Amsterdam Museumkaart 2026: Is the Museum Card Worth It?

The Museumkaart costs €75 and covers over 500 museums across the Netherlands, including the Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank House. Plenty of guides tell you those two are excluded. They are not, and both of their official ticket pages say so.

The catch is somewhere else entirely, and almost nobody writes it down. The only version of the card a visitor can buy and use on the same day is the temporary one sold at museum ticket desks, and it is capped at five visits in 31 days. The purchase itself counts as one of the five, even if you never walk through the door that day.

What does the Museumkaart cover?

Over 500 museums nationwide, by museum.nl's own count on its FAQ page. Its pass page still says 400+, so treat the exact figure as approximate.

In Amsterdam, every major museum takes the card. Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, Stedelijk, H'ART, Rembrandt House, the Royal Palace, Amsterdam Museum at both current satellite locations while the main building is closed until 2028, and dozens of smaller ones.

Anne Frank House takes it too, at €1, which is the booking fee every ticket there carries. Moco Museum is the one Museumplein name that only gives a 30% discount rather than free entry.

Outside Amsterdam: Mauritshuis (The Hague), Frans Hals Museum (Haarlem), Kröller-Müller Museum (Otterlo), and hundreds of smaller institutions.

Where the card stops: major temporary exhibitions can carry a surcharge, and this is written into the pass terms rather than being a museum going rogue. Two are live right now. The Stedelijk charges cardholders €10 during the Kusama retrospective (11 September 2026 to 17 January 2027), and H'ART charges €7 during Chez Matisse (3 October 2026 to 14 February 2027).

Amsterdam museum ticket prices 2026

What each major Amsterdam museum charges for a 2026 adult ticket, and what a cardholder pays. Every row was checked against the museum's own ticket page in August 2026.

Does the math work?

The five priciest museums the card covers add up to €114.50: Rijksmuseum €25, Van Gogh €25, Stedelijk €22.50, H'ART €22.50, Rembrandt House €19.50. Against a €75 card, that is your ceiling. The best you can do with the tourist version is save about €40.

Break-even is four museums, not three. Rijksmuseum plus Van Gogh plus Stedelijk comes to €72.50, which is €2.50 less than the card. You have to add a fourth full-price museum before the card starts winning, and then it wins by €20.

Two museums is an easy no. Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh together cost €50 against a €75 card. That is €25 you only get back by visiting museums you had not planned on.

Anne Frank House barely moves the needle. It costs €16.50 on its own and €1 with the card, so it saves you €15.50, but it still burns one of your five visits. Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh and Anne Frank comes to €66.50 individually against €76 with the card. Add the Stedelijk and the card finally wins, €89 against €76.

The five-visit cap is the whole story. €75 across five visits sets a floor of €15 a visit before you have seen anything. The Royal Palace costs €13.50, so padding the card out with the smaller museums loses you money rather than saving it. If you want to visit six, eight or twelve museums, you need the permanent card, which arrives by post in five to eight working days and requires a residential address in the Netherlands or another EU country. Visitors from outside the EU cannot get it at all, and the digital card in the app is EU-only for the same reason.

When the Museumkaart is worth it

You're visiting four or more of the expensive ones. Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh, Stedelijk, H'ART and Rembrandt House are the museums that carry the maths. Four of those and you are €20 ahead.

You're travelling beyond Amsterdam. The card works nationwide, and a day trip to the Mauritshuis in The Hague or the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem uses visits on tickets you would have bought anyway.

You live in the EU and expect to come back. This is the case the card was actually built for. Register it, get the permanent card by post, and the five-visit cap disappears for a full year.

When it's not worth it

You only want Rijksmuseum + Van Gogh. Buy individual tickets. Both are on the card, but €50 of tickets against a €75 card means you lose €25. Rijksmuseum entry on GetYourGuide and Van Gogh Museum fast-lane entry both come with free cancellation — useful when the official sites are sold out for your dates.

Short trips with two or three museums. Three of the big names come to €72.50 against a €75 card. Individual tickets are simpler and marginally cheaper.

You're visiting from outside the EU and want more than five museums. The permanent card needs an EU postal address, so the temporary five-visit card is your ceiling. Past five, buy tickets.

You primarily want transport. The card doesn't cover public transport, canal cruises, or non-museum attractions.

The alternatives

I Amsterdam City Card: over 70 museums and attractions plus a canal cruise and a day of bike rental. It now comes in two shapes: Total Experience, which is unlimited and adds GVB public transport, and Explorer, which is 3, 5 or 7 activities with no transport. Total Experience runs €67 for 24 hours, €94 for 48, €115 for 72, €130 for 96 and €140 for 120 (checked August 2026). Explorer is priced per activity count and sits behind the booking widget.

This is where the two cards genuinely differ, and it runs the opposite way to what most guides say. The City Card does not get you into the Van Gogh Museum or Anne Frank House. Van Gogh's ticket shop lists Museumkaart, ICOM and Stadspas but no City Card, and Anne Frank House states plainly that the I amsterdam Card carries no discount. Moco Museum is the mirror image: free with the City Card, only 30% off with the Museumkaart.

Individual tickets: for most two or three day trips, Rijksmuseum plus Van Gogh plus Stedelijk comes to €72.50 against a €75 card, so buying separately is slightly cheaper and a lot simpler. If you go this route, GetYourGuide has refundable versions of all three: Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh, and Stedelijk.

Holland Pass: a credit-based system aimed at visitors whose interests run past art museums. Check its current line-up directly, since the attraction list changes by season.

How to buy

At a participating museum desk. Ask for a Museumkaart and they issue it on the spot. What you get is the temporary card: valid 31 days, five visits, and the purchase counts as the first one even if you don't go in that day. H'ART sells them, and so do many others.

Online at museum.nl. Choose the physical card and it arrives in five to eight working days, or two to three weeks in busy periods. Choose the digital card and you activate it in the Museumkaart app, which is only available to EU residents. Either way you need a residential address in the Netherlands or another EU country, plus a photo, because the card is personal and non-transferable.

Registering the temporary card within its 31 days converts it to the permanent one and removes the five-visit cap. The validity still counts from the original purchase date, so registering late costs you time rather than buying you more.

Note: the Museumkaart isn't sold on GetYourGuide. It's run by Stichting Museumkaart on behalf of the Dutch museum association. If individual tickets make more sense than the card, GetYourGuide has refundable entry for the main museums (linked above).

Frequently asked questions

How much does the Museumkaart cost in 2026?

€75 a year for adults aged 19 and over, and €39 up to and including 18. Renewing an existing card costs €69. The price always buys a full year, whichever way you buy it, including the temporary card sold at museum ticket desks.

Does the Museumkaart include the Van Gogh Museum?

Yes. The Van Gogh Museum's own ticket shop lists Museumkaart entry at €0, and you still book a timed slot. Anne Frank House takes the card too, for the €1 booking fee. The restriction that actually matters is not which museums are covered but how many visits you get: a temporary card bought at a ticket desk is capped at five. If you're planning the Anne Frank House, check whether it's worth it first.

Where can I buy the Museumkaart?

Online at museum.nl, or at the ticket desk of participating museums. The desk version is a temporary card, valid 31 days and five visits, usable straight away. The permanent card is posted to you and needs a residential address in the Netherlands or another EU country.

Is the I Amsterdam City Card better than the Museumkaart?

They solve different problems. The City Card bundles over 70 museums and attractions with a canal cruise, and its Total Experience version adds public transport. The Museumkaart covers over 500 museums nationwide with no transport, and it is the only one of the two that gets you into the Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank House.

For individual museum guides, see our Rijksmuseum tickets guide and Van Gogh Museum tickets guide. For a broader overview, visit our Amsterdam hub.

Last verified: August 2026