How to snag a free '90s-era blue MetroCard from the MTA before the end of the year

Here’s your last chance to swipe like it’s 1999.

As New York counts down to the official end of the MetroCard on December 31, 2025, the MTA is giving the city a final hit of transit nostalgia: a free, limited edition '90s-era blue MetroCard, the original colorway from 1994. The catch? Only four people will get one. The upside? It’s very easy to try.

To mark the retirement of the MetroCard after more than three decades in circulation, the MTA has launched a short-window giveaway featuring replicas of the original blue cards, complete with classic New York imagery on the back, including Radio City Music Hall and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Each card comes preloaded with either $15 or $6, enough for a couple of nostalgic swipes before OMNY entirely takes over.

If you’re on Instagram, head to the MTA’s official giveaway post and tag a friend in the comments. One tag counts as one entry and that’s it. If you don’t have Instagram, you can also enter by emailing your full name and phone number to entries@mtacd.org with the subject line “MetroCard Farewell Giveaway.” Same odds, same prize, no scrolling required.

Entries close on Thursday, December 18, at 11:59 pm ET; winners will be selected at random and contacted the week of December 22. You must be at least 18 years old to enter and only one entry per person is allowed.

While four cards won’t satisfy the city’s collective desire to hoard MetroCard souvenirs, the giveaway puts a neat punctuation mark on a piece of everyday New York design that outlasted pay phones, mix tapes and most of the subway’s original signage. The blue MetroCard, in particular, feels pulled straight from a time when tokens were still a recent memory.

If you want one last tangible reminder of that era, something that actually still opens a turnstile, this is as close as you’ll get. After December 31, the swipe is officially history.