New York is known as an expensive city, but you can count the ways it is generous to New Yorkers and tourists. Many of the city’s premier attractions, museums, galleries and performances offer free entry or pay-what-you-wish options, be it for a select day of the month or evening hours every week. Those seeking a bargain can use the no-cost or low-cost admittance to take a chance on the unknown or to return to a favorite art work, exhibit or gallery again and again. Below is a just a selection; there are other free places, such as the galleries and museums of area colleges and universities.

ALWAYS FREE (or pay what you wish):

American Folk Art Museum

American Museum of Natural History (pay what you wish)

Bronx Museum (pay what you wish)

Brooklyn Academy of Music’s BAMcafé live events

Brooklyn Museum (pay what you wish)

The Cloisters (pay what you wish)

El Museo del Barrio (pay what you wish)

Godwin-Ternbach Museum at Queens College

Green-Wood Cemetery

International Print Center

Metropolitan Museum of Art (pay what you wish)

Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology

National Museum of the American Indian—Smithsonian Institution

New York City Police Museum (pay what you wish)

P.S.1 MoMA (pay what you wish)

Queens Botanical Garden (free Nov-March)

Queens Museum of Art (pay what you wish)

SculptureCenter (pay what you wish)

Socrates Sculpture Park

Staten Island Museum (pay what you wish)

Storefront for Art & Architecture

Studio Museum in Harlem (pay what you wish)

Waterfront Museum

MONTHLY FREE HOURS:

Bronx Museum (First Friday, 6-10 pm)

Brooklyn Children’s Museum (Second Weekend, before 11 am)

Brooklyn Museum (First Saturday, 5-11 pm)

El Museo del Barrio (Third Saturday, 11 am-8 pm)

Neue Gallerie (First Friday, 6-8 pm)

Noguchi Museum (First Friday, pay what you wish)

WEEKLY FREE DAYS or HOURS:

MONDAY

Museum at Eldridge Street

Yeshiva University Museum

TUESDAY

9/11 Memorial Museum 5-8 pm

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Staten Island Museum 12-2 pm

Wave Hill 9 am-noon

WEDNESDAY

Bronx Zoo (pay what you wish)

Museum of Jewish Heritage 4-8 pm

New York Botanical Garden

Queens Botanical Garden April-October, 3-6 pm

Van Cortlandt House Museum

Yeshiva University Museum 5-8 pm

THURSDAY

Brooklyn Children’s Museum 3-5 pm

China Institute 6-8 pm

International Center of Photography 6-9 pm (pay what you wish)

Museum of Arts and Design 6-9 pm (pay what you wish)

Museum of Chinese in America

New Museum 7-9 pm

Trinity Church: Concerts at One 1-2 pm (September through May)

FRIDAY

Japan Society 6-9 pm

Morgan Library & Museum 7-9 pm

Museum of Modern Art 4-8 pm

Neue Galerie 6-8 pm

New-York Historical Society 6-8 pm (pay what you wish)

New York Aquarium 3 pm-closing (pay what you wish)

New York Hall of Science 2-5 pm (September through June)

Rubin Museum of Art 7-10 pm

Staten Island Museum 12-2 pm

Whitney Museum of American Art 7-9:30 pm

Yeshiva University Museum

SATURDAY

Brooklyn Botanic Garden 10 am-noon

Jewish Museum

New York Botanical Garden 10 am-noon

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 5:45-7:45 pm (pay what you wish)

Wave Hill 9 am-noon

SUNDAY

Frick Collection 11 am-1 pm (pay what you wish)

New York Hall of Science 10-11 am (September through June)

Queens Botanical Garden April-October, 4-6 pm

Studio Museum in Harlem