singaporecity360° National Museum of Singapore
The National Museum of Singapore, opened in 1887, is the country's oldest museum and is built around the Singapore History Gallery, a chronological walk through the country's history using objects, film and oral accounts.
Should you go?
Singapore citizens and PRs enter the permanent galleries free on an NRIC scan. Tourists and foreign residents pay S$20, or S$15 concession. Children 6 and under are free whatever their nationality.
Daily 10am–7pm
cheapest single exhibition, non-peak
1 exhibition on · SC360 estimate
Walk-up, with no timed entry. Citizens and PRs buy nothing at all — they present a pink or blue NRIC for scanning. Concessions, free-entry groups and the HSBC card discount are all counter-only, so anyone in those groups should not pre-buy online.
last entry 6.30pm
The Singapore History Gallery — the museum's flagship permanent display — is closed for a revamp and reopens in October 2026. Once Upon a Tide and Singapore Odyssea are standing in. The building is also under restoration.
Work Permit and Special Pass holders enter the permanent galleries free on the last Sunday of each month, running until September 2026. Show the permit at the Visitor Services counter.
The history galleries run 10am–6pm daily with last admission at 5.30pm, while the separate Living Galleries — covering food, fashion, film and photography — stay open until 8pm and are free to enter after 6pm. The glass rotunda dome, added in a 2006 extension, is one of the more photographed pieces of civic architecture in the Civic District.
It's a five-minute walk from both National Gallery Singapore and Fort Canning Park.
Turning up after 6pm gets free entry to the Living Galleries — skip the paid History Gallery, and it's still a genuinely good hour for anyone short on time or budget.
On right now, and what each ticket costs
Singapore citizens and PRs enter the permanent galleries free on an NRIC scan. Tourists and foreign residents pay S$20, or S$15 concession. Children 6 and under are free whatever their nationality. Flip the stubs to your rate; every price includes the resident lines most sites leave out.
The museum's own heading is "Tourists & Foreign Residents" — note that it explicitly includes foreigners living in Singapore on any pass short of PR. Being locally based is not enough.
The museum sells exactly one admission product. Free for citizens and PRs, and for all children 6 and under.
| TICKET | TOURIST | CITIZEN/PR |
|---|---|---|
| Adult | S$20 | Free |
| Concession | S$15 | Free |
What will your group pay?
Switch with the chips above the ticket stubs — everything updates together.
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What you should be paying
Ticket resellers earn a commission on what they sell you. We sell nothing, so here is the operator's own price — compare before you buy.
S$20
for General Admission, straight from the operator's own price table.
Anything above S$20 is a markup. A reseller can be genuinely cheaper — some run below the gate price to win the booking — but you now know which side of the line you are on. Check the total at checkout, not the headline.
See it on the operator's own page →S$20
100% off General Admission: Free instead of S$20, on every adult ticket.
This is wider than most people think. Free to all permanent galleries on a pink or blue NRIC scan. Separately, and regardless of nationality, students, staff and teachers of Singapore government, government-aided, independent and autonomous schools and of the local universities also enter free.
S$8.89/hr
S$20 for General Admission over about 2.3 hours, and nothing at all if you are a citizen or PR. Our estimate — no suggested duration is published. The duration is our estimate, not the operator's.
Rain, heat, and what to do about it
Live readings and forecasts from NEA. Four days is the limit — past that, nobody is forecasting, they are showing you an average.
Southwest Monsoon
June to September
Short, sharp early-morning showers and occasional squall lines. Drier overall than the northeast wet phase.
The other good window. Rain tends to arrive early and clear, leaving usable afternoons. This is also when haze can occur, which is worth checking rather than assuming.
Plan your National Museum of Singapore stop
Straight-line distance from the three places a visitor has already heard of.
1.9km
north-west
2.1km
south-east
17km
south-west
National Museum of Singapore, in every light
Nearby, on foot
In Civic District — close enough to collect on the same trip out.
Contains information from Tourist Attractions accessed on 2026-08-01 from data.gov.sg, made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0.