Several San Francisco and Bay Area museums offer free admission days in September 2026. The calendar is unusually front-loaded this month: September 1 is the first Tuesday, so the de Young, the Legion of Honor and the Conservatory of Flowers are all free on the first day of the month. Free days draw crowds, so arriving near opening helps. Special exhibitions almost always carry a separate fee even on free days.
Free Days in September 2026
Tuesday, September 1: The de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, and the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park are each free to all on the first Tuesday of the month. At the de Young and the Legion, free admission covers the permanent collection galleries only. Full price still applies to special exhibitions, which this month means Treasures of the Pharaohs at the de Young and The Etruscans at the Legion.
Wednesday, September 2: The GLBT Historical Society Museum in the Castro is free to all on the first Wednesday of the month, sponsored by the Bob Ross Foundation. Free tickets are not reservable online that day; entry is first come, first served.
Thursday, September 3: The Museum of Craft and Design in the Dogpatch is free on the first Thursday of the month, no ticket needed. Across the bay, BAMPFA, the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, has free galleries on the first Thursday as well.
Sunday, September 6: The Asian Art Museum in Civic Center is free to all in its collection galleries on the first Sunday of the month, 10am to 5pm. Special exhibition tickets are $15 that day instead of the usual surcharge. Same-day walk-up availability is limited on free Sundays, so reserving ahead helps.
Tuesday, September 8: The San Francisco Botanical Garden is free to all on the second Tuesday of the month.
What the Free Days Get You This Month
September is a better month than most to use a free Tuesday, because one of the month’s new exhibitions is included with general admission rather than ticketed separately, and because two paid shows are in their final stretch.
The Etruscans: From the Heart of Ancient Italy closes at the Legion of Honor on September 20, and Eternal Paris: Photographing the City of Light opens there on September 5 in Gallery 22. Eternal Paris is included with general admission rather than ticketed separately, which means a free Tuesday or a free Saturday covers it. That is the single most useful thing to know about free days in September.
At the de Young, A Gallery of Their Own and Superficial Matters both opened on August 15 and both run into 2027. Treasures of the Pharaohs runs through January 31, 2027 and is ticketed separately.
Free Every Week or Every Day
The de Young and the Legion of Honor are free every Saturday for residents of the nine Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. Bring a driver license or a postmarked envelope showing your address, and book online in advance to save time at the door. As with first Tuesdays, this covers the permanent collection galleries only. Visitors 17 and under are always free in those galleries.
All three Gardens of Golden Gate Park sites, the Conservatory of Flowers, the Japanese Tea Garden, and the San Francisco Botanical Garden, are free any day for San Francisco residents with proof of address, and for veterans and Museums for All participants. The Japanese Tea Garden is also free to everyone from 9 to 10am on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The Botanical Garden is free to everyone from 7:30 to 9am daily.
SFMOMA is free every day for visitors 18 and under.
Other Ways In
Discover and Go: California public library cardholders can reserve free museum passes through the Discover and Go program, which covers the de Young, the Legion of Honor, the Asian Art Museum, and others. Passes are limited and book up quickly.
Bank of America Museums on Us: Bank of America, Merrill, and Bank of America Private Bank cardholders get free general admission at the de Young and Legion of Honor on the first full weekend of the month, which is September 5 and 6. Tickets are day-of and on-site only. Note that September 5 is also a free Saturday for Bay Area residents, so the card is only the deciding factor if you live outside the nine counties.
Museums for All: Visitors with a Medi-Cal or EBT card get free general admission at the de Young, the Legion of Honor, the Asian Art Museum, the Museum of Craft and Design, and the Gardens of Golden Gate Park. The number of free entries per card varies by museum. At the Asian Art Museum the program covers up to four family members.
Transit discount: The de Young and Legion of Honor take $3 off admission with proof of purchase from BART, Muni, Caltrain, or another Bay Area transit system, in person only.
Good to Know
Free days and resident programs change. Check each museum’s website before you go, especially around holidays and for special exhibitions. September 7 is Labor Day, which falls on a Monday, when several museums including the de Young and the Legion are normally closed; check hours before planning a holiday visit.
The Exploratorium and the California Academy of Sciences do not have a regular monthly free day. The Museum of the African Diaspora is closed for installation through September 29 and reopens on September 30, so it has no free day this month.
For everything else happening this month, see our guide to things to do in San Francisco in September 2026.
Details from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s free and reduced admission page and its 2026 advance exhibition schedule, and the Asian Art Museum’s free and reduced admission page.
Photo: Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
