Best Time to Visit the Met (2026): Least Busy Days and Hours

The Met by day and hour. BestTime forecasts.

The Met busyness by day

Busyness is shown as a percentage of the museum's own busiest hour of the week (100%), not a head count. Values in brackets are the busyness at that hour.

The 100% mark is the museum's busiest hour, Saturday at 3 PM. Monday is clearly the calmest day: even its 1 PM peak (65%) sits below Thursday's daily average (70%). Thursday is the busiest weekday.

Best time of day to visit

On a normal day the Met follows a classic museum curve. The forecast starts at 10 AM, which is the quietest hour on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Busyness rises through the late morning and peaks in the early afternoon, at 1 PM on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and at 2 PM on Friday and Sunday. Saturday peaks a little later, at 3 PM.

Friday and Saturday are different, because the museum stays open into the evening. On Friday the quietest hour is 8 PM, at 35%, and the calmest stretch is 7 PM to 9 PM. On Saturday, 8 PM is also at 35%, as quiet as the 10 AM opening. Saturday afternoon is the most crowded time of the week, but by 8 PM it is one of the calmest. The evening hours are the best way to see the Met on a weekend.

BestTime estimates a typical visit at 60 to 240 minutes. For a long visit, start at 10 AM on a Monday. For a focused visit to one or two wings, a Friday evening is hard to beat.

Weekdays vs weekends

Weekdays average 65% and weekends 70%. The gap is small, and it comes almost entirely from Saturday (70%). Sunday, at 65%, is as calm as Tuesday or Friday, and its 10 AM hour is at 30%, the lowest value of the week. The single busiest slot is Saturday at 3 PM.

Quieter alternatives nearby

The Museum of Modern Art in Midtown is open on Wednesday in the forecast, so it is the natural plan for the day the Met is closed. Wednesday at MoMA averages 70% of its weekly peak, with a 1 PM peak of 85% and a calm window from 10 AM to 12 PM.

MoMA's quietest day is Monday (60%, level with Tuesday) and its busiest is Saturday (80%), with its weekly peak on Saturday at 3 PM. The quietest hour is 10 AM on every day of the week. Weekdays average 65% and weekends 70%.

Friday is where the two museums split. At MoMA, Friday averages 75% and peaks at 4 PM, so its evening is busy. At the Met, Friday evening is the calmest part of the day. If you want one museum on a Friday night, choose the Met. Percentages are relative to each museum's own peak, so they compare quiet times, not visitor numbers.

Plan your visit

• Visit on Monday. It averages 55%, the lowest of the week.
• Arrive at the 10 AM opening. It is the calmest hour on five of the six open days.
• On Friday or Saturday, go after 7 PM. 8 PM is at 35% on both days.
• Avoid Saturday afternoon, especially 3 PM.
• On Wednesday, when the Met is closed, visit MoMA at 10 AM.
• Check the official site for tickets and current opening hours.

How we measured

These are BestTime forecasts, built from anonymized, aggregated phone location data combined with real-world signals such as weather, events and holidays. Busyness is shown as a percentage of the museum's own busiest hour of the week (100%), so it does not count people. Forecasts show a typical week and leave out seasons, holidays, special events, sell-outs and queues. Read how the forecasts work.

Next steps

• Plan more stops with the free New York City sightseeing guide.
• Browse all busy-times guides.
• Want the skyline too? See the best time to visit Top of the Rock.