Grand Canyon entrance fees and passes

7 min read Updated November 2026 Compare all tours

Grand Canyon National Park charges one entrance fee for the whole park, and the National Park Service describes it as valid for seven days, including the South Rim. You pay at the South Entrance or the East Entrance at Desert View. Both stations take credit and debit cards only; cash is no longer accepted. There is no reservation system and no timed entry. Shuttle buses inside the park are free and covered by the entrance fee.

The fees at a glance

The table lists what the National Park Service charges at Grand Canyon. Prices are per pass, not per day.

Children under 16 do not need an entrance pass. The NPS also lists free Military, Access, 4th Grade and Volunteer passes; they are for US citizens and residents. America the Beautiful passes are not transferable, and you show photo ID each time you use one.

The non-resident fee

For 2026 the National Park Service introduced a fee of 100 dollars per person for non-US residents at 11 parks, Grand Canyon among them; Zion, Bryce Canyon and Yosemite are on the same list. It is charged on top of the entrance fee to everyone aged 16 or older. Children aged 15 and younger pay neither the entrance fee nor the non-resident fee.

The NPS does not define who counts as a resident. It accepts documents such as a US passport, a US state driver’s licence or ID card, or a green card as proof. If you cannot show one, plan to pay the fee.

A worked example with the NPS figures: two adults from Europe with two children under 16 in a rental car pay 35 dollars for the vehicle and 200 dollars for the two adults, 235 dollars in total. The America the Beautiful Non-Resident Annual Pass costs 250 dollars and covers the holder’s entry and non-resident fee for a year, so it starts to pay off once you visit a second park with the same fee, such as Zion or Bryce Canyon.

Where and how to buy

Passes are sold at the South Entrance, at the East Entrance at Desert View and, in season, at the North Rim entrance. The NPS recommends the digital America the Beautiful pass from recreation.gov: you save it on your phone and can use it straight away. The Grand Canyon Visitor Center IMAX in Tusayan, outside the park, also sells park passes including America the Beautiful, according to its own FAQ.

The NPS does not refund the fee for bad weather. If you ride the free Tusayan shuttle into the park in summer, you need a valid entrance pass when you board; the route runs only in summer, for 2027 tentatively from 22 May to 10 September.

Free entrance days exist, but they do not help visitors from abroad. In 2026 they apply only to US citizens and residents, and the NPS states that non-US residents pay the entrance fee and the non-resident fee as normal. The last free day listed for 2026 is 11 November.

How the fee works on tours

The non-resident fee also applies to anyone entering as part of a commercial tour group. The NPS expects operators to know how many non-residents are on board and to tell the fee collector at the entrance. If you use an America the Beautiful pass on a tour, you must be present and show ID; in a commercial group the non-resident pass also covers three more non-residents aged 16 and over.

How operators collect the money varies, so read the inclusions before you book. The Sedona tours of Arizona Tour & Travel include the standard park fee and ask non-residents to give a credit card for the 100 dollars before the tour date. Pink Jeep Tours in Tusayan include the entry fee and contact non-residents to collect the extra fee. The Hummer tours of Buck Wild want it paid on or before check-in. The coach from Las Vegas lists the non-resident fee as excluded.

The railway from Williams includes the entrance fee for US residents only. Its tour listing says non-residents pay the 100 dollars on site, while the operator’s reservations handbook says the fee is collected with the train booking for reservations made from 27 March 2026. Check your confirmation to see which applies to you.

Some trips need no park ticket at all. Helicopter and airplane flights from Grand Canyon Airport start outside the park, and the airplane operator states that no park fee applies to the flight on its own; the fee is due only if you add the Hummer tour inside the park. The four-hour van tour from Grand Canyon Village works the other way round: you need your own park pass, since you are already in the park.

For the day tours from the gateway cities, each tour page has a table with the park entry, the non-resident fee, meals and the Desert View stop side by side: see tours from Las Vegas, tours from Sedona and Flagstaff and tours from Phoenix and Scottsdale.

Where the national park pass does not work

Several sights near the South Rim lie outside the national park and charge their own fees. Grand Canyon West, with the Skywalk, belongs to the Hualapai Tribe and does not accept national park passes. The Navajo Nation runs its own tribal parks: the Little Colorado River Gorge viewpoints on Highway 64 west of Cameron charge 5 dollars per person, and Monument Valley has its own entry fee; neither accepts the national park pass. The car park at Horseshoe Bend near Page belongs to the city of Page, which charges for parking and does not take America the Beautiful passes either.