Louvre tickets in 2026: the price for UK and US visitors, the time slot, and when a tour is worth it

💡 The Short Version: Buy the official ticket from ticket.louvre.fr for a self-guided visit: €32 for visitors from outside the European Economic Area, which includes the UK and the US (€22 for EEA visitors), since 14 January 2026. It is for a time slot that cannot be changed or refunded, and the museum is closed on Tuesdays. Under-18s go free but still book a slot. Or book a tour: a guided tour with entry, such as the Mona Lisa and iconic masterpieces tourad (from £67.26), gets you in with a guide on a group ticket, and is the fallback when the official slots are sold out. Under Louvre rules, a guided group leaves the museum together when the tour ends.

The tickets, compared

Official prices from louvre.fr; tour prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” price. Both checked 29 September 2026, converted at the ECB rate that day (€1 = £0.857).

• No reduced tickets. The Louvre offers free entry to the groups above and nothing in between.
• Buy only from the Louvre or a known seller. The museum warns about copycat websites and street sellers of “queue-jump” tickets, and may refuse entry on them.
• Entry-only resales cost more. Plain entry tickets resold on GetYourGuide were £51.47 and £55.83 on 29 September 2026, against €32 (about £27) from the Louvre.

Tours that include entry

Each of these includes a Louvre entry ticket booked for the group, so arrive on time: a latecomer cannot be given a ticket of their own. Under-18s go free only outside a group tour; on a tour they pay its child price.

The Mona Lisa in the Salle des États. Photo: Hannolans, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Mona Lisa and iconic masterpieces

From £67.26 · 4.7 stars from 6,900 reviews · 2 hours

Paris: Louvre Museum Tour – Mona Lisa & Iconic Masterpiecesad meets at the Kiosque des Noctambules, a structure of Murano glass beads facing the Comédie-Française, 5 minutes’ walk from the museum. The route covers the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Mona Lisa, with entry through the Pyramid.

Priority access, Mona Lisa and museum icons

From £41.18 · 4.6 stars from 1,458 reviews · 2 hours

Louvre Priority Access Mona Lisa & Museum Icons Guided Tourad is the lowest-priced of the four here. You choose a large group, a smaller group or a private guide; one option adds brunch at Ladurée on the Champs-Élysées.

The Venus de Milo. Photo: Bradley Weber, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Skip-the-line Louvre and Mona Lisa

From £58.34 · 4.7 stars from 1,622 reviews · 2 to 2½ hours

Paris: Skip-the-Line Louvre Museum & Mona Lisa Guided Tourad goes in by the group entrance, past the main queue, and covers the French paintings too: Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa and David’s Coronation of Napoleon. The operator calls it a faster-paced highlights tour.

Six guests at most

From £54.05 · 4.9 stars from 240 reviews · 2½ hours

Paris: Louvre Award-Winning Tour with Tickets Max 6 Guestsad keeps the group to six, and meets at 8 place du Carrousel.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace on the Daru staircase. Photo: Wilfredor, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

When it sells out, and what to do then

The Louvre sells tickets at the museum only when attendance is low, so without a booking you may not get in. If the official calendar shows nothing for your date:

• Try the late evenings. The museum is open to 21:00 on Wednesdays and Fridays, with last entry at 20:00.
• Check the tours. Tour operators book group tickets, sold on GetYourGuide’s own calendar, separate from the Louvre’s.

What to see

The Louvre has three wings, Denon, Sully and Richelieu, and the works most visitors come for are in the first two. The museum’s own trail, “The Louvre’s Masterpieces”, takes 90 minutes and runs on every day the museum is open (louvre.fr, 30 September 2026). It starts in the Sully wing and goes round in this order:

• The Mona Lisa hangs in a temperature- and humidity-controlled glass case in the Salle des États, with a queue to see it. Opposite is the Louvre’s biggest painting, Veronese’s Wedding Feast at Cana.
• The route: the trail climbs from the Sully wing’s ground floor to the Denon wing’s first floor and comes back down to the Michelangelo gallery, which ends with a view of the Pyramid.
• What to skip in 90 minutes: the Richelieu wing, which has its own one-hour trail, “Secret Treasures of the Richelieu Wing”. If a work is not on display because of an exhibition, a loan or conservation work, go on to the next stop; the route still holds.

On the day

• Hours: 9:00–18:00 on Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday; 9:00–21:00 on Wednesday and Friday. Closed Tuesday, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December. Last entry an hour before closing; rooms clear 30 minutes before.
• Entrances: the Pyramid is the main one, with a green queue for visitors who have a ticket or a Paris Museum Pass and an orange queue for those without. The Carrousel and Porte des Lions entrances are for ticket holders only. Groups and members use Passage Richelieu.
• Metro: Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre (lines 1 and 7) or Pyramides (line 14).
• Bags: nothing bigger than 55 × 35 × 20 cm is allowed in, even in the welcome area. Free lockers for smaller bags are under the Pyramid and at the Porte des Lions, and must be emptied the same day.
• No re-entry: a ticket is valid all day, but once you leave you cannot come back in.
• Where to go: with an hour or two, the Louvre’s own advice is the Denon wing, home to the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Raft of the Medusa. The Sully and Richelieu wings are quieter. The Mona Lisa room is open every day, but your time in it may be limited when it is busy.
• Paying at the museum: euros only, by card, cash or Chèques-Vacances.

The Pyramid, the Louvre’s main entrance. Photo: Maksim Sokolov, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

For the other sights that need a slot, and which day each one closes, see what to book before you go in Paris; the other ticket that sells out is the Eiffel Tower. Versailles, closed on Mondays, is the easy day out: see the Versailles day trip. With three days in the city, the 3-day itinerary puts the Louvre on a day it is open.