Anne Frank House is the single hardest ticket in Amsterdam. Not because the museum is small (it had over a million visitors a year before the pandemic), but because it sells tickets in a way no other major museum does: one weekly drop, six weeks ahead, online only, and they vanish within hours.
If you're reading this within six weeks of your trip and don't already have tickets, the rest of this page is the honest version of what to do.
TL;DR
Tickets for the Anne Frank House are released every Tuesday at 10:00 CEST (Amsterdam time, so 09:00 BST / 04:00 ET / 01:00 PT) for the date exactly six weeks later. From March to October the whole six-week batch can sell out within a few hours - sometimes under an hour in July and August. Tickets are €16.50 for adults and €7 for ages 10-17. The museum does not sell tickets at the door and any "Anne Frank House" tickets sold via Tiqets, GetYourGuide, Viator or other third parties are not valid and get voided on entry. If you missed the release window, your only real options are obsessive last-minute refresh of annefrank.org or visiting in low season.
When tickets actually drop
The single official rule, straight from annefrank.org:
Every Tuesday at 10am CEST all tickets become available for a visit six weeks later.
That means:
| Your visit date | Tickets released on |
|---|---|
| Tuesday 7 July 2026 | Tuesday 26 May 2026, 10:00 CEST |
| Thursday 9 July 2026 | Tuesday 26 May 2026, 10:00 CEST |
| Saturday 11 July 2026 | Tuesday 26 May 2026, 10:00 CEST |
| Tuesday 14 July 2026 | Tuesday 2 June 2026, 10:00 CEST |
Each weekly batch covers the full seven days starting from that Tuesday six weeks out. So a single Tuesday drop is actually a week's worth of tickets, all going live at once.
A few practical points the official page is light on:
- The clock is Amsterdam time (CEST in summer, CET in winter). UK visitors should plan for 09:00; US East Coast 04:00; US West Coast 01:00. Set an alarm.
- The release goes through tickets.annefrank.org. The queue often takes you to a virtual waiting room - that's normal, don't refresh out of it.
- The site holds your spot once you're in. If you're queueing on a phone, don't close the tab to "check something" - you lose your place.
Why they sell out so fast
The Secret Annex is small. The museum throttles entries to roughly one visitor every 30 seconds in peak season, which caps daily capacity around 1,000-1,200 people. Demand in July and August runs at several multiples of that. Releasing one week of tickets each Tuesday concentrates the entire global pool of would-be visitors into a single online queue once per week - so even a moderately popular date sells out in the time it takes most people to make coffee.
This is also why the museum hates third-party resellers and bots. The booking system is rate-limited and ID-locked to a single transaction; aggregators that claim to "secure" tickets are either reselling cancelled/expired entries (invalid) or simply lying.
Pricing in 2026
| Ticket | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Adult (18+) | €16.50 | Includes €1 booking fee |
| Youth (10-17) | €7.00 | Includes €1 booking fee |
| Child (0-9) | €1.00 | Museum advises 10+ due to subject matter |
| Museumkaart | €1.00 | Booking fee only, still timed-entry |
| ICOM | €1.00 | Booking fee only |
Audio is included free with every ticket - there's no separate "with audio guide" upgrade.
If you have time before your trip - the booking checklist
This is the cleanest way to actually get tickets.
| Time before visit | What to do |
|---|---|
| 6+ weeks ahead | Work out the Tuesday your tickets drop. Be on tickets.annefrank.org five minutes before 10:00 CEST, logged in, payment details ready. |
| 4-6 weeks | Past the release - check the calendar daily. Cancellations sometimes appear, especially for weekdays. |
| 2-4 weeks | Last-minute releases happen in batches when group bookings cancel. Check around 9:00 CEST and 21:00 CEST. |
| Same week | Refresh frequently, especially the night before. A few same-day tickets appear most days outside winter. |
| Same day | Don't queue at the door - the museum genuinely doesn't sell walk-ups. Refresh the website from a café. |
The honest version: if you're more than two weeks out from a peak-season visit and haven't got tickets yet, accept that you might not get them, and plan a backup. The waitlist alerts from third-party sites are not affiliated with the museum and don't get you tickets faster.
What to do if it sells out
This is where most guides go fluffy. Here's the realistic list:
- Refresh annefrank.org repeatedly in the days before. Cancellations and held-back inventory do appear. Mornings and late evenings seem to be the most common moments, though the museum publishes no schedule for re-releases.
- Try a weekday morning or a late evening slot. The museum is open until 22:00 daily - the 20:00 and 21:00 slots are the last to sell out and often have availability when daytime slots are gone.
- Visit in low season. November to February (excluding the Christmas week) is genuinely easier - you can often get tickets within a couple of weeks of your visit.
- Do not buy from third-party resellers. Any site that claims to sell Anne Frank House tickets at a markup is selling either invalid tickets or "tours" that conveniently don't include entry. The museum does not partner with any reseller for entry.
What does work as a substitute, if you genuinely can't get in:
- The Anne Frank video tour on the museum's own website is a free, well-produced 360° walkthrough of the Secret Annex. Not the same as standing in it, but better than nothing.
- The Jewish Cultural Quarter (Portuguese Synagogue, Jewish Museum, National Holocaust Museum) is included on the I Amsterdam City Card and covers the wider history with much more space and almost no queues.
- The National Holocaust Memorial Hollandsche Schouwburg sits in the same cluster and is free or low-cost.
None of these replace the Annex, but together they fill the gap reasonably well.
Once you have tickets - what to actually know
- The ticket is timed-entry to a 15-minute slot. Show up at the start of your slot. Late arrivals can be turned away or fitted in at the next available gap.
- Bag policy is strict: nothing larger than A4. No backpacks, no day bags, no rolling cases. There's no luggage storage at the museum, so leave anything bigger at your hotel or at Centraal Station lockers.
- No photography or filming inside the house. Phones must stay away.
- Stairs are steep and there are a lot of them. The museum is not step-free; if mobility is a concern, check the accessibility page on annefrank.org first.
- Audio guide is automatic via your phone or a museum device - free, included, available in around 10 languages.
- Plan about one hour inside. The route is one-way; you can't double back.
Address is Westermarkt 20, on the Prinsengracht. Closest tram is line 13 or 17 to Westermarkt; from Centraal Station it's a 15-minute walk along the canals.
Where to stay so you can walk
The museum is in the Jordaan, on the western canal belt. Hotels around Westermarkt, Negen Straatjes, and the Prinsengracht put you within five minutes' walk - useful if your slot is at 09:00 or 21:00 and you'd rather not factor in a tram. For a full breakdown of which neighbourhood to pick, see our guide to where to stay in Amsterdam for first-time visitors.
Bottom line
The Anne Frank House sells tickets in essentially the most unforgiving way possible: one weekly online drop, six weeks ahead, sold out in hours during peak season, no door sales, no valid reseller route. If your trip is more than six weeks away, mark the Tuesday and set an alarm - the system is genuinely first-come-first-served and works perfectly if you turn up to the digital queue on time. If your trip is closer than that, refresh the website obsessively in the days before, try the late evening slots, and have a backup ready. And ignore anyone selling you an "Anne Frank skip-the-line ticket" for €40 - that's a scam.
For a sense of what's not in this ticket pool but worth your time on Museumplein, see our pages on the Van Gogh Museum and whether the I Amsterdam City Card is worth it. And if your dates are flexible at all, the best time to visit Amsterdam post covers when ticket pressure eases off.
Primary sources used: annefrank.org/tickets, annefrank.org practical information, annefrank.org FAQ.