Île de la Cité · 4th arrondissement
You do not need a ticket for the cathedral: entry is free, and the time slot is optional. The towers are the one paid ticket, and a guide buys you context, never a way in.
Updated October 26, 2026 · Prices checked October 26, 2026 · Tour prices refresh daily
Notre-Dame de Paris is free to enter, and the only official way to reserve is the cathedral’s own website, also free. The official site is blunt about it: “No tickets may be sold or distributed by a guide or agency.” Anyone charging you for a Notre-Dame “ticket” is selling something you can get for nothing, and the cathedral warns that resold reservations “do not grant you access.”
So this page answers three different questions. Do you need the free time slot (no, but it helps)? Is the towers climb worth its paid ticket? And is a guided tour worth paying for? The tours below are guided tours, not entry tickets. What they sell is context.
N° 01Short on time
1erBest value
Bonjour-Tours
A short guided tour of the facade and the outside, then you go in on your own. More than 2,000 reviews, and it is the cheapest way to arrive at the door knowing what you are looking at. Shared groups can be large.
Free cancellation
From$26.41
lowest listed option (shared group)
2eSmall groupGuide inside
Walks - France
A semi-private tour that goes into the cathedral with the guide, then walks the island. Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie are seen from outside only, and the listing gives two different group caps.
Free cancellation
From$89.92
per person, semi-private group
3eAdd Sainte-Chapelle
LetzGo City Tours
A guided walk around Notre-Dame and Île de la Cité, then a visit inside on your own. Its upgrade options add timed Sainte-Chapelle entry, the paid monument next door.
Free cancellation
From$67.15
lowest listed option (shared group)
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N° 02Entrée libre
No. The cathedral calls itself “a place of worship open to all, freely and without charge.” You can walk up, clear security and go in.
What it offers is an optional, free time-slot reservation on notredamedeparis.fr. Its answer to “Is reservation mandatory?” is “No… However, it is highly recommended.” With a slot, entry within that window is guaranteed. Without one you still get in, but the wait can be longer.
Free slots are released on the day, a few hours ahead, so book once you are in Paris. Parts of the official site mention booking a day or two before, but the booking portal itself says same day only. The cathedral warns that demand can reach three or four times the places available, and that booking too early, too often, from far away or over a VPN can get your access blocked for a while.
Walking up? The cathedral expects almost 40,000 visitors a day, so plan on a queue and go on a weekday if you can. Everyone passes the same security check, slot or no slot.
N° 03Les tours
The towers are the one paid ticket at Notre-Dame, run by the Centre des monuments nationaux and booked only on the official Tours de Notre-Dame site. They reopened on September 20, 2025. The route takes about 50 minutes: 424 steps to the top of the South Tower, 69 meters up, past two original chimeras saved from the 2019 fire, the Emmanuel bourdon and a view over the restored roof frame. There is no lift, no water and no toilets, and it is not recommended with heart problems, vertigo, pregnancy or young children. The ticket does not include the cathedral.
| Ticket | Who it is for | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Individual | Adults; there is no reduced rate | €16 |
| Under 18 | With an adult | Free |
| Ages 18–25 | EU nationals and regular non-EU residents of France | Free |
| Disabled visitor | The visitor and one companion | Free |
| First Sunday | January, February, March, November and December | Free |
Checked October 26, 2026. There are no sales on site: every visitor needs a timed e-ticket, including free visitors and Paris Museum Pass holders, and free tickets come from a daily quota per slot. Open 9am–5:30pm from October 1 to March 31 and 9am–11pm from April 1 to September 30, last admission an hour before closing; closed January 1, May 1 and December 25, and possibly in bad weather. Groups and guide commentary are not allowed, so no tour includes the towers. Source: Tours de Notre-Dame, practical information.
N° 04Infos pratiques
The cathedral is open every day of the year: Monday to Friday 7:50am to 7pm, Thursday until 10pm, and Saturday and Sunday 8:15am to 7:30pm. Last entry is 30 minutes before closing, and hours can change for special celebrations. The address is 6 Parvis Notre-Dame, Place Jean-Paul II, in the 4th arrondissement.
Mass is on weekdays at 8am, noon and 6pm; Saturday at 8:30am, noon and 6pm; and Sunday at 8:30am, 10am (Gregorian), 11:30am and 6pm. No reservation is needed: a separate queue for worshippers opens 20 minutes before each service. Visits continue during services, but guided commentary stops inside and silence is expected. The great organ plays a free recital on Sundays at 4pm.
Dress modestly: shoulders, torso, stomach and thighs covered, nothing transparent or tight, and men remove hats. Luggage and large bags are banned. One official page allows backpacks up to 20 liters and another asks you not to bring one, so travel light. Glass and metal bottles, food and drink, aerosols and selfie sticks are banned too, and phone calls are not allowed inside. There are no toilets in the cathedral; free ones are on rue d’Arcole.
On your own, an official audioguide is sold at reception and the official app is free.
N° 05Avec un guide
Every tour here is a guide’s time, not an entry ticket. The cathedral is free whichever you pick, and none of them skips security. If you only want to see the nave, book the free slot and pay nothing. A guide earns the fee on the facade, the fire and the restoration, and the island around it.
Bonjour-Tours
Free cancellation
From$26.41
lowest listed option (shared group)
Bonjour-Tours is the budget pick: about 70 minutes outside from the Charlemagne statue, then you go in on your own. The listing allows very large shared groups, so take the semi-private option (up to 12) if crowds bother you.
Small groupWalks - France
Free cancellation
From$89.92
per person, semi-private group
Walks France takes the guide inside with you for an introduction, then walks past the Conciergerie, the Hôtel-Dieu and Sainte-Chapelle, all from outside, whatever the URL suggests. The description says five guests at most and the inclusions say 14, so ask before you book.
LetzGo City Tours
Free cancellation
From$67.15
lowest listed option (shared group)
LetzGo is guided outside with a visit inside on your own, in groups of up to 25. Upgrades add timed Sainte-Chapelle entry or a semi-private group. The listing warns of long waits.
Small groupWalks In Europe
Free cancellation
From$121.78
per person, semi-private group
Walks In Europe caps the group at nine and includes a visit inside, but says guiding inside is not guaranteed under the cathedral’s newer rules. Despite the URL, there is no crypt and no river cruise. It is the priciest here, with just over 100 reviews.
N° 06Trésor et crypte
The treasury is inside the cathedral, through the south ambulatory, and has its own ticket, sold only at its desk. It opens Monday to Friday from 9am, Saturday from 9:30am and Sunday from 1pm, with a later close on Thursdays; the official pages give slightly different closing times. Worth it if you have done the nave and want more. The archaeological crypt under the parvis, a separate City of Paris museum, has been closed for conservation since June 28, 2026, with no reopening date. Do not plan around it.
| Ticket | Who it is for | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Full price | Adults | €12 |
| Reduced | Under 18s, students and job seekers, with proof | €6 |
| Free | Under 5s, a disabled visitor and one companion, and a few others | Free |
Checked October 26, 2026. No online booking; last entry 30 minutes before closing. The treasury and the cathedral are accessible. Source: Notre-Dame de Paris, the treasury.
N° 07Île de la Cité
Sainte-Chapelle is on the same island and, unlike the cathedral, is a paid monument with a timed ticket, open 9am to 5pm from October to March. Our Sainte-Chapelle tickets guide has the official prices and the Conciergerie combo. The easy half-day is the chapel on a timed ticket, then Notre-Dame on a free same-day slot. If you want the chapel tickets handled for you, this tour pre-reserves Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie and shows Notre-Dame from outside:
Small groupWalks In Europe
Free cancellation
From$89.92
lowest listed option
Then take to the water: our Seine cruises guide compares the boats, and Batobus, the hop-on hop-off boat, has a Notre-Dame stop.
N° 08Noël à Notre-Dame
01
The cathedral stays open until 10pm on Thursdays. The towers close at 5:30pm from October to March, so climb them first.
02
The 2026 schedule is not out yet. In previous years there were Masses on the afternoon and evening of December 24, a vigil and Midnight Mass, then Masses on Christmas morning, with no reservation needed. Check the official site in December.
03
About 40 French exhibitors, free, from Thursday, November 26 to Sunday, December 27, 2026 in Square René-Viviani (5th arrondissement). Open 10am to 8pm, to 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays. More in our Paris Christmas markets guide.
04
The cathedral opens every day; the towers close December 25 and January 1. The rest is in what’s open in Paris at Christmas and Paris in December.
N° 09Good to know
Yes. Entry to the cathedral is free, and so is the optional time-slot reservation on the official website. No guide, agency or other platform is authorized to sell tickets. The towers and the treasury are the paid parts.
No, but it is recommended. A free reservation guarantees entry within your slot; without one you can still get in, with a longer wait. Slots are released on the day, a few hours ahead, so book once you are in Paris on notredamedeparis.fr.
Yes. The towers reopened in September 2025. It is 424 steps to the top of the South Tower with no lift, and every visitor needs a timed e-ticket booked online, as there are no sales on site. The full price is €16. Under-18s go free, as do EU nationals aged 18 to 25.
Every day: Monday to Friday 7:50am to 7pm, Thursday until 10pm, and Saturday and Sunday 8:15am to 7:30pm. Last entry is 30 minutes before closing. The towers keep their own hours, 9am to 5:30pm from October to March.
Yes. Cover your shoulders, torso, stomach and thighs, avoid transparent or tight clothing, and men should remove hats inside.
No. Entry is free and no tour on this page sells a faster way in; everyone goes through the same security check. A guide adds context, and commentary inside stops during Masses.
Not at the moment. The archaeological crypt under the parvis has been closed for conservation since June 28, 2026, and no reopening date has been published.
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