America the Beautiful Pass Prices and When It Pays Off

An America the Beautiful pass costs $80 for one year if you are a United States (US) citizen or resident, and $250 if you live outside the US. It is worth buying when the entrance fees on your trips this year add up to more than the pass price. Seniors pay $20 a year or $80 for life, and visitors from abroad who carry the pass skip the nonresident fee at parks such as Bryce Canyon and Glacier.

America the Beautiful Pass Prices for 2026

Four versions of the America the Beautiful pass cost money and five are free, and your price depends on your age, residency and service. The table lists all nine as of October 2026.

The senior national park pass comes in two versions, and the lifetime card costs exactly four times the annual one. If you are 62 or older and expect to visit fee-charging federal sites in more than four separate years, the lifetime card is the cheaper buy. You need documents showing your age and your citizenship or residency, and a senior pass cannot be bought as a gift because the person using it must prove eligibility.

Older Golden Age and Golden Access Passports are no longer sold, but parks still honor them under their original terms. You can swap one for a free Senior Lifetime pass at any site that issues passes, as long as you bring the old card and photo identification.

Fees an America the Beautiful Pass Covers

An America the Beautiful pass covers entrance fees and standard amenity fees, also called day-use fees, at federal recreation sites run by six agencies. Those are the National Park Service and five others:

• US Fish and Wildlife Service
• US Forest Service
• Bureau of Land Management
• Bureau of Reclamation
• US Army Corps of Engineers

How much the pass covers depends on how each site charges. Where a site charges per vehicle, the pass covers one private vehicle fee. Where it charges per person, the pass covers four per-person fees, so a group of up to four gets in on one card.

What the Pass Leaves Out

Some high-traffic sites also require a reservation. Some parks use timed entry to manage vehicle traffic, or tour reservations to manage access to a building or natural feature, and those are usually released on a rolling basis on Recreation.gov. Glacier did not require vehicle reservations anywhere in the park in 2026; the Glacier vehicle reservation and Logan Pass guide for 2026 has the details.

The Senior Pass carries its own rules. It may give 50 percent off some amenity fees for camping, swimming, boat launches and specialized interpretive services. It generally does not cover or reduce special recreation permit fees or fees charged by concessioners.

Every America the Beautiful pass is non-refundable and non-transferable, and none can be replaced if lost or stolen. Show valid photo identification with the pass each time you use it.

Break-Even Math for Bryce Canyon and Glacier

For a US resident, gate fees at Bryce Canyon and Glacier together cost less than the America the Beautiful pass. The pass starts saving money once you add another park whose entrance fee tops $10. Both parks charge one private vehicle the same summer fee, and Glacier lowers its fee in winter, from November 1 to April 30.

If one of those two parks is the only place charging you an entrance fee this year, pay at the gate for one or two visits. Glacier's vehicle fee is valid for seven days, so a single week there needs only one payment. From three visits to the same park in a year, that park's $70 annual pass costs less than both the gate fees and the $80 pass.

What Would Change the Math

Three situations tip the decision toward a pass:

• A third fee-charging park on your route, as the last table row shows.
• Qualifying for the Senior Annual pass, which costs less than one Bryce Canyon vehicle fee and so comes out ahead on the first visit.
• Military service, a permanent disability, a fourth grader in the family, or enough federal volunteer hours, since each of these makes a free pass available.

Nonresident Fees for Visitors from Outside the US

Visitors who live outside the US pay an extra $100 per person at Bryce Canyon and Glacier, on top of the entrance fee, unless they enter with a park annual pass or an America the Beautiful pass. The fee applies to non-US residents aged 16 and over. For a solo traveler driving one car, the arithmetic looks like this.

On a trip limited to Bryce Canyon and Glacier, buying each park's annual pass costs less than the Non-Resident America the Beautiful pass and still clears the extra fee at both gates. The Non-Resident pass pulls ahead once other fee-charging parks on your route would add more than $110 on top of those two park passes, because one card then covers every entrance.

Three Ways to Buy an America the Beautiful Pass

You can get an America the Beautiful pass in person, by mail or as a digital pass, and the best route depends on how soon you travel.

1. In person. Over 1,000 federal recreation sites sell physical passes or hand out free ones, and the National Park Service recommends this route. You can pick one up when you arrive at a park that sells them.
2. By mail. Order a physical card from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Online Store. Processing and delivery can take up to three weeks, and an order receipt does not work as a pass at the gate.
3. Digital. Buy a digital pass on Recreation.gov, save it to your phone and use it right away.

If you leave within three weeks, skip the mail order and choose the digital pass or an in-person pickup.

Park-Specific Annual Passes and Park Groups

A park-specific annual pass covers one national park or park group for a year, and Bryce Canyon and Glacier each sell one for $70. The money from that annual national park pass goes directly to the park that sold it. The resident America the Beautiful pass costs $10 more and covers entrance and standard amenity fees at sites run by six federal agencies.

Not every park sells an annual pass. A few sell passes that work across a group of parks or public lands:

• Southeast Utah Parks Annual Pass: Arches, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges and Hovenweep.
• Hawaiʻi Tri-Park Pass: Haleakalā, Hawaiʻi Volcanoes and Puʻuhonua ʻO Hōnaunau, valid for 12 months from purchase.
• Flagstaff Area National Monuments Annual Pass: Sunset Crater Volcano, Walnut Canyon and Wupatki.
• Northern California/Southern Oregon 4-Park Pass: Whiskeytown, Lassen Volcanic, Crater Lake and Lava Beds.
• Oregon Coast Passport: entry, parking and day-use fees at Oregon state and federal fee sites along the coast.
• Assateague Island and Chincoteague: the national seashore and the wildlife refuge honor each other's annual passes.
• Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks Annual Pass: Sequoia & Kings Canyon and the Hume Lake Ranger District of Sequoia National Forest/Giant Sequoia National Monument, for one year from the month of purchase.

Trails, viewpoints and seasons for each park are in the Bryce Canyon guide and the Glacier National Park guide, with more fee and route planning in the national park trip planning hub. List every park that charges an entrance fee on your route this year, total the gate fees, and buy the America the Beautiful pass if that total tops the price in the first table.