Fans hoping to attend Comic-Con International this year are mostly out of options for attaining a coveted badge to get inside the San Diego Convention Center when the event returns from July 22 to 26.
All badges have been sold in the open registration badge sale. There are two remaining ways to get involved, however, or locals can instead start planning for their more likely chance to go in 2027.
Fans can still get tickets to this year’s Comic-Con by purchasing a Legend membership through the Comic-Con Museum or by applying for an exhibitor badge. The Legend membership, which costs $1,900, comes with one four-day plus Preview Night badge for Comic-Con 2026. Memberships can be purchased on the Comic-Con website.
Vendors with a California seller’s permit can also still apply for an exhibitor badge through the end of Comic-Con on July 26. Exhibitor badges are only available to confirmed booth or table participants for this year and require an application process. Since space is limited, not all applicants will be accepted. Interested applicants can reach out to exhibitsales@comic-con.org for information on booths, dealers’ tables or small press tables, or to exhibitsreg@comic-con.org for Artists’ Alley tables.
Badge sales for Comic-Con 2027 will open in the fall of this year. Hopeful attendees can plan ahead to purchase badges on the official Comic-Con website. This year, the badge sale date for first-time attendees was Nov. 15, and the sale date for returning attendees was Oct. 4.
Fans can prepare ahead of time for this fall’s open registration by creating a Member ID on the website and watching for deadline announcements.
In addition to open registration, there are several other ways to plan on getting badges for Comic-Con 2027. Interested locals can register as a volunteer in early 2027.
People who work in the creation of the popular arts or genre-related roles or as an educator or librarian can apply for a professional badge. This year, professional registration closed in late June. Journalists and media creators can apply as a member of the press, for which registration this year closed in mid-January.
Attendees who already have tickets to Comic-Con 2026 and have registered to participate in the Masquerade on July 25, have the chance to win a free 4-day badge to Comic-Con 2027 by winning one of the contest categories.
Comic-Con advises against buying a badge from anyone other than Comic-Con directly. Badges are not transferable and cannot be exchanged. Identification checks are performed at random during the convention, and badges may be taken away if they do not match an identification card.