The Paris Museum Pass gives you admission to over 50 museums and monuments across Paris and the surrounding region, including the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, Versailles and the Arc de Triomphe. It can save serious money — or be a complete waste, depending on who you are and how you travel. This guide gives the 2026 prices, what is actually included, the reservations you still have to make, and an honest calculation of when it pays for itself.
Paris Museum Pass prices in 2026
| Pass | Price | Cost per day |
|---|---|---|
| 2 days | €85 | €42.50 |
| 4 days | €105 | €26.25 |
| 6 days | €125 | €20.83 |
>> Book your Paris Museum Pass here
How the validity works — the detail that costs people money
The pass is counted in consecutive hours from first use, not in calendar days. A 2-day pass first used at 3 p.m. on Wednesday expires at 3 p.m. on Friday. The clock does not stop overnight, so activating a pass in the late afternoon throws away most of your first day. Start it first thing in the morning.
You can buy months in advance without penalty — activation is automatic on your first entry, and the purchase date is irrelevant. Entry is unlimited across included sites, but one entry per site: you cannot go back to the Louvre on a second day.
The pass exists as a paper card or as an e-ticket emailed to you within minutes of buying online.
Who should NOT buy the pass
Two groups get in free almost everywhere, so the pass is money thrown away. This is the most important section on this page.
- Anyone under 18, of any nationality. Free at the Louvre, Orsay, Versailles and almost every national museum and monument. Never buy a pass for a child.
- EU/EEA nationals and residents under 26, on proof of ID or residency. Free at national museums and monuments. Note this is by residency in Europe — a non-EU citizen holding a French or EU long-stay visa usually qualifies too. Carry photo ID and, if relevant, your residence permit.
Non-EU residents aged 18 and over do need to pay, so the pass is worth considering for them. Disabled visitors and a companion also enter free at most national sites.
Museums included in the Paris Museum Pass

The big names: the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée de l’Orangerie, the Musée Picasso, the Musée Rodin (Paris and Meudon), the Musée du Quai Branly, the Musée de Cluny, the Musée Guimet, the Army Museum and Napoleon’s Tomb at Les Invalides, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Musée des Arts et Métiers, the Hôtel de la Marine.
Smaller museums worth the detour: Musée Delacroix, Musée Gustave Moreau, Musée Nissim de Camondo, Institut du Monde Arabe, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme, Musée National de la Marine, Cité des Sciences, Cité de l’Architecture, Cinémathèque Française, Philharmonie de Paris, Musée Jean-Jacques Henner.
Outside Paris: the Château de Versailles and Trianon, Fontainebleau, Chantilly, Vincennes, Compiègne, Malmaison, the Basilique Saint-Denis, the Musée d’Archéologie Nationale at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace, and Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye.
Important: the Centre Pompidou is still listed on the official pass website, but it closed in September 2025 and will not reopen until 2030. Ignore the listing — it appears to be a page nobody updated. Read our guide to what to see instead of the Pompidou.
Monuments included

- Arc de Triomphe
- Sainte-Chapelle
- Conciergerie
- Panthéon
- Towers of Notre-Dame — reopened, and now included again
- Archaeological Crypt of the Île de la Cité
- Chapelle Expiatoire
What is NOT included
Visitors are regularly caught out by these:
- The Eiffel Tower — not included, and never has been
- The Catacombs
- Opéra Garnier
- Musée Grévin and other private museums
- Seine river cruises and any transport
- Temporary exhibitions — the pass covers permanent collections only. If you came to Paris for one specific blockbuster show, the pass will not get you into it
- The Versailles Musical Gardens and Fountains Show, which is priced separately in high season
The pass is also not the same thing as the Paris Pass or Paris City Pass, which are commercial bundles including transport, a hop-on bus and attractions like the Montparnasse Tower. Those cost considerably more and only make sense if you would genuinely use every component.
>> Compare the Paris Pass here
Does it still let you skip the line? Partly.
This is where most older guides are misleading. The pass removes the ticket-buying queue. It does not remove the security queue, and it does not override timed-entry systems.
These sites require a separate timed reservation even with the pass:
- Musée du Louvre — mandatory. In summer the Louvre requires a reservation from every visitor without exception
- Sainte-Chapelle and Conciergerie — mandatory, booked together
- Château de Versailles — mandatory for the Palace; not needed for the Trianon
- Towers of Notre-Dame — mandatory, and slots go fast
- Musée de l’Orangerie and the Hôtel de la Marine
- Musée d’Orsay — the pass site says yes, the museum says pass holders can use the ticket-holder queue. Book anyway, it is free and removes the risk
Reservations are free for pass holders — you are booking a time slot, not buying a ticket. But you must create an account on each site’s own booking system.
Practical order of operations: buy the pass, then immediately book the Louvre, Sainte-Chapelle and Versailles. In July and August the good slots disappear well before your pass window opens.
Is the Paris Museum Pass worth it? The honest maths
Several major sites introduced two-tier pricing in 2026, charging non-EEA visitors more. That changes the calculation considerably depending on where you are from.
| Site | Non-EEA adult | EEA adult |
|---|---|---|
| Louvre | €32 | €22 |
| Château de Versailles (Passport, high season) | €35 | €32 |
| Sainte-Chapelle | €22 | €16 |
| Arc de Triomphe (high season) | €22 | €22 |
| Musée d’Orsay | €16 | €16 |
| Panthéon (high season) | €16 | €16 |
| Musée Rodin | €14 | €14 |
| Conciergerie | €13 | €13 |
For a non-EEA visitor doing Versailles, the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe, individual tickets come to €89 — so the 2-day pass at €85 has already paid for itself on the third visit. Add Sainte-Chapelle and the 4-day pass breaks even on the fourth. Add Orsay and the 6-day pass breaks even on the fifth.
For an EEA adult aged 26 or over, the same sequence costs less, so the pass takes longer to justify: roughly the fourth visit for the 2-day pass, the fifth for the 4-day, and the seventh for the 6-day.
Our verdict. The 4-day pass is the sweet spot for most visitors — it gives a realistic pace without demanding a museum marathon. The 2-day pass works only if you are disciplined and hit the expensive landmarks immediately. The 6-day pass is the hardest to justify: by the time you have done the big sites, the marginal saving on smaller museums is modest, and few people can sustain six days of sightseeing.
One benefit that does not show up in the arithmetic: below break-even, the pass still lets you drop into a small museum for twenty minutes without committing €14 at the door. That freedom changes how you use the city, and several of the best small museums in Paris are ones you would never have paid to try.
Where to buy
- Online, with the e-ticket emailed within minutes — the simplest option
- At the ticket desk of any participating museum or monument
- At tourist information points in the Paris airports and at Disneyland Paris
Buying online also means you are not queuing to buy a pass whose purpose is to stop you queuing.
Read next: visiting the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, and free museums on the first Sunday of the month.
Prices checked August 2026. Museum admission in Paris is generally revised in January — check the official site before buying.
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