The Paris Museum Pass in 2026, and the maths that changed

Until last winter the Paris Museum Pass was a purchase that rarely paid — you had to chase museums to earn it back. Then in January 2026 the Louvre introduced two prices, €22 for EEA nationals and residents and €32 for everyone else, while the pass kept one: €85 for two days, wherever you are from. That asymmetry is the whole point of this piece.

Two prices for the same room

The Louvre and Versailles have charged two prices since 14 January 2026, and the Sainte-Chapelle since 12 January, along with its combined ticket for the Conciergerie. The lower price goes to anyone who is a national or a resident of a European Economic Area country, the higher to everyone else. Versailles also has two seasons: from April to October, when the gardens are charged as well, the Passport costs more than in winter. The same rule undoes something many people count on: free entry for under-26s applies only to EEA nationals and residents, while under-18s go free regardless.

What the pass is, and what it isn't

The pass comes in two, four and six days and covers more than fifty museums and monuments in Paris and the surrounding region. One detail gets missed: it counts hours, not calendar days. It activates on the first entry and then runs for 48, 96 or 144 consecutive hours — activate it at noon on Friday and you have lost two afternoons rather than one. On the list are the Louvre, the Orsay, Versailles with the Trianon, the Sainte-Chapelle, the Conciergerie, the Notre-Dame towers, the Arc de Triomphe, the Rodin and the Picasso.

What is not in it costs more than people expect — the three best-known tickets outside the pass are at the foot of the table, and transport is not in it either. Temporary exhibitions are normally charged separately, and the Centre Pompidou is shut for a rebuild with its collection touring other houses until the end of the decade.

Eiffel Tower, Catacombs, Opéra Garnier — not in the pass

Five scenarios, one calculator

The maths is simple: add up the full prices of what you actually plan to enter and compare with the pass. Below are five typical cases, per person, in the season from April to September.

• Two days, non-EEA visitor, three big houses. The Louvre, the Sainte-Chapelle and the Orsay together cost €70, less than the two-day pass. Three houses are not enough.
• Two days, non-EEA visitor, four houses. Add the Arc de Triomphe and the total rises to €92, so the pass starts saving and spares you four separate purchases — that is the threshold.
• Two days, EEA resident, the same four. The total is €76, still less than the pass. Same plan, opposite decision: buy singles.
• Four days, non-EEA, with Versailles. The Louvre, Versailles, the Sainte-Chapelle, the Orsay and the Conciergerie come to €118 against €105 for the four-day pass — plus everything you wander into without thinking about it.
• Six days. For a non-EEA visitor the €125 pass only pays once the Arc de Triomphe joins the Louvre, Versailles, the Sainte-Chapelle and the Orsay, for a total of €127; for an EEA resident not even then, so the six-day pass is almost always a loss for them.

A pass is not a ticket

The costliest mistake with a pass isn't money but the assumption that it lets you walk in when you arrive. At the Louvre, the Orsay, Versailles, the Sainte-Chapelle, the Conciergerie and the Notre-Dame towers a time slot is compulsory even with the pass — booked ahead, free of charge, and in season it fills before you arrive. Each house also has its closing day: the Louvre on Tuesday, the Orsay and Versailles on Monday. The Sainte-Chapelle shares an entrance with the law courts, so on a busy day security takes up to half an hour. A two-day pass that lands on a Monday and a Tuesday is really a one-day pass.

BudgetThe same maths inside a full daily budget:What Paris costs →

When the pass makes no sense

If the plan is the Eiffel Tower, a Seine cruise and Montmartre, the pass covers none of it. If you travel with a child under 18, they enter everywhere free, so only the adults count. If you are an EEA national or resident under 26, the national museums are already free and the pass is pure cost. And if you would rather walk than queue indoors, one museum a day is the realistic measure, and two houses in two days do not earn the pass back even at the higher prices. There are free windows too: the Louvre on the first Friday of the month after 6pm, except in July and August, and the Orsay on the first Sunday, with a compulsory time slot — both with crowds to match the price.

3 daysIf what you want is an hour-by-hour plan rather than a table:Paris in 3 days →

GuideParis beyond the museums: what to see, and where?Paris →

The conclusion isn't buy or don't buy, it is count. The pass rewards a dense plan and punishes a leisurely one, and since January 2026 it rewards it harder — specifically for travellers from outside the EEA. For someone who fits four big houses into two days the margin is small but real; for someone who enters two in the same two days, the pass is the most expensive ticket that goes unused.