Berlin Zoo Annual Pass: Which Card Pays Off for Your Household
A grey Sunday in November, two kids who need to run somewhere, and the Zoo at Hardenbergplatz twenty minutes away on the S-Bahn. That is the moment most Berlin families start doing the maths on a Berlin Zoo annual pass. One family visit at the gate already costs more than €80 with the Aquarium added, and the annual card sits on the same price board looking reasonable.
The answer depends less on how much you like animals and more on how you actually use the three places: the Zoo in Tiergarten, the Aquarium next to it on Budapester Straße, and the much larger Tierpark out in Friedrichsfelde. There are four annual cards, family versions of each, a cheaper subscription with a two-year catch, and day tickets whose online price moves around. This autumn there is also a new card design with optional face recognition at the turnstiles.
The Elefantentor on Budapester Straße, the Zoo's second entrance next to the Aquarium.
What a Berlin Zoo annual pass costs this year
Zoo, Aquarium and Tierpark are run by the same company, and the annual cards are sold as bundles. These are the regular prices for one person aged 16 or over, with the cheaper subscription price in brackets:
Zoo: €69 (subscription €62.50)
Tierpark: €69 (subscription €62.50)
Zoo + Aquarium: €102.50 (subscription €92.50)
Zoo + Aquarium + Tierpark: €119 (subscription €107.50)
A child aged 4 to 15 pays €37 for the Zoo or the Tierpark card, €54.50 for Zoo + Aquarium and €63 for all three. Children under 4 get in free anyway. Students, trainees and people with a Berechtigungsnachweis pay reduced rates, €46 to €85 depending on the bundle.
Every price includes a €2.50 species-protection contribution you can untick when you buy. It is small, but it is there on every card, so a family of four can take €10 off the bill if they want to.
The detail that changes the maths: a Zoo card also gets you half the regular day price at the Tierpark and the Aquarium, and the Tierpark card does the same the other way round. So the Zoo card is never only a Zoo card. If you go to the Tierpark twice a year, those two visits cost half.
The family cards are where the real saving sits
Two family versions exist for every bundle. The small family card covers one parent and their own children aged 4 to 15. The large family card covers both parents and their own children, however many there are.
For the Zoo alone that is €88.50 for one parent and children and €143.50 for two parents and children. Two adults and two kids on single cards would pay €212, so the large family card is the obvious pick as soon as you have two or more children. With one child the gap is smaller, but the family card still wins.
The rules are strict, and I would check them before you go to the desk:
Everyone has to live at the same postal address.
Each child needs proof of the family link, for example a birth certificate or a Kindergeld letter.
Everyone named on the card has to be there in person when it is issued, even if you bought it online.
Patchwork families and grandparents taking the kids on Saturdays are the cases that fall through. A grandparent who takes the kids on Saturdays needs a single card of their own.
When the card starts to pay for itself
The zoo says an annual card pays off from the fourth visit. Against the gate price of €25 for an adult it is even a visit sooner: three visits already cost €75, more than the €69 card.
Against online tickets it takes longer. Online day tickets start at €16 for the Zoo and €14.50 for the Tierpark, and they rise the closer you book to the day, because the price moves with demand. If you are the kind of person who books a Tuesday in February two weeks ahead, the card needs five visits to beat you. If you decide on the morning of a sunny Saturday, it needs three.
That is why I would count visits you will really make, month by month, and not the visits you imagine in January when the card still feels new. The planner below does that sum for your household.
My advice: be honest about the winter. From 26 October to 22 February the Zoo and the Tierpark close at 16:30 with last entry at 15:30, and a Sunday visit after a late breakfast is often a short one. Those months are where the Aquarium earns its place, because it keeps its 9:00 to 18:00 hours all year.
Which of the four cards fits your year
Most households end up with one of three patterns.
The Zoo regulars. You live in Charlottenburg, Schöneberg or Moabit, the Zoo is a short ride away, and you go every few weeks. The Zoo card on its own is usually enough, and the rare Tierpark trip costs half.
The rainy-day Aquarium family. Small children, lots of indoor weekends from November. The Zoo + Aquarium card usually wins here, and it wins early. Note one habit: annual card holders have to register each Aquarium visit online in advance, free of charge, because the building fills up.
The Tierpark walkers. You live in Lichtenberg, Friedrichsfelde or Marzahn, or you simply want space. The Tierpark covers around 160 hectares, and dogs on a short lead are allowed in free, which the Zoo and Aquarium do not allow. If you walk the dog there every other week, the Tierpark card pays off quickly. I have written more about where dogs can run in Berlin if the lead is the question.
The Löwentor at Hardenbergplatz, where the annual card desk sits.
The all-three card only makes sense when you really use both sites. For one adult it costs €119, just €50 more than a single park, so two or three Tierpark visits on top of a Zoo habit are enough to justify it. For a large family it is €249.50, and that needs a family that genuinely splits its weekends between Tiergarten and Friedrichsfelde.
If you are still deciding between the two parks as places to spend a day, my Zoo Berlin vs Tierpark comparison walks through the difference in size, animals and atmosphere.
The Iguanodon outside the Aquarium, which keeps the same hours all year.
The subscription is cheaper, with a two-year catch
The subscription version of each card saves around 10 percent: €62.50 instead of €69 for the Zoo, €225 instead of €249.50 for the large family card with all three parks. It renews itself every year, which is convenient if you know you will keep going.
The catch is the term. The subscription runs for at least 24 months, and after that you can cancel with four weeks' notice. It is sold only in the online shop, and for the reduced category it exists only for disabled visitors.
My advice: take the subscription only in the second year. Buy a normal card first, see how often you really went, and switch when you renew. A family that stops going after the first winter pays more for two subscription years than for one regular card.
The new card from 2 November, and the face scan you can skip
From autumn 2026 the Zoo and Aquarium move to a new card without a printed photo. From 2 November 2026 you can swap an old card for a new one free of charge at the Löwentor annual card desk, and until 30 June 2027 also at the Elefantentor. The old cards keep working until then, but every one has to be swapped by 30 June 2027.
There is a small reward for doing it early. Swap by 15 February 2027 and you get a free Zoo day ticket for a friend or family member. The price does not change.
The new card can also be linked to automatic face recognition at selected turnstiles at the Löwentor, the Elefantentor and the Aquarium entrance. It is optional. If you agree, the desk creates an encrypted pattern on your first visit, and the zoo says it stores no photo and links no name or address to it. If you say no, you show the card with a photo ID as before. Tierpark cards are not part of the change yet; the zoo says they will follow later.
You can read the details in the zoo's own announcement.
Schloss Friedrichsfelde, the baroque palace inside the Tierpark grounds.
Small rules that save money at the gate
A few details are easy to miss and add up over a year:
Already at the gate with a day ticket? If you decide on an annual card the same day, the annual card desk at the Löwentor gives you a fixed discount for the ticket you just bought.
Kids under 12 must be with an adult, so a card for a nine-year-old does not buy you a free afternoon.
The combined Zoo + Aquarium day ticket is sold only until 15:00, and you cannot leave the grounds between the two.
A Berechtigungsnachweis gives a €6 Tierpark ticket on weekdays at the Bärenschaufenster ticket office, which beats every card for occasional visits.
Cards are personal and cannot be lent to a neighbour or passed on.
If you like the idea of an annual card for a place you use every month, the same logic applies to the Berlin library card, which costs €10 a year and pays for itself in one rainy week. And for rainy weekends in general, I keep a list of what works in Berlin when it rains.
An African elephant at the Tierpark in December, when the park is quiet and the light goes early.
My move for this winter
If you have children and live within half an hour of the Zoo, I would put the visits you really expect into the planner, then buy the large or small family card for Zoo + Aquarium. It carries you through the dark months, and the half-price Tierpark tickets cover the odd day out east. If you are a single adult who mostly walks, the Tierpark card is the quiet winner.
Current prices are on the official Zoo Berlin price page and the Tierpark Berlin price page. Prices here were checked on 28 September 2026.
Image credits
Source and licence details for the 5 photographs used in this article.
The Elefantentor of Zoo Berlin at blue hour: A.Savin, Free Art License 1.3, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Löwentor entrance of Zoo Berlin at Hardenbergplatz: Marek Śliwecki, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Iguanodon in front of the Aquarium Berlin: Manfred Brückels, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Schloss Friedrichsfelde in Tierpark Berlin: A.Savin, Free Art License 1.3, via Wikimedia Commons.
An African elephant at Tierpark Berlin: A.Savin, Free Art License 1.3, via Wikimedia Commons.