What is the Met Gala? Who runs it, who pays, and what the money funds

The Met Gala is the annual fundraising dinner for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, held on the first Monday in May, with a guest list curated by Vogue. Its formal name is the Costume Institute Benefit. The 2026 edition raised a reported record of $42 million, according to Met director Max Hollein as quoted by USA Art News, and individual tickets cost $100,000. This explainer answers the basic questions: what the gala is, who runs it, who pays, who goes, and where the money goes.

What the Met Gala is

Strictly, the Met Gala is a benefit dinner, not a red carpet. Its purpose is stated in the Met's own February 24, 2026 announcement, as reprinted by ArtDependence: "The Met Gala takes place annually on the first Monday in May and the proceeds provide The Costume Institute with its primary source of annual funding for exhibitions, publications, acquisitions, and operations." The funds also support other museum activities.

The gala opens the Costume Institute's spring exhibition. In 2026 that was "Costume Art," on view at The Met Fifth Avenue from May 10, 2026 through January 10, 2027. The Met described it as an examination of "the centrality of the dressed body," pairing garments with works of art from across the museum's collection. The gala itself was held on Monday, May 4.

Who runs it

Two organizations are involved. The gala is held at and for the benefit of the museum's Costume Institute. Wikipedia says Vogue organizes it under Anna Wintour, Vogue's global chief content officer. Wintour has chaired or co-chaired the gala since 1995, with the exception of 1996, according to the same article.

The gala dates to 1948, when fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert founded it as a fundraiser for the newly established Costume Institute. Wikipedia says the first event was a dinner with tickets at $50 each. Wikipedia says gala themes were introduced during the Diana Vreeland years, which began when she became a consultant to the Costume Institute in 1972, and that the event became more celebrity-oriented afterward.

Who pays

There are three layers of money.

• Individual tickets. Wikipedia says an individual ticket reached $100,000 in 2026. The IOL report adds that tables started at $350,000, an unchanged price from the year before.
• Corporate and individual sponsors. In 2026, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos were the lead sponsors of the gala and exhibition and served as honorary chairs, according to the Met's announcement. USA Art News reports the couple were said to have contributed $10 million. IOL says some insiders put the figure higher, which it does not substantiate, so we are not repeating that number.
• Donors to the galleries. The exhibition inaugurated The Met's new Condé M. Nast Galleries, nearly 12,000 square feet adjacent to the Great Hall. The Met said the space is named for the company's founder in recognition of a significant lead gift from Condé Nast.

The total: $42 million raised in 2026, against $31 million the year before, a record according to USA Art News and the CNN report carried by NBC Palm Springs. Those figures come from the museum's own announcement as relayed by the press. We could not open the Met's press release directly this run, because the museum's site blocked our requests, so the numbers rest on the news reports.

The Bezos sponsorship was not uncontroversial. USA Art News says the choice drew protests in the lead-up, and the CNN report notes protests were planned across New York City. That is context for reading the headline figure, not a judgment on the gala.

Who goes

The official co-chairs for 2026 were Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Anna Wintour. The Met named Anthony Vaccarello and Zoë Kravitz as co-chairs of the host committee, which included Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, Lena Dunham, Paloma Elsesser, LISA, Sam Smith and Teyana Taylor, among others.

CNN's report put the guest count at about 400 attendees and said a no-phone policy applies inside the event. The red carpet seen online is only the arrival. The dinner and the museum rooms are private.

The sources we opened do not say how individual seats are allocated or who may buy a table, so we cannot tell you how a guest list is assembled. Wikipedia describes invitees as typically drawn from fashion, music, film, sports, technology, finance and politics, and expected to dress to the theme.

The dress code and the theme

The theme belongs to the exhibition; the dress code is the instruction for the guests. In 2026 the dress code was "Fashion is Art," which the Met said invites guests "to express their own relationship to fashion as an embodied art form." Guests read it differently, which is why coverage afterward credited particular designers. We covered those pairings in our look at the 2026 Met Gala looks and the designers credited.

What comes next

Wikipedia lists the next gala as Monday, May 3, 2027. We did not find a Met announcement of the 2027 exhibition or dress code in the sources we opened, and the museum has typically announced details months ahead. Treat any 2027 theme circulating before an official release as unconfirmed.

How we grade the "world's most exclusive party" claim

Wikipedia says the gala is "popularly regarded" as the world's most prestigious event in fashion and quotes the nickname "the world's most exclusive party." Exclusive is accurate in a narrow sense: the guest list is curated, the price is $100,000 a seat and phones are barred. Prestigious is a judgment. What is checkable is the fundraising, and by that measure the event is a powerful machine for one department of one museum.

Our take

Treat the Met Gala as a museum benefit that happens to be the biggest fashion media event of the year. The $42 million is the part that matters: it funds exhibitions, acquisitions and operations at the Costume Institute, as the Met says. The red carpet is the marketing. You can follow both without an invitation, and the exhibition itself is open to the public through January 10, 2027.