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Madrid’s three big art museums all offer free entry, and Madrid also sells a combined ticket
covering all three. Most guides list both facts on the same page. What they rarely say is that the
two cannot be combined: the Paseo del Arte card is not valid during free-entry hours.
That single restriction means you are choosing between two strategies, not stacking them. Here
is what each one actually costs you, in money and in time.
The three museums, priced
| Museum | Adult ticket | Free entry to the permanent collection |
|---|---|---|
| Prado | €15 | Last two hours daily — Mon–Sat 18:00–20:00, Sun and holidays 17:00–19:00 |
| Reina Sofía | €12 | Mon–Sat 19:00–21:00, plus Saturday afternoon from 14:30 and Sunday morning |
| Thyssen-Bornemisza | €13 | Mondays 12:00–16:00 — permanent collection only, ticket office on the day |
| All three separately | €40 | |
| Paseo del Arte card | About €32.80 from the museums directly | |
opening hours seasonally — the Thyssen in particular publishes different summer hours —
and free-entry windows have changed before. Confirm on the museum’s own site for your date.
Strategy one: the card
The card saves you roughly €7 against three separate tickets — about 18 per cent. That
is real but modest, and the saving is not the main argument for it. The card is valid for a year
from purchase, covers the permanent collections plus selected temporary exhibitions at the Prado
and Reina Sofía, and can be used any day except Mondays at the Thyssen.
What you are really buying is the freedom to visit at a sensible hour, on your own schedule,
across as many days as you like.
Strategy two: the free windows — and why it takes three evenings
Free entry to all three costs nothing, which is a saving of €40 rather than €7. The
constraint is that the windows collide.
The Prado’s free window is 18:00–20:00 and the Reina Sofía’s is 19:00–21:00.
They overlap. You cannot do both properly on a weekday evening, and the Prado is not a museum you
want two hours in — it is the largest of the three by a wide margin, and two hours is a
forced march through the highlights with a queue in front of you, because everybody else has read
the same tip.
The Thyssen breaks the pattern in a useful way: its free window is Monday lunchtime, 12:00 to
16:00, which does not compete with the other two at all. It is also the day the Paseo del Arte card
does not cover the Thyssen — so if you are working from the card, Monday is the
natural day to visit the Thyssen free, and the card handles the other two.
| Card | Free windows | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | About €32.80 | €0 |
| Days needed | Any, spread over up to a year | Realistically three separate visits |
| Time inside | Unlimited within opening hours | Two hours at the Prado and Reina Sofía; four at the Thyssen |
| Queues | Normal | Heaviest of the day — free windows concentrate demand |
| Temporary exhibitions | Selected ones at Prado and Reina Sofía included | Generally not included |
A third product, and when it is the wrong one
Go City sells a Madrid multi-attraction pass, and for this particular trio it does not pay. The passes run from €59 for any three attractions, €79 for a chosen number, and €129 for unlimited visits over a set duration, across more than thirty sites. Set that against €40 for the three museums bought separately, or about €32.80 on the Paseo del Arte card, and the arithmetic is plain: the pass is the more expensive way to see the art alone.
It changes only if your list runs well past the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen — a bullring tour, a cable car, a day trip — at which point you are answering a different question from the one this page answers. See what the Madrid pass covers. Prices as published by Go City for 2026.
The honest answer
If you are in Madrid for two or three days and want to see all three properly, the card is worth
its €32.80 — not for the €7 discount, but because the free-entry route costs you
three evenings and gives you two rushed hours in the biggest museum in the city.
If you are in Madrid longer, or only want one of the three, the free windows are genuinely free
and there is nothing to buy. The best single move for most visitors is the hybrid: Thyssen free on
Monday lunchtime, and pay for the Prado at a time of day when you can take it slowly.
Prices, opening hours and free-entry windows compiled in 2026 from published sources
including
the Thyssen’s own page on the Paseo del Arte card,
its opening hours and prices and
the Paseo del Arte card site.
Museum hours change seasonally and free-entry policies have been revised before; the card’s
exclusion from free hours is stated by the museums but terms can change. Check the museum’s own
site for the date you are visiting before you plan an evening around it.
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Related reading
Living in Madrid, Madrid, Practically, Madrid Airport to the City Centre: What Each Option Really Costs, Day Trips From Madrid, Compared by Journey Time and Cost, What Is the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales in Madrid?.
Featured image: Photo by Adam Jones, Ph.D., source, CC BY-SA 3.0
