, where museum guests can walk among hundreds of free-flying butterflies amidst a tropical setting.
Also, there’s an insectarium with an 8,000-pound resin model of a beehive and more.
The Invisible Worlds exhibit is an amazing immersive video experience that focuses on natural processes that are too fast, too slow or too small for the human eye to see.
EVENTS
The American Museum of Natural History hosts special events throughout the year.
Most of these activities are workshops and programs are designed to give visitors an even better learning experience.
However, there are also seasonal events that only happen during certain holidays.
This section will provide a few examples of the more interesting activities you can enjoy at AMNH.
Museum Sleepovers
*Currently suspended until further notice*
This especially popular activity is available throughout the year.
In response to the popularity of the film series with the same name, the American Museum of Natural History has begun to offer a sleepover program for families to come and spend the night!
Spaces are limited and the price of admission is much higher than a regular ticket, but that’s to be expected with such a unique adventure!
This event can sell out months in advance, so I strongly recommend purchasing your ticket at least 90 days before you plan to visit.
- $150/General Admission | $140/Members
- $130/Groups of 15+
- Hours: 6 pm - 9 am
- Includes:
- evening snack and light breakfast
- fossil fact-finding mission by flashlight
- one free movie in the LeFrak Theater
- access to special exhibitions
- Includes cots for all guests to sleep on
- Purchase tickets or learn more
If you’re looking for even more family-friendly fun, read our post about Things to Do with Kids in NYC for dozens of ideas.
Visitors looking for alternative activities after dark should read our post about Things to Do at Night in NYC.
Romance Under the Stars (February)
If you’re looking for something fun to do with your significant other on Valentine’s Day, it’s hard to beat a visit to the Hayden Planetarium.
This event includes an open bar, hors-d'oeuvres, chocolates, and music.
After you’ve had your fill, head in, and enjoy an incredible view of the stars while your host describes some of the more interesting romantic tales tied to the night sky.
For more romantic ideas, check out our post about things to do in NYC in February.
Experience Manhattanhenge (July)
Every July, an incredible event, known colloquially as Manhattanhenge, takes place as the sun sets in perfect alignment with the east-west numbered streets.
Join an astrophysicist at the Hayden Planetarium to learn more about this phenomenon and discover why it happens. The program ends just in time for you to experience the sunset.
If you’re looking for even more summertime fun, read our post on things to do in NYC in July.
Halloween Celebration (October)
Take the kids on a special trick-or-treating adventure at AMNH!
More than 30 of the 45 halls are open for this special event, and you can expect a lot of familiar faces such as Curious George, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Franny K. Stein, Little Critters, and more to show up as well.
There will also be stilt walkers and balloon artists on hand to make things even more fun, as well as performances from local artists and magicians.
Are you looking for even more spooky fun? You’ll find plenty of ideas in our post about things to do in NYC in October.
Kwanzaa Festival (December)
This annual event celebrates African-American heritage in a variety of different ways.
Among other activities, there will be live performances by local musicians and dancers depicting Afro-Cuban traditions.
You can also visit a local artisan marketplace to get an even better sense of this fantastic culture.
Visitors who want to enjoy even more festivities during the holiday season should check our post about things to do in NYC in December.
THINGS TO DO WITH KIDS
Below are several popular NYC attractions to enjoy with your children. They are all included on all three major NYC discount tourist attraction passes.
- Top of the Rock
- Madame Tussauds
- Brooklyn Botanic Garden
- New York Botanical Garden
- Radio City Music Hall Tour
- Luna Park at Coney Island
- Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
- Madison Square Garden Tour
- Hop-on-Hop-off Bus Tour
- Circle Line Landmarks Cruise
Every pass also offers admission to several additional attractions that are great for kids. The following locations are included with specific tourist passes.
- Ripley’s Believe it or Not!
- Yankee Stadium Tour
- New York Aquarium
- Central Park Zoo
- Bronx Zoo
- LEGOLAND
If you want even more ideas for family-friendly activities, make sure to read our extensive post, Things to Do with Kids in New York City.
It includes several free attractions, a long list of kid-friendly museums, and things you can do with your children after dark.
Related Posts
