Guides · Sun 01 Nov 2026
Comic-Con 2027 Open Registration: how to get badges on November 14
Open Registration is the general public's route to Comic-Con 2027 badges: Saturday 14 November 2026, a virtual waiting room from 7:30 AM PST, a randomized queue at 9:00, and 15 minutes to buy if your turn comes up. What to set up in advance, what each day costs, how to buy for friends and family, and where to stay once you have a badge.
What you need to know, in short: Comic-Con 2027 Open Registration is on Saturday 14 November 2026, and it is the one badge sale open to the general public. The virtual waiting room opens at 7:30 AM PST and the sale begins at 9:00 AM PST, inside the Member ID Portal. At 9:00, everyone in the waiting room is placed in a randomized queue, and anyone whose turn comes up gets 15 minutes to complete their purchase. You need a valid, confirmed Comic-Con Member ID, created in advance, and one buyer can purchase for up to three people, themselves included. The show itself is at the San Diego Convention Center: Preview Night on Wednesday 21 July 2027, then Thursday 22 to Sunday 25 July. Our Comic-Con hub tracks the show from here.
The sale at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Sale date | Saturday 14 November 2026 |
| Waiting room opens | 7:30 AM PST |
| Sale begins | 9:00 AM PST |
| Where | Online, in the Member ID Portal |
| Who can buy | Anyone with a valid, confirmed Member ID, apart from the groups listed below |
| The show | Preview Night Wed 21 July 2027, then Thu 22 to Sun 25 July 2027, San Diego Convention Center |
Before the day: the checklist
- Create a Member ID if you do not have one, and do it this week. The account must be valid and confirmed before the sale, and sale morning is the wrong time to discover a problem.
- Log in before the day and check the details on the account: name, password, email address, membership type and payment information, all current.
- Pre-save your payment information in the account. If it is not pre-saved, have the credit or debit card itself ready at checkout.
- Decide your preferred days now, and settle on an alternate plan in case a day sells out before you reach checkout.
- Buying for other people? Collect their Member IDs and last names in advance, exactly as they appear on their accounts, and read the friends and family section below before the day.
How the randomized queue works
The sale uses a Queue-it virtual waiting room, and the room is the whole game. It opens at 7:30 AM PST, ninety minutes before the sale begins. You can arrive at any point in that window: at 9:00 AM PST, every eligible participant in the room is placed in a randomized queue, so arriving at 7:35 counts exactly the same as arriving at 7:30. What matters is being in the room before 9:00, with your account password in hand, because you will be prompted to log in when you are moved into a registration session.
When your turn comes, you have 15 minutes to complete your badge purchase. That is enough time if the decisions are already made: which days, for whom, paid with what. It is not enough time to make them.
And the honest part, in Comic-Con's own framing: demand is higher than the number of badges available, so taking part does not guarantee a badge, and a place in the waiting room does not ensure a registration session. Treat the morning as a well-run lottery you can prepare for, not a queue you can beat.
Badge prices
The 2027 badge prices, per day:
| Day | Adult | Junior | U.S. Military / Senior |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preview Night, Wed 21 Jul | $67 | $34 | $34 |
| Thursday 22 Jul | $88 | $44 | $44 |
| Friday 23 Jul | $88 | $44 | $44 |
| Saturday 24 Jul | $88 | $44 | $44 |
| Sunday 25 Jul | $67 | $34 | $34 |
Every purchase also carries a $15 handling fee per member. The reduced column covers juniors (ages 13 to 17), seniors (ages 60 and older) and active-duty military with ID. The military and senior rate does not extend to veterans or dependents, a distinction Comic-Con states plainly.
Buying for friends and family
Yes, with the details in hand. You can purchase badges for up to three people, including yourself, in the one session. Everyone you buy for must also have a Member ID account and meet the same eligibility requirements as you. For each of them you will need their Member ID and their last name exactly as shown on the account, including any special characters or suffixes. Copy both from the account itself rather than typing from memory, because the purchase depends on the match.
Children and juniors
Children aged 12 and under attend Comic-Con free with a paying adult, and need no badge of their own. The age that counts is the child's age on 31 July 2026: a child who was 12 or younger on that date attends free in 2027, while anyone who had already turned 13 by that date needs their own Member ID and a junior badge. Juniors, ages 13 to 17, must hold their own Member ID account, separate from a parent's or guardian's, whether they are buying in the sale or having a badge bought for them.
Who cannot buy in this sale
Open Registration is the public sale, and some groups are not in it, because they register through their own routes: professionals and their guests, press, exhibitors, exhibitor-purchased attendees, program participants, volunteers, retailers, vendors, staff and complimentary pass recipients. If you fall into one of those groups, this date is not yours, and your registration is announced separately.
Where to stay
Get the badge first. Comic-Con runs two hotel sales through onPeak, its official hotel provider, and its hotels overview is the page to watch for their dates and details. The cheaper of the two sales is only worth booking once you actually hold a badge.
The Early Bird Hotel Sale runs from fall into spring and covers the non-downtown areas, Mission Valley and the Airport area, all of them on the free Comic-Con shuttle route. It is first-come, first-served, and rooms are full prepay and non-refundable. Comic-Con's own advice about it is direct: book it only if you already have a Comic-Con 2027 badge.
The General Hotel Sale, in spring 2027, is the downtown sale: it opens with a virtual waiting room and a randomized queue of its own, and a booking requires a non-refundable two-night deposit.
If you would rather book outside the official sales, or you want a base you can walk from, Downtown and the Gaslamp Quarter are the walkable areas next to the Convention Center. Our Downtown and Gaslamp guide covers that base; Mission Bay, Coronado and La Jolla are the quieter areas we cover for the same weekend, each with its own guide on the hotels page. The buttons below open the hotel search set to Downtown and the Gaslamp.
Search Downtown and the Gaslamp hotelsvia Trip.com · affiliate linkLuxury Downtown and the Gaslamp Staysvia Maison V · our sister company
Everything else about the weekend is plannable, and most of it is here: the Comic-Con hub for the show itself, and the events calendar for the rest of that week in San Diego. The badge is the one part no amount of planning can guarantee, which is exactly why the preparation above is worth an hour of your week. Create the Member ID now, be in the room before 9:00, and know your days before your 15 minutes start.
Sources: Comic-Con International, its official Open Registration announcement (Toucan, the official blog, published 20 October 2026) for the sale date, the waiting room, the prices, the eligibility rules and the child badge policy, and its official hotels overview for the Early Bird and General Hotel Sales; this site's Comic-Con record for the 2027 show dates and the venue. Checked 1 November 2026.
More reading on the articles page, or go straight to the events calendar.