If you’re looking for free things to do in the Bay Area, especially during the rain — or need ideas for fun cheap things to do with kids — our region has dozens of museums, ranging from immersive experiences at the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco, to planetariums and giant telescopes at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, plus extensive art collections at the San José Museum of Art.
Visiting a museum when you’re paying full price can be expensive, especially with a larger family. But there are several ways to find free or low-cost tickets for Bay Area museums, from regular free days to using your library card or your EBT card.
Keep reading for a list of free days at major local museums, as well as details of free museum entry for kids. Alternatively, jump straight to more options for finding free museum tickets:
Go on a museum’s free day
Best if: You don’t mind being flexible about which museum you visit.
Many of the museums in the Bay Area have certain days on which it’s totally free to enter — usually in the first week of every month. Often, these free days will have no conditions attached. But sometimes, you’ll need to prove you’re a resident of that city or region, with photo ID. We’ve marked with an asterisk (*) the museums that only extend this promotion to residents.
Remember that special exhibits are rarely included in free general admission, and that some museums could have a crowd capacity limit on free days.
If you have a specific museum you want to visit for free, the most reliable way to find their free day(s) is to search for their website and find details of any free days they offer.
Otherwise, here’s just some of the major Bay Area museums with free days each month, plus the days they offer them and any residency requirements. Be sure to click through to see details of free entry, including whether online reservations are needed.
Asian Art Museum Free First Sundays
The Asian Art Museum is free on the first Sunday of the month.
- Free museum entry for kids here? Free always for ages 12 and under.
de Young Museum and Legion of Honor*
Free Saturdays at the de Young Museum and Free Saturdays at the Legion of Honor offer free admission for Bay Area residents every Saturday. Both museums are free for all, not just Bay Area residents, on the first Tuesday of every month.
- Free museum entry for kids here? Free always for ages 17 and under.
Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD)
MoAD offers free admission with its THRIVE @ MoAD Community Day every second Saturday of the month.
- Free museum entry for kids here? Free always for ages 11 and under.
On the first Sunday of every month, general admission at the Oakland Museum of California is free.
- Free museum entry for kids here? Free always for ages 12 and under.
Chabot Space and Science Center
Chabot offers free telescope viewing (not museum entry) on Friday and Saturdays 7:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m., weather permitting.
- Free museum entry for kids here? Free always for ages under 2.
BAMPFA, the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
BAMPFA offers free entry to all galleries on the first Thursday of each month.
- Free museum entry for kids here? Free always for ages 18 and under, and one adult accompanying a child age 13 and under also gets free admission.
Free admission after 6 p.m. on the first Friday of every month.
- Free museum entry for kids here? Free always for ages 17 and under.
Please note that as of January, SFMOMA has “temporarily paused” its Free Day program, which previously offered free admission for Bay Area residents on the first Thursday of the month. The next SFMOMA Free Family Day in 2026 is still scheduled for Sunday, June 14.
- Free museum entry for kids here? Free always for ages 18 and under.
Regularly scheduled free days aren’t the only way to visit a museum near you for free or a small cost. Keep reading for more ways to find free or low-cost tickets to museums in the Bay Area.
