Web Summit 2026 Lisbon Guide: Dates & Tickets

Web Summit 2026 takes place from 9 to 12 November 2026 at the MEO Arena and FIL in Lisbon, Portugal. It is one of the largest technology conferences in the world, with more than 70,000 attendees expected, 17 content tracks including a dedicated AI Summit, thousands of exhibiting startups and a full evening programme, all in one venue complex over four days. The scale is the first thing most first-time attendees underestimate.

This guide collects the practical details in one place: dates and venue, how the days are structured, what the AI Summit track covers, ticket tiers, registration, the app, getting there and how to plan your time. Everything here comes from Web Summit's public pages and published reporting. Schedules and speaker lists change right up to the event, so treat the official app as the final word.

If you want the background first, read our history of Web Summit. If you are planning who to meet, see the top companies and startups at Web Summit 2026.

Web Summit 2026 at a glance

Dates: Monday 9 November to Thursday 12 November 2026.
Venue: MEO Arena and FIL (Feira Internacional de Lisboa), Rossio dos Olivais, 1990-231 Lisbon, in the Parque das Nações district. The arena was previously called the Altice Arena, so you will see both names.
Format: In person, in English.
Programme: 17 content tracks, including a dedicated AI Summit.
Scale: The 2025 edition welcomed 71,386 attendees from 157 countries, including a record 1,857 investors and 2,725 exhibiting startups. Expect a similar scale this year.
Organiser: Web Summit, which also runs Web Summit Rio, Web Summit Qatar, Web Summit Vancouver and RISE in Asia. Lisbon is the flagship event.

Web Summit 2026 schedule: how the four days work

Monday 9 November: registration and Opening Night. The first day is mainly for collecting your badge and settling in. In the evening, Opening Night fills the MEO Arena with the official opening ceremony and the first Centre Stage talks. In past editions seating was limited and first come, first served, and you had to be registered before you could get in.

Tuesday 10 to Thursday 12 November: the main conference. The exhibition floor, track stages, masterclasses and meetups run across the FIL pavilions, while Centre Stage sits inside the MEO Arena. Talks run through the day on more than a dozen stages at once.

Evenings: Night Summit. After the stages close, the event moves into its evening networking programme (covered below).

The PITCH startup competition also runs across the week, with the final held on Centre Stage on the last day.

Web Summit 2026 content tracks

Every ticket gives access to all tracks, so you can mix and match. The 2026 tracks are:

AI Summit: where AI is heading next.
Commerce Summit: retail and commerce leaders.
Creative Summit: creativity when generative tools are everywhere.
Cybersecurity Summit: security as a race against new threats.
MoneyConf: how money and financial systems are changing.
Marketing Summit: marketing beyond click-driven strategies.
Future of Work Summit: how work changes in an AI-driven world.
Corporate Innovation Summit: how large organisations keep pace.
Developer Summit: developers taking on wider system-design roles.
Growth Summit: strategies for scaling businesses.
Energy Summit: powering a changing global order.
New Media Summit: the fight for audience attention.
Venture Summit: the next phase of venture capital.
SaaS Summit: where software-as-a-service goes from here.
Policy Summit: power and global governance.
Health Summit: new approaches to human health.
Sport Summit: new ways to compete in sport.

AI Summit at Web Summit 2026

AI Summit is Web Summit's dedicated artificial intelligence track. It runs across all four days under the theme "AI's next act", and it is included with every ticket rather than sold separately. IBM is listed as the official AI Summit partner.

Web Summit frames this year's track around five debates:

Open vs closed: whether AI's future belongs to open-source models or proprietary ones, and what each trade-off means for the companies building on them.
The agentic era: why many organisations are not yet ready for AI agents, from slow adoption and security worries to weak integrations.
The ROI of AI: whether AI is a profitable engine or an overvalued bubble, given how much computing still costs.
Accelerate or hold back: rising energy use, hardware tariffs and conflicting regulation, and whether they lead to competition or gridlock.
Building on "digital slop": deepfakes, AI-generated content and chatbot companions, and whether AI produces a renaissance or a hype cycle.

The published schedule already shows AI Summit sessions. One example is "Bet on the foundation, not the framework" with Samar Abbas, co-founder of Temporal, on Tuesday 10 November at 11:35 on Stage 13. AI also runs through other tracks. On the same day, Particle6 founder Eline van der Velden appears alongside the AI-generated actress Tilly Norwood in a Future of Work Summit session about AI actors in entertainment.

If you want a sense of the track's style, previous AI Summit sessions included tennis champion Maria Sharapova with IBM's Sarah Meron on AI in sport, ElevenLabs co-founder Mati Staniszewski on voice agents, and Replit's Michele Catasta on "vibe coding".

Web Summit 2026 speakers announced so far

Web Summit releases speakers in waves, and the full list will only be final once the app goes live. Names already announced on the official speakers page and in organiser announcements include:

Michele Catasta, President, Replit
Richard Socher, Co-founder and CEO, Recursive and You.com
Tao Zhang, Co-founder and CPO, Manus AI
Li Chen, Co-founder, Unitree
Dahai Li, Co-founder and CEO, ModelBest
Alan Shen, MD Global, MiniMax
Leo Haojun Wang, Co-founder and CFO, Pony.ai
Fei Xu, CMO, Xiaomi Group
Ling Ge, Chief Investment and Strategy Officer (EMEA), Tencent
Matthew Prince, Co-founder and CEO, Cloudflare
Mike Cannon-Brookes, Co-founder and CEO, Atlassian
Jen Wong, COO, Reddit
Jackie Jantos, CEO, Hinge
Jill Kramer, Head of Communications and Marketing, Mastercard
Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, European Commission

Two humanoid robots, AgiBot's A3 and Galbot's G1, are listed on the speakers page too. On Centre Stage on 10 November, Deli Zhao, founder and president of Xpeng Aridge, is scheduled to talk about taking the flying car from science fiction to reality.

Web Summit 2026 tickets and prices

At the time of writing (2 November 2026), the official ticket page lists three main tiers. Web Summit raises prices in stages as the event approaches, so check the page before you buy.

General attendee: €1,595 including sales tax (€1,297 excluding).
VIP: €1,950 including sales tax (€1,585 excluding).
Chairperson: €24,950 including sales tax (€20,285 excluding).

What each tier includes:

General attendee: exhibition floor, talks across every track, networking recommendations, meetup invites, Night Summit, masterclasses, a personalised schedule builder, a searchable attendee list, a downloadable contacts file and partner perks.
VIP: everything above, plus evening receptions, meeting spaces, catered food and drinks, access to the exhibition floor lounges and the VIP Lounge, and priority registration.
Chairperson: everything in VIP, plus fast-tracked entrance and access to the Speaker Lounge.

There are also separate routes for specific groups. Group offers give discounts for teams buying several tickets. Startups apply to the startup programme rather than buying general tickets; selected startups receive a package that includes event tickets, investor meetings, masterclasses, Mentor Hours and eligibility for PITCH. Investors and media apply through their own accreditation processes.

Tickets are personal. Each ticket is valid for one person for the whole event and cannot be handed to someone else partway through.

How to register and collect your badge

You cannot get into the venue without your accreditation, which is a lanyard and a wristband. You collect it once and wear both every day, including at Night Summit.

To collect it, bring:

a valid photo ID (passport, driving licence or government-issued ID), and
your ticket QR code from the Web Summit app.

In recent editions there were two registration points: a desk in Terminal 1 at Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport, and Main Registration at Pavilhão de Portugal, next to the MEO Arena. Both opened on the Saturday before the event, and each ticket type had its own lane. Your registration location and opening hours appear in the "My ticket" section of the app, so check there for the 2026 times.

The single most useful tip: register before Monday evening. Collecting your badge at the airport on arrival, or at Pavilhão de Portugal over the weekend, saves you from the longest queues and gets you into Opening Night.

The Web Summit app

The app is close to mandatory. Web Summit's own support pages say you need it to take part, because it holds your ticket and the QR code you use at check-in.

Beyond the ticket, you use it to:

build your personal schedule across stages and tracks;
find and join meetups, including ones you are invited to;
browse attendees, startups and partners and connect with them.

Web Summit has said the new app does not include a built-in chat. Once you connect with someone, you swap details and continue the conversation outside the app.

The app runs on Summit Engine, Web Summit's in-house event software, which recommends people and companies based on shared industries, interests and goals.

Meetups at Web Summit

Meetups are small, informal gatherings organised around shared interests. They are one of the easiest ways to make a large event feel smaller. Web Summit hosted more than 400 curated meetups in 2025.

The 2026 schedule already lists sessions such as a "First timers at Web Summit" meetup on 10 November at 11:00, and a product people meetup at noon the same day. If you are invited to a meetup it appears on your app home screen. If you are not invited but there is space, you can usually still join.

Night Summit 2026

Night Summit is the official evening programme. For 2026, Web Summit lists it as taking place onsite at Pavilion 5, with:

rapid-fire speed networking;
dedicated meetup spaces;
the Networking Garden;
Pink Street games;
Night Summit's Social Club;
relaxed DJ sets;
"Night Summit in the city" events in other parts of Lisbon.

Bring your lanyard and wristband, because you need them for Night Summit events too.

PITCH: Web Summit's startup competition

PITCH is Web Summit's live startup competition, brought to you by KPMG Private Enterprise. Startups from the startup programme pitch on stage across the week in front of investor and industry judges, and the finalists compete on Centre Stage on the closing day.

Recent winners include Granter (2025), a Portuguese AI tool that helps companies find and apply for grants, and Intuitivo (2024), a Porto edtech company that digitises school assessments. Watching the earlier rounds on the smaller stages is a quick way to see dozens of early-stage companies in a single afternoon.

For the startups selected for PITCH 2026 and other companies worth seeing, read Web Summit 2026: top companies and startups to watch.

How to get to Web Summit 2026

Both buildings are in Parque das Nações, close to Oriente station, a transport hub for metro, trains and buses.

From the airport: take the Metro Red Line (Linha Vermelha) from Aeroporto to Oriente. The ride takes about ten minutes, and the venue is a short walk from the station.
From central Lisbon: take the metro to Oriente. From Baixa-Chiado, ride the Green Line to Alameda, then change to the Red Line. Several bus routes also stop at Oriente.
By train: Oriente is a mainline station served by trains from across Portugal.
By taxi or ride-hailing: possible, but traffic around the venue is heavy at peak times, and Web Summit recommends public transport as the fastest way in.

One thing to plan for: the site is large. It can take far longer than you expect to walk from the arena to the furthest exhibition hall, so leave buffer time between sessions on different stages.

Web Summit tips for first-time attendees

Plan by track, not by stage. Pick two or three tracks that match your goals and build your schedule around them in the app, then add a few Centre Stage keynotes.
Leave gaps in your day. The best conversations often happen between talks, on the exhibition floor or at meetups.
Book accommodation early. Lisbon hotels fill quickly during Web Summit week, and prices near the venue rise as the event approaches.
Keep your phone charged and connected. Your ticket and schedule live in the app, and conference Wi-Fi gets crowded. A power bank and mobile data are worth having.
Pack for rain. November in Lisbon is usually mild, but 2025 brought heavy rain. A light waterproof jacket is a sensible addition.
Wear comfortable shoes. You will walk a lot between the arena and the pavilions.
Check the age policy if needed. Web Summit is an over-18s event. Anyone planning to bring a minor needs to contact the organiser first.

FAQs: Web Summit 2026

When is Web Summit 2026?

From Monday 9 to Thursday 12 November 2026. Monday is registration and Opening Night, and the main conference days are 10 to 12 November.

Where is Web Summit 2026 held?

At the MEO Arena and FIL in Parque das Nações, Lisbon (Rossio dos Olivais, 1990-231 Lisbon). The nearest station is Oriente.

Do I need a separate ticket for the AI Summit?

No. AI Summit is one of the 17 content tracks, and every Web Summit ticket includes all tracks.

Do I need the Web Summit app?

Yes. Your ticket and the QR code you need for registration live in the app, and it is how you build your schedule and find meetups.

What do I need to collect my badge?

A valid photo ID and the ticket QR code in your app. You receive a lanyard and wristband to wear every day.

Can I transfer my ticket to someone else during the event?

No. Each ticket is valid for one person for the whole event.

How much does a Web Summit 2026 ticket cost?

At the time of writing, the official ticket page lists General attendee tickets at €1,595, VIP at €1,950 and Chairperson at €24,950, all including sales tax. Prices rise in stages as the event approaches. Group offers are available for teams, and startups and investors apply through separate programmes.

How many people attend Web Summit?

Web Summit 2025 welcomed 71,386 attendees from 157 countries, including 1,857 investors and 2,725 exhibiting startups. A similar scale is expected for 2026.

How do I get from Lisbon Airport to Web Summit?

Take the Metro Red Line from Aeroporto to Oriente. The ride takes about ten minutes, and the MEO Arena and FIL are a short walk from the station. In past editions, you could also collect your badge at a registration desk in Terminal 1 of the airport.

What is Night Summit?

Night Summit is Web Summit's official evening networking programme. In 2026 it is listed onsite at Pavilion 5, with speed networking, meetup spaces, the Networking Garden, DJ sets and events around Lisbon. It is included with a General attendee ticket.

What language is Web Summit held in?

English. Talks, the app and official communications are all in English.

Is Web Summit worth attending?

It depends on your goals. Web Summit is strongest for meeting a large number of investors, startups, partners and media in a single week, and for hearing from leaders across 17 tracks. It works best when you plan your meetings and sessions in the app before you arrive.

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Web Summit 2026 Lisbon: The Complete Attendee Guide