Is the Budapest Card worth it? 2026 Prices, What's Free and Which Tier Pays

A 72-hour Budapest Card costs 29,990 HUF (about $91). Walk into everything a busy three-day trip would normally include, priced from each venue’s own ticket list, and you would pay 38,450 HUF. That is a real saving of 8,460 HUF, and it vanishes almost entirely the moment you skip one 6,500 HUF Castle Bus ride.

So the card is worth it for a specific kind of trip, and this page shows you exactly which one. Below: every price for the 2026/27 season, what is truly free versus only discounted, two worked trips at 48 and 72 hours, and the people who should not buy it at all. If you want the numbers for your own itinerary, the Budapest Card savings calculator does that in a minute.

📋 At a Glance

What it is	Budapest's official city card, run by BKK, the city's transport authority
Prices	17,990 HUF (24h) to 38,990 HUF (96h); 72h FLEXI 27,990, 72h PLUS 39,990
Free	All BKK transport, Lukács Bath, one Danube cruise, Zugliget Chairlift, 40 free programs
Only discounted	Széchenyi and Rudas (20%), Basilica (20%), Dohány Synagogue (10%), Zoo (20%)
Not included	Parliament; the 100E airport bus on Classic cards
Where to buy	Online (voucher), BKK customer centers, BKK ticket machines
Skip if	You plan fewer than three paid sights a day, or you mainly walk

Budapest Card prices, 2026/2027 season

BKK sells three families of card. The Classic comes in four lengths, the PLUS adds the airport bus and a few extras to a 72-hour card, and the FLEXI swaps the long free list for five programs you choose.

Card	Price (HUF)	Price (approx. USD)	Valid for
Classic 24-hour	17,990	$55	24 hours
Classic 48-hour	23,990	$73	48 hours
Classic 72-hour	29,990	$91	72 hours
72-hour FLEXI	27,990	$85	72 hours
72-hour PLUS	39,990	$121	72 hours
Classic 96-hour	38,990	$118	96 hours

There is one adult price and no separate child card. Children under 6 already ride BKK transport free, and many museums let small children in free or cheaply, so a family often needs cards only for the adults.

Source: BKK, Budapest Card and BKK fare table, read on 29 October 2026.

What changed for 2026

• A new season and new cards. The 2026 cards are valid from 1 May 2026 to 30 April 2027. 2025 cards and vouchers stopped working on 30 April 2026, so an old card bought secondhand is worthless.
• “40 free programs.” BKK now advertises 40 free attractions and programs plus more than 30 partners giving 10% to 25% off.
• Lukács on every Classic card. BKK’s tier pages for all four Classic lengths and the PLUS list Szent Lukács Thermal Bath as free.
• Names on the free list worth knowing: the Citadella with its Liberty Bastion exhibition on Gellért Hill, the MOL Campus SkyDeck viewing deck, the Pál-völgyi Cave, and a free drink at Time Out Market.
• No 120-hour card. Ninety-six hours is the longest you can buy.

Source: BKK, Budapest Card physical card terms, BKK, 24-hour card page and BKK partner list, read on 29 October 2026.

What is free on the Classic and PLUS cards

BKK prints the same free list on every Classic tier page and on the PLUS page:

• Unlimited BKK public transport inside the city limits: metro, tram, bus, trolleybus and the suburban HÉV within Budapest.
• Szent Lukács Thermal Bath and Swimming Pool. Guests must be 14 or over.
• One Danube sightseeing cruise, chosen from four boat options (BKV’s own boats, a Sightseeing Cruise from Vigadó tér, the paddle steamer Gróf Széchenyi, or a Duna Bella daytime boat). Only one of the four is free.
• The Zugliget Chairlift, once, up and down.
• Heritage trams on the Danube-side lines, once, May to October only.
• 30+ free museums and attractions, with BKK naming the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Hungarian National Gallery, and the Hungarian National Museum.

BKK’s partner list adds the rest of the free entries. In museums: the Castle Museum and St Stephen’s Hall in Buda Castle, the Ludwig Museum, Műcsarnok, Memento Park, the Aquincum Museum, the Kiscelli Museum, the Vasarely Museum, the Robert Capa Center, Mai Manó House, the Hopp Ferenc Museum of Asian Art and the Millennium Underground Museum. Elsewhere: the Castle Bus, the Citadella, the MOL Campus SkyDeck, the Margaret Island Water Tower lookout, the Pál-völgyi Cave and two English-language walking tours.

The walking tours are easy to miss and very good value. The Pest tour leaves at 10:00 on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from Váci utca 31 and passes the Basilica, Parliament and Liberty Square. The Buda tour leaves at 14:00 on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from Szentháromság tér 2 and covers Fishermen’s Bastion, Matthias Church and the Royal Palace. Our walking tour guide compares them with the free and paid alternatives.

The Museum of Fine Arts on Heroes’ Square is the strongest single reason to hold a card: its permanent collection runs from ancient Egypt to the end of the 18th century, and at 5,800 HUF it is the priciest museum ticket on the card. Note that the card covers only its permanent collection, not the Gauguin exhibition opening on 30 October 2026. Our Museum of Fine Arts guide and Budapest museums guide show what pairs well with it.

Source: BKK, Classic 24, 48, 72 and 96-hour card pages, BKK partner list by category, BKK, walking tour Pest and Buda, and Museum of Fine Arts, tickets, read on 29 October 2026.

Thermal baths on the card: which one is free

Lukács is the only thermal bath you walk into free, and it is a good one: one of the city’s oldest baths, on the Buda side, with thermal pools, a swimming pool, saunas and an outdoor pool with a current channel and massage jets. Its adult ticket costs 7,000 HUF Monday to Thursday and 8,000 HUF Friday to Sunday, which makes it the largest single admission the Classic card covers. Go Friday to Sunday and the card earns 1,000 HUF more. Our full Lukács guide covers the pools and the locker system.

Photo: Random photos 1989, CC BY-SA 4.0. The entrance to Lukács Bath, the one Budapest thermal bath the card lets you walk into free.

The famous baths are discounts only:

Bath	With the card
Szent Lukács	Free
Széchenyi	20% off
Rudas	20% off
Palatinus (Margaret Island)	20% off
Római open-air pool	20% off
Lupa Beach (lake beach, summer)	Free
Gellért	Closed for renovation

If Széchenyi is the bath you came for, the card takes a fifth off the ticket and nothing more. Our Széchenyi guide has the current prices.

Source: BKK partner list, baths and Szent Lukács Bath, prices, read on 29 October 2026.

What is only discounted

The partner network is large, but most of it is a discount on a ticket you still buy:

• St Stephen’s Basilica: 20% off. Our Basilica guide covers the dome climb.
• Dohány Street Synagogue: 10% off (our guide). The Jewish Museum and the Kazinczy Street Synagogue are 10% off too.
• Budapest Zoo: 20% off.
• House of Music Hungary: 20% off the permanent exhibition and the Sound Dome. Our House of Music guide explains what you get.
• Hospital in the Rock: 10% off.
• Legenda city cruises: 25% off, on top of the one free cruise.
• Restaurants and cafés such as Café Astoria, Párisi Passage and Zsolnay Café: 20% off.

The Hungarian Parliament is not on the card at any tier. Our Parliament tour guide covers how to book it.

Source: BKK partner list, sights, programs and food, read on 29 October 2026.

What BKK says each card is worth

BKK prices up a sample of each card’s contents at adult ticket prices and publishes the gap. These are the issuer’s own figures.

Card	Card price (HUF)	BKK’s valuation (HUF)	BKK’s claimed saving (HUF)
24-hour	17,990	22,550	4,560 (~$14)
48-hour	23,990	30,200	6,210 (~$19)
72-hour	29,990	38,450	8,460 (~$26)
72-hour FLEXI	27,990	38,550	10,560 (~$32)
72-hour PLUS	39,990	49,850	9,860 (~$30)
96-hour	38,990	52,000	13,010 (~$39)

Read the FLEXI row again. It is the cheapest 72-hour card and carries a bigger claimed saving than the Classic 72-hour card. It is a different product, though: unlimited transport plus any five of seven programs, which are the 100E airport round trip, Lukács, a guided walking tour in Pest or Buda, a folklore show with dinner at GastroCellar, the Castle Bus, one sightseeing cruise, and one admission from four (the Castle Museum with St Stephen’s Hall, the National Gallery, the National Museum or the MOL Campus SkyDeck). The 30+ free museums are not on it.

Source: BKK, Budapest Card savings comparison and 72-hour FLEXI page, read on 29 October 2026.

Worked example: a 48-hour and a 72-hour visit

BKK’s valuation assumes you use everything. These two trips use real adult prices from each venue’s own price list, so you can see where the card wins and where it does not. The transport line is what you would otherwise pay: two 24-hour travelcards for 48 hours (5,500 HUF), one 72-hour travelcard for 72 hours (5,750 HUF).

48 hours on the Classic 48-hour card (23,990 HUF)

Item	Full price (HUF)
Transport, 2 × 24-hour travelcard	5,500
Museum of Fine Arts, permanent collection	5,800
Hungarian National Museum	3,500
Lukács Bath, weekday	7,000
Castle Bus	6,500
Citadella, Liberty Bastion exhibition	4,900
Total	33,200 (~$101)
Saving against the card	9,210 (~$28)

Take out the Castle Bus, which many visitors would walk instead, and the Citadella exhibition, and the same weekend costs 21,800 HUF bought separately. The card then loses you 2,190 HUF.

72 hours on the Classic 72-hour card (29,990 HUF)

Item	Full price (HUF)
Transport, 72-hour travelcard	5,750
Museum of Fine Arts, permanent collection	5,800
Hungarian National Museum	3,500
Lukács Bath, weekend	8,000
Citadella, Liberty Bastion exhibition	4,900
Zugliget Chairlift, return	4,000
Castle Bus	6,500
Total	38,450 (~$117)
Saving against the card	8,460 (~$26)

Without the Castle Bus the saving falls to 1,960 HUF. Add the free cruise, a free walking tour and the National Gallery and it climbs back, but only if you really go. The lesson from both trips: the card pays when the expensive items (Lukács on a weekend, the Castle Bus and the Museum of Fine Arts) are ones you would have paid for anyway.

Sights you would pay for separately in either example, such as the Basilica dome or the Parliament, change nothing: the card does not make them free.

Source: Museum of Fine Arts, tickets, Hungarian National Museum, tickets, Szent Lukács Bath, prices, Budapest Castle Bus, tickets, Citadella, ticket information, BKV, Zugliget Chairlift fares and BKK fare table, all read on 29 October 2026.

The break-even, card by card

Strip out the transport and you can see what each card asks you to spend on admissions. A 24-hour travelcard costs 2,750 HUF and a 72-hour one 5,750 HUF; for 48 hours the cheapest match is two 24-hour tickets, and for 96 hours a 72-hour plus a 24-hour ticket. On the PLUS, and on a FLEXI with the 100E as a pick, the 5,000 HUF airport round trip counts as transport too.

Card	Card price (HUF)	Transport you would buy anyway (HUF)	Admissions needed to break even
24-hour	17,990	2,750	15,240 HUF (~$46)
48-hour	23,990	5,500	18,490 HUF (~$56)
72-hour FLEXI	27,990	5,750, or 10,750 with the 100E	22,240 HUF ($67), or 17,240 HUF ($52) with the 100E
72-hour	29,990	5,750	24,240 HUF (~$73)
72-hour PLUS	39,990	10,750	29,240 HUF (~$89)
96-hour	38,990	8,500	30,490 HUF (~$92)

The 24-hour row is the one to be wary of. Clearing 15,240 HUF of admissions in one day means the Museum of Fine Arts, Lukács and the Castle Bus all before dinner, on your first day in a city you do not know yet.

Source: BKK fare table, read on 29 October 2026.

What the 72-hour PLUS adds

The PLUS costs 10,000 HUF more than the Classic 72-hour card and adds three things:

Addition	Full price bought separately
100E Airport Express, one trip each way	5,000 HUF (2 × 2,500)
Buda Castle Funicular, up and down	5,500 HUF return (4,500 single)
One lángos and one kürtőskalács at Molnár’s	Snack prices

The airport bus and the funicular alone cover 10,500 HUF, slightly more than the premium. That only counts if you would have taken both: if your arrival time suits the regular route into the center, or you are happy to walk up Castle Hill, the PLUS is the weaker buy. The FLEXI includes the 100E as one of its picks for 12,000 HUF less than the PLUS, so price that first.

The funicular runs daily from 08:00 to 22:00 from Clark Ádám tér at the Buda end of the Chain Bridge. It closes for maintenance on Mondays of odd-numbered weeks. The kürtőskalács is a nice touch rather than a reason to upgrade; our guide to the best kürtőskalács in Budapest ranks the places worth the queue.

Source: BKK, 72-hour PLUS page, BKK partner page, Buda Castle Funicular and BKV, funicular hours and fares, read on 29 October 2026.

Who it is not worth it for

Slow travelers. One neighborhood a day, long lunches, architecture from the outside: that trip loses money on every card. Buy a travelcard and the two or three tickets you want.

Széchenyi or Rudas bathers. If the baths are the point of the trip, the card gives you 20% off, and only Lukács is free.

People who walk everywhere. Stay in District V or VII and walk, and the transport inside the card, worth 2,750 to 8,500 HUF depending on the card, turns into nothing.

Anyone whose list is Parliament, the Basilica dome and the Synagogue. None of the three is free with the card, so check your shortlist against the partner list before you assume anything.

Short 24-hour visits. Unless you can fit two big paid sights and a bath into one day, the 24-hour card does not break even.

It does pay for the opposite traveler: three or four included sights a day, spread across the city. A day pairing the Aquincum Museum in Óbuda with Memento Park on the far southern edge is exactly where free transport and free entry stack up.

Where to buy it and how the card works

You can buy the card online or in person at more than 300 points in the city.

• Online, you receive an emailed voucher that you can show on paper or on your phone. The voucher itself gets you into nothing: swap it for a physical card first, at a BKK customer center (Liszt Ferenc Airport Terminals 2A and 2B, Városháza park next to the 100E stop at Deák Ferenc tér, Keleti, Déli or Kelenföld) or at a BKK ticket machine.
• The Budapest Card Centre in Városháza park is open daily from 09:00 to 19:00 and handles questions and complaints.
• There is no app version. BKK’s terms describe two physical forms: a plastic card, on which you write the start date, hour and minute plus your ID or passport number, and a card printed on thermal paper, which carries those details from the moment you buy it.
• Show it, do not scan it. Show the card when you buy a ticket or enter an attraction, and to a ticket inspector on transport. A photo of the card or of the voucher is not the card, so carry the physical one.

Two things to know before you buy:

• Do not start the clock on arrival evening. A card activated at 9pm on the day you land spends its first evening and night on a hotel check-in and sleep. Start it on your first full sightseeing morning.
• Write it once. A card with an overwritten or corrected start time is invalid, and BKK does not replace it.

Source: BKK, Budapest Card, BKK webshop terms, physical card terms and Szent Lukács Bath, prices, read on 29 October 2026.

Before you plan around it this autumn

• Low water on the Danube. Low water has disrupted BKV’s own boats. Check BKV’s cruise page before you count on the free cruise; the other three boat options are run by private operators.
• The chairlift closes on Mondays of even weeks for maintenance and runs 10:00 to 15:30 in November and December.
• Gellért Bath closed on 1 October 2025 for a full renovation, so it is off the board whatever card you hold. Our guide to the Gellért closure covers where to soak instead.
• Heritage trams run May to October only, so they do not count on a winter trip.

Source: Gellért Bath, BKV, cruises, BKK, Danube cruises with the card and BKV, Zugliget Chairlift, read on 29 October 2026.

The verdict

The 38,450 HUF trip at the top of this page is real, and so is the version that barely breaks even. The Budapest Card is a bulk buy on admissions with a travelcard bundled in, and it rewards one travel style: several paid sights a day, spread across the city, for two days or more.

If that is your trip, price the 72-hour FLEXI first and check its five picks against your list; buy the Classic 72-hour if you want the long free museum list; and take the PLUS only if the airport bus and the funicular are both rides you would have paid for. If your trip is slower than that, buy a travelcard, buy the tickets you actually want, and spend the difference on dinner. The savings calculator settles it for your own dates.

Prices are in HUF, which is what you pay at the counter. Dollar figures are converted at 1 USD = 330 HUF, the ECB rate on 28 October 2026, and rounded; rates move, so treat them as indicative.