Egyptian Museum tickets

How much is an Egyptian Museum ticket in 2026?

550 EGP for a foreign adult and 275 EGP for a foreign student. Egyptians pay 30 EGP, and children under 6 enter free.

The Ministry's 2026 price list, in full:

Dollar figures use the rate in Nile Empire's April 2026 fee list, which put 550 EGP at $11.50. The pound moves, so your card statement may differ by a few cents. Blogs from 2024 still quote 450 EGP: that price is gone.

Compare the other two big museums in Cairo. NMEC, home of the royal mummies, charges the same 550 EGP. The Grand Egyptian Museum charges 1,570 EGP until 31 October 2026 and 1,830 EGP from 1 November 2026. Tahrir is the cheap one now.

Can you pay cash at the Egyptian Museum?

No. The ticket office has been card only since June 2023. Visa, Mastercard and the Egyptian Meeza card all work, and so does contactless.

Tahrir was in the second group of sites to go cashless, together with the Giza pyramids and the Citadel, according to Daily News Egypt. The museum now runs e-ticket machines that print a QR code, and smart gates that scan it as you walk through.

• Tell your bank you are in Egypt. A blocked card is the most common way to lose an hour at the window.
• Carry a second card. Some foreign cards get declined on the first try.
• Keep small notes anyway for the toilets (10 to 20 EGP is normal), the cloakroom and tips. Cash is still king everywhere except the ticket office.

What are the Egyptian Museum opening hours?

Every day from 9 am to 5 pm, Fridays included. The ticket window closes at 4 pm. In Ramadan the museum closes at 4 pm and stops selling at 3 pm.

Those are the Ministry's hours. A few blogs say the museum shuts at 4 pm all year; that is the Ramadan timetable. Ramadan 2027 should fall in about February and March, so check the Ramadan 2027 hours post if you travel then.

There are no evening openings at Tahrir yet. The director floated the idea in 2026, as Al-Monitor reported, but nothing is on the timetable. If you want a museum after dark, NMEC opens on Friday evenings and the GEM on Wednesday and Saturday evenings.

Best times: be at the gate at 9 am, or come after 3 pm. Coach groups fill the ground floor from about 11 am to 2 pm. Since the GEM opened, the museum gets only 1,000 to 2,000 visitors a day, against 7,000 to 8,000 before, so even the busy hours are calmer than they used to be.

Do students and children get a discount?

Students do: 275 EGP, half price, with a valid student card. Children under 6 are free. There is no separate child fare for foreign visitors.

An ISIC card is the safest proof. A university card in English with a current date usually works too; a card in another script may not. The student rate is for foreign students; Egyptian students pay 10 EGP.

For school-age children, the Ministry lists only the adult and student fares, so take your child's passport or school ID and ask at the window. A family of four pays 2,200 EGP here, less than two adult tickets at the GEM. Strollers are fine: the Ministry lists a ramped entrance and an elevator, though the old building has steps in places.

Should you buy Egyptian Museum tickets online?

No need. Tahrir has no timed slots and no sell-outs, and the queue at the window is rarely more than a few minutes. Buy at the door.

This is the opposite of the GEM, which sells foreign visitors timed tickets online only, at visit-gem.com. Booking sites happily sell "skip-the-line" Tahrir tickets at a mark-up. They save you very little: the line you skip is short, and you still pass the same two X-ray checks as everyone else.

Two things are worth booking ahead: a licensed guide (more in guide, audio guide or alone) and, if you are not staying downtown, transport. Fake GEM booking sites are common enough that the museum warned about them in May 2026; Tahrir never needs a third-party ticket at all.

A private car from your hotel to Tahrir and back from $15. Add the guide and the ticket at checkout, or pay the 550 EGP at the door yourself.

★ 4.8 · 4 hours · from $15

Explore the half-day museum transfer → Tour details

Is the Cairo Pass worth it for the Egyptian Museum?

Only if you visit a lot of sites in five days. The pass costs $130 for adults and $70 for students in 2026, it is paid in cash dollars or euros, and it does not cover the GEM or NMEC.

The Cairo Pass gives five consecutive days at the Giza plateau (including inside the Great Pyramid), Saqqara, Dahshur, the Citadel and, by most reports, the Egyptian Museum. Confirm Tahrir at the counter before you pay. You buy it at the Giza plateau, the Citadel or, according to Egypt Trippers, the Egyptian Museum itself, with a passport copy and two passport photos.

The maths: Tahrir is 550 EGP, so the pass only pays off if you also go inside the Great Pyramid and spend a day at Saqqara and Dahshur. For a two or three day Cairo stop, single tickets come out cheaper. And remember the odd split: the pass wants clean cash, the museum window wants a card.

What do Egyptian Museum tours include?

It depends on the listing. The $65 private tour includes the ticket and an Egyptologist. The $15 and $20 tours start as a private car, and the guide and the 550 EGP ticket are options you add.

Read the inclusions, not the headline price:

One guest on the $15 listing put it plainly: "We only had driver only so just a taxi service with our booking. Entrance ticket to museum [...] not included." That is fine if you want a car and your own pace. Just don't expect a guide unless you picked one.

Two listing errors to ignore. The private tour's exclusions still mention a "Mummy Room" fee: that room closed in 2021, when the mummies left for NMEC. And the cheap combo's overview still promises the Rosetta Stone and Tutankhamun's treasures. The Rosetta Stone is in the British Museum in London, and Tut's mask has been at the Grand Egyptian Museum since late October 2025.

What else should you know before you buy?

Phone photos are free, flash and tripods are banned, big bags go to the cloakroom, and you pass two X-ray checks. Allow two to three hours inside.

• Photos: free with a phone. No flash, no tripods, and the Ministry asks you not to photograph other visitors. Commercial filming needs a permit.
• Bags: anything over 40 by 40 cm goes to the cloakroom. Leave knives and scissors at the hotel.
• Security: one X-ray at the outer gate, another at the building door.
• Heat: the upper floor can be warm from May to September. Bring water.
• Time: 90 minutes for the ground floor and the Tanis room, two to three hours for both floors, half a day if you love the subject. The highlights guide has a route.

Frequently asked questions