4 San Antonio institutions with verified free admission. San Antonio's free days split by residency: SAMA and the Witte reserve their free Tuesdays for Bexar County residents (bring proof), while the McNay's H-E-B Thursday nights and first Sundays are open to absolutely everyone.
| Institution | Free day | Who qualifies | Reservation |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Antonio Museum of Art | Tuesdays 4pm–7pm | Bexar County residents with proof of residency | Required |
| McNay Art Museum | Thursdays 4pm–9pm | Everyone — no residency restriction | Required |
| Witte Museum | Tuesdays 3pm–6pm | Bexar County residents with proof of residency | Required |
| San Antonio Zoo | No regular free day | No general-public free day | See page |
| Day | Who's free in San Antonio |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | SAMA (4pm–7pm) · Witte Museum (3pm–6pm) |
| Thursday | McNay Art Museum (4pm–9pm) |
Put the schedules together and a near-free week takes shape: Tuesday belongs to SAMA (4pm–7pm) and Witte Museum (3pm–6pm); Thursday belongs to McNay Art Museum (4pm–9pm). The honest caveat: 2 of San Antonio's 4 programs are resident-gated, so out-of-towners should read each page's "who qualifies" line before building the week around it. Programs that publish date batches stack more days onto this — see their pages for the announced dates.
Walk-up adult admission at the 4 paid San Antonio institutions we track totals $72 — SAMA is the biggest single line at $24. Worked through the free schedule, that's as much as $144 back for two people and $288 for a family of four. The asterisk: SAMA, Witte Museum gate their free routes by residency, so out-of-town totals run lower — each page's "who qualifies" line has the exact rule. Among the 28 covered cities, rosters run a median of 4 institutions — San Antonio's 4 lands above the middle of that range.
Once a month, on the first full weekend, Museums on Us gives Bank of America cardholders free general admission at participating San Antonio institutions. SNAP EBT households can also use Museums for All: up to four people, $5 or less, during normal hours.
Where the free calendars leave gaps, CityPASS San Antonio can cut the cost of San Antonio's marquee paid attractions — compare it with individual prices if you're in town more than a day. Members of institutions elsewhere should try the reciprocity lookup first — NARM, ASTC and AZA reciprocity regularly gets traveling cardholders into San Antonio institutions free.
San Antonio's free-day calendar, condensed to one email a month — verified dates and resident rules only.
↥ Check another museum → Browse all free museum & zoo days →
None of the San Antonio institutions we track are free every day, but 4 run regular free days — see the table above.
Some do. San Antonio Museum of Art and McNay Art Museum and Witte Museum require advance free tickets; every institution page on this site explains its own process and points at the official booking page.