Best Berlin State Museum Tickets, Passes, and Museum Island Deals

Tickets for the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin are reasonably priced, but day tickets are cheaper for two state museum visits, and the museum pass already saves if you see three Berlin museums in three days. Buy museum tickets and reserve free time slot admission online for skip-the-line priority admissions.

Tickets for the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (State Museums) are very reasonably priced for the quality and quantity of artworks and cultural objects on display. Admission tickets for the larger museums are €14, but many are cheaper. Save with combination deals — €24 includes all Museums Island collections for the day and €22 all exhibitions in the Kulturforum. Entry to all national state museums is included in the Berlin Museums Pass and some Berlin Welcome Cards. Buy museum tickets online to skip the lines.

• In 2026, advance reservations are usually only required (and possible) for major temporary exhibitions.

Basic Berlin Museum Ticket and Passes Comparison

Ticket	Price (2026)	Best Ticket For
Single Top Museum	€14	Only one museum visit
Museum Island Ticket	€24	2+ top museums in one day
Kulturforum Ticket	€22	Fine art lovers
Museum Pass Berlin	€32	3-day intensive sightseeing
Welcome Card Museum Island	€62	Transit + museums in 72h
All-Inclusive Card	expensive	Heavy sightseeing

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Ticket Options · Reservations · Day Tickets · Passes · Museum Island · Kulturforum · Free

Ticket Options for the Berlin State Museums

Tickets for the Berlin State Museums are at first glance fairly complicated. Several combination tickets are sold, and the best museums are also included in different tourist museum passes.

The basic Berlin state museum ticket options are:

• Tickets for individual special temporary exhibitions (fairly rare).
• Tickets for a single museum usually include both permanent and any special exhibitions.
• Area day passes: all museums and art collections on the Museums Island, at the Kulturforum, or in the Humboldt Forum.
• Berlin Welcome Card: may include transportation, all Museum Island venues, or be all-inclusive.
• Berlin Museum Pass: over 30 museums in three days for €32 — often the best value.
• Express tickets — a fairly new ticket at about double the regular price, but skips all lines and capacity restrictions for immediate entry to top exhibitions.

Tickets with scanable QR or barcodes are skip-the-line tickets — go directly to the museum entrance (but pick up the free audio guide before entering). Currently, time-slot reservations are only available for a few museums or major temporary exhibitions. Time slots are free, making it sensible to reserve if possible.

Time-Slot Reservations and Admission Tickets for Berlin’s Museums

Three types of standard single-museum, single-admission tickets are available for the national state museums in Berlin:

• Time-slot reservation tickets (Zeitfenstertickets) for the most popular museums and temporary exhibitions are sold online (or available at museums) and have a specific 15 or 30-minute time window during which visitors must enter the museums.
• Day tickets (Tageskarten) for the individual museums and galleries — if sold online, the ticket often has the time as 10:00, but it is valid for admission any time during the calendar day.
• Express tickets to skip the lines for immediate entry, even at capacity-restricted popular exhibitions. Around double the price of regular time-slot reservation tickets.

In 2026, time-slot reservations are essential and possible only for the most popular temporary exhibitions. Even the Neues Museum (Berlin’s most popular museum) is visited without reserving a time slot.

When available, optional time-slot reservations are free online (or in person at museums) for any ticket type (or even possible to make before actually buying a ticket).

Buying a museum ticket and making an optional reservation are two separate transactions — missing an optional time slot does not cancel the admission ticket.

All visitors may buy tickets online or directly in person at the museums.

Area Tickets for the Berlin State Museums and Galleries

The Berlin museum area tickets are good value and are usually cheaper than two individual admissions. Museum tickets cover the permanent displays and many smaller temporary exhibitions.

The main area tickets are for the museums located at:

• Kulturforum
• Museum Island
• Humboldt Forum

Area passes are valid for a calendar day and often give admission without time-slot reservations to all but the most popular exhibitions.

The Berlin Welcome Card + Museum Island covers all state museums on the island (and transportation), while almost all museums in Berlin are included in the Berlin Welcome Card All-Inclusive and the fantastic value 3-day Museumspass Berlin.

For major special exhibitions, a surcharge may be payable in addition to any ticket or pass. Depending on the museum, the temporary exhibition surcharge may be optional or compulsory. Pay the surcharge online or at the relevant museum, not when buying a pass.

Museumsinsel Berlin / Museum Island Berlin Ticket Prices

The area day ticket for all museums on Museum Island — Museumsinsel-Ticket — is only €24 and thus cheaper than any two museums on the same day. Time-slot reservations are usually not necessary, except for major exhibitions.

Museum Island Ticket Prices in 2026:

In 2026, ticket prices for the individual museums are now mostly €14 per museum — most travelers visiting only Museum Island should simply buy the €24 day ticket.

• €14 — Altes Museum / Old Museum (buy from Get Your Guide)
• €14 — Alte Nationalgalerie / Old National Gallery (buy from Get Your Guide — time-slot reservations required during major exhibitions)
• €14 — Bode Museum (buy from Get Your Guide)
• €14 — Neues Museum / New Museum (buy from Get Your Guide) — time-slot reservations sometimes required.
• €14 — Pergamon Das Panorama Exhibition (buy from Get Your Guide) — The permanent exhibitions in the Pergamonmuseum are closed. (Time-slots will be essential once the Pergamon reopens on 4 June 2027.)
• €6 — Friedrichswerdersche Kirche with its display of 19th-century sculptures. (An ideal small museum for spending 30 minutes of a day ticket!)

• James-Simon-Galerie — depends on the special exhibition, often included in the ticket of the organizing museum.

Express Tickets (at around €35!) are sometimes available during major exhibitions — these give immediate entry irrespective of queues and capacity constraints.

Humboldt Forum (Berliner Schloss)

Admission to the museums and exhibitions in the Humboldt Forum (Berliner Schloss) is covered by the Humboldt Forum Ticket (€14 day ticket or €18 for two days). (Note: Humboldt Forum museums are closed on Tuesdays!)

The museums in the Humboldt Forum, including the Ethnological Museum and the Museum for Asian Art, are not covered by the Museumsinsel area ticket but are included in the Berlin Museum Pass. Individual tickets are not available for these two museums.

Kulturforum / Cultural Forum Museum Ticket Prices

The Kulturforum-Ticket at €22 per day easily pays for itself with visits to the world-class permanent exhibitions at the museums and cultural institutions at the Cultural Forum.

Visiting temporary exhibitions at the Neue Nationalgalerie and Gemäldegalerie is usually optional and frequently requires reservations (and surcharges, usually around €20 all-in).

Kulturforum Museum Ticket Prices in 2026:

In 2026, ticket prices for individual museums range from €8 to €14 per museum; most travelers visiting Kulturforum should simply buy the €22 day ticket.

Ticket prices for the individual museums are as follows — special exhibitions may add a small surcharge:

• €14 — Gemäldegalerie / Paintings Gallery (Old Masters) (buy from Tiqets).
• €14 — Neue Nationalgalerie / New National Gallery (20th-century art) — tickets available from Tiqets (special exhibitions may add surcharges, usually around €6, or €20 all-in).
• €10 — Kunstgewerbemuseum / Museum of Decorative Arts (buy from Tiqets).
• ~€8 — Kupferstichkabinett / Museum of Prints and Drawings special exhibitions (buy from Tiqets).
• ~€8 — Kunstbibliothek / Art Library special exhibitions.
• €10 — Musikinstrumenten-Museum / Museum of Musical Instruments (not part of the SMB but usually included in the Kulturforum ticket).

Express Tickets (at around €35) are sometimes available during major exhibitions — these give immediate entry irrespective of queues and capacity constraints.

Tickets for Other Berlin State Museums

Tickets for the other Berlin State Museums are sold mostly individually, but the Berlin Museum Pass and Welcome Card All-Inclusive are valid at most of these museums:

• Around €16 (depending on the temporary exhibitions) — Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart – Berlin / Museum of Contemporary Art in the Hamburg Station in Berlin (buy from Tiqets). Some temporary exhibitions may be seen individually for less.
• €10 — Museum Europäischer Kulturen / Museum of European Cultures in Dahlem (buy from Tiqets).
• €12 — Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenburg near Schloss Charlottenburg (buy from Tiqets). (The Museum Berggruen is closed until 2027.)
• €12 — admission to the Museum für Fotografie / Photography Museum behind the Zoologischer Garten station (buy from Tiqets).
• €8 — Schloss Köpenick Palace — Dependence of the applied arts museum.

Museum Pass and Welcome Card Berlin

For most visitors planning 3+ museums, the Museum Pass Berlin is usually the best-value option. It costs only €32 and is valid for entry into more than 30 museums in Berlin on three consecutive days. These museums include all Berlin State Museums, the German History Museum (closed in 2026), and the Technology Museum, but unfortunately not the popular Haus am Checkpoint Charlie or DDR museums. The pass is available from any participating museum, tourist office, some hotels, or online.

In 2026, the Berlin Museum Pass is in digital format only and will be easiest to buy, e.g., from SMB. Show the QR code on your phone (or, as this is Germany, print out the emailed PDF and show the paper!)

The Berlin Welcome Card Museum Island pass is a further option sold by the tourist office. This 72-h pass includes public transportation, free admission to the permanent collections of the Museum Island museums, and further discounts at other attractions.

The Berlin Welcome Card All-Inclusive is far more expensive but covers many pricy venues in addition to most museums in Berlin.

Annual Passes for the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Annual member passes (Jahreskarten) are good options for residents of Berlin or frequent visitors. In contrast to other passes, these do not restrict you to only a solo entry per venue.

The Berlin State Museums annual passes come in three versions:

• €118 – Classic Plus: valid for all museum and temporary exhibitions at all times, priority admission even without time-slot reservations, except for very popular exhibitions.
• €60 – Classic: valid for all permanent exhibitions at all times. Major temporary exhibitions may have a surcharge. Free time-slot reservations.
• €25 – Basic: valid for all permanent exhibitions at off-peak times, i.e. enter after 3 pm on weekdays and between 11 am and 1 pm on weekends and vacation days. Major temporary exhibitions have a surcharge. Free time-slot reservations.

Buy annual passes online or from the Alte Nationalgalerie, Kulturforum central ticket desk, Hamburger Bahnhof, James-Simon-Galerie, Museum für Fotografie, Neue Nationalgalerie, Neues Museum, or Pergamon Das Panorama.

Which Berlin Museum Ticket Should You Buy?

Best Berlin Museum Ticket for:

• One museum only → Single ticket
• Museum Island → €24 Museum Island day pass
• 3 museum days → Berlin Museum Pass
• Transit + museums → Berlin Welcome Card + Museum Island
• Modern art → Kulturforum day ticket
• Families → Museum Pass + free kids entry in all state museums for under-18-year-olds. (Don’t miss the Technology and Natural History museums.)