Louvre Tickets: Timed Entry, Skip-the-Line and Tours with Entry Included

Book a time slot on ticket.louvre.fr, including if you qualify for free admission. From October 17 through November 1, 2026, a reservation is required for almost every visitor. Outside that window the museum still recommends a slot, because ticket holders and visitors without tickets use different queues.

Choose the official ticket if you already know the route you want. Choose a guided tour with entry included if this is a first visit or you want the reservation handled. A private guide is a third decision, covered on private Louvre tours.

• On your own: a timed ticket for the permanent collections, the temporary exhibitions, and the Musée national Eugène-Delacroix the same day or the next day it is open.
• With a guide: one of the four tours below. Read the option. Several mix a large group with a much smaller one, and the from-price is only the cheapest.
• Free admission: still reserve a slot and bring the ID that category requires. Any exit is final.

The only seller of the individual ticket is the museum, at ticket.louvre.fr. Pick a day that is not a Tuesday, choose a time, and pay by card. The desk also sells tickets, by cash, card or Chèques-Vacances, but the slot may already be gone. Through November 1, 2026, arriving without a booking only works for the cardholders the Louvre lists for that period, including members, disabled visitors with their companion, and journalists.

The lower individual rate is for citizens and residents of the European Economic Area. The hours and admission page names the countries. Citizens need a photo ID. Residents need a residence permit, or a visa of more than three months. Everyone else pays the non-EEA rate above.

Under-18s of any nationality are free, with ID. So are EEA citizens under 26, and EEA residents under 26 with a residence permit longer than 90 days that shows a name and a photograph. Disabled visitors and one companion are free. The same page also frees art teachers, ICOM members, press-card journalists, EEA job seekers and EEA residents on income support, each with the document it names. On July 14, and after 6pm on the first Friday of the month except July and August, everyone is free. Book the slot anyway.

A Louvre-run tour or workshop is booked separately. That activity ticket does not include gallery admission unless you already qualify for free entry.

Each tour below includes museum entry and an English-speaking guide, and refunds in full if you cancel at least 24 hours before the start. The from-price is the lowest listed option. On three of the four that option is the larger group, and the six-guest version costs more. Only City Wonders sells a private option here. For a guide of your own, use private Louvre tours.

Skip-the-line means a reserved group entry. You still clear the bag check. City Wonders meets at Place du Carrousel and sells a one-hour Mona Lisa express, a three-hour group of up to 20, a semi-private group of up to 12, a private tour, and a wine tasting. Parties of seven or more may be split on the day.

Walks In Europe is the two-hour visit with tickets reserved ahead. The title says six people, and the listing also sells a group of up to 18, so check the basket. Meet at Le Nemours on Place Colette, 15 minutes early. You cannot join after the start, ages two and under are not allowed, and leaving a wing ends that part of the ticket.

The Tour Guy covers the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory in about two and a half hours, meeting by the Pyramid. Choose up to 20 guests or six. The listing says it is not wheelchair accessible, and names and dates of birth must match an ID.

Matteo Allavena’s tour is one option, capped at six, meeting outside Le Café Marly at 93 rue de Rivoli. He lists it as wheelchair accessible, in English or French. None of these tours includes a hotel pickup, and tips are extra. If a listing quotes an entrance amount, use the museum table: several still describe the included ticket with the group participant fee, which is not the individual rate.

The Louvre’s entrance map, read on October 25, 2026, lists four doors, and they do not all stay open until closing. Check that map on the day you go.

The Pyramid in the Cour Napoléon is the main door for individual visitors. Ticket holders and Paris Museum Pass holders use one queue, visitors without a ticket use another, and disabled visitors, wheelchairs and strollers use the priority queue. The glass tube lift is reserved for them. A timed ticket belongs at this door.

The Carrousel entrance, 99 rue de Rivoli, is the indoor alternative, from the mall or from the car park at 1 avenue du Général Lemonnier. The museum opens it to groups, members, and visitors who already have a ticket.

Passage Richelieu, on rue de Rivoli, is for groups, for groups of up to six with an official guide, for museum activities, auditorium events and members. It closes after 5:30pm, and after 7:30pm on Wednesday and Friday. Use it only if your confirmation names it.

The Porte des Lions, on quai François-Mitterrand, is ticket holders only. Last entry is 5pm, it closes at 6pm, and it is closed on Tuesdays. The locker room there is open until 3pm, and there is no equipment loan. Skip it for a Wednesday or Friday evening, when the museum itself stays open until 9pm.

Métro: Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre (lines 1 and 7) and Pyramides (line 14). Taxis drop at the Carrousel roundabout. Every visitor goes through a security check, and bags have to be left open. A timed ticket does not remove that.

Closed Tuesdays, and on January 1, May 1 and December 25. Other public holidays stay open unless they fall on a Tuesday. Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday run 9am to 6pm. Wednesday and Friday run 9am to 9pm, which is the late opening.

Last entry is one hour before closing. Rooms are cleared 30 minutes before closing, so on a 6pm day be inside by 5pm. On Wednesday and Friday last entry is 8pm. The Cour Napoléon is open from 7:30am to 9pm.

Free tickets still need a time slot. During October 17 to November 1, 2026 the reservation is mandatory except for the cardholders named on the hours page, among them Amis du Louvre members and disabled visitors with a companion. The museum also posts one-day changes, a later opening or closed rooms, on that same page. Check it the morning you go.

Hire a private guide when the route has to change for children, a wheelchair, another language, or a short list of works you care about. Who includes entry, and who makes you leave when the guide does, is compared on private Louvre tours. The six-guest options above are the middle step: still shared, still with the ticket included. Open the option, not only the title, before you assume you have the small group.

Two hours covers the three works most people come for, if you leave the rest. The order and the timing are in Louvre in two hours. Pair that route with an official timed ticket, or with the two-hour Walks In Europe tour if you want the guide and the ticket together.

For the rest of the day, see Eiffel Tower tickets, the Catacombs, and Seine cruises.