AGU26, the American Geophysical Union annual meeting, runs 7-11 December 2026 at Moscone Center, 747 Howard Street, San Francisco. AGU publishes two attendance counts for the meeting on two of its own pages. A revenue committee underwriting the five nights around it has to pick a number, and the block carries its own published set.
Two counts, two pages
The welcome block on agu.org/annual-meeting reads: "AGU's annual meeting, the largest gathering of Earth and space scientists, convenes 25,000+ attendees from 100+ countries to share research, connect, collaborate, and inspire one another." The date line above it reads "7-11 December 2026 | San Francisco, CA". The live page answers a request from this host with a block, so the reading above comes from the same address's capture of 30 September 2026.
The organiser's release for this edition, stamped 1 September 2026, reads "More than 24,000 attendees will present research on a broad range of Earth and space sciences." That count describes attendees who present, so it measures part of the meeting.
The two published counts sit 1,000 delegates apart. At one room per delegate across five nights, the spread is 5,000 room nights, which is 125,000 against 120,000 at the ceiling.
The venue carries neither figure
Moscone's own event page for the meeting carries the title "American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2026", the line "IN-PERSON | December 7-11 | Moscone Center | San Francisco, CA, USA" and the hall set "Moscone North, South, and West". It publishes no attendance number.
The venue's live event feed holds the same meeting as record nid 854, dated 7 December 2026 to 11 December 2026 in the same three halls. The venue corroborates the dates and the halls.
What the block publishes
The housing block runs on the Maritz Global Events platform and lists 44 hotels. Rates start at $199 at Hotel Fusion and reach $295 at the Grand Hyatt San Francisco. Sixteen of the 44 were sold out when the block was read on 16 October 2026.
Distances to Moscone run 0.1 miles at W San Francisco to 2.5 miles at Hotel Riu Plaza and Hotel Zephyr Fisherman's Wharf. The median is 0.7 miles. Three properties sit at or under 0.25 miles, 13 at or under 0.5 miles and 33 at or under 1.0 mile.
Housing closes on 19 November, per the meeting's own deadline list. AGU's release adds the operating caution: "Bookings close 19 November but may fill before that date." From 19 November to 7 December is 18 days.
The rate base under the five nights
Engine's city ladder for San Francisco, read 16 October 2026, puts the average nightly rate at $165 across 3.1 million public rate observations from May 2024 to April 2026. December is the cheapest month on that list at $129, which is 22 percent below the city average. March is the highest at $197. Thirty-five percent separates the cheapest month from the priciest.
December is the month a five-night AGU block sits in, and the rate base under it is the lowest of the twelve months.
What the record leaves open
No page AGU or Moscone publishes carries a pick-up figure or a room-night total. The block publishes a starting rate per hotel on 44 properties.
Underwrite the block: 44 hotels, rates from $199 to $295, sixteen sold out on 16 October 2026. Ask the organiser for the pick-up number and the room-night total before the fence goes up. The two attendance counts a committee can read are the organiser's alone, and 1,000 delegates separate them.