Visiting the Louvre at Night Without a Tour

You do not need a tour to see the Louvre in the evening. The museum stays open to 9pm every Wednesday and Friday, a ticket costs €22 or €32, and the museum runs its own guided tour on Friday evenings. Here is how to do it alone, what it costs, and when a booked louvre museum night tour is worth the difference.

Can you visit the Louvre at night on your own?

Yes. On Wednesdays and Fridays the museum is open from 9am to 9pm, and the evening is open to everyone with a ticket. Last entry is at 8pm and the rooms clear from 8:30pm, so be inside by 6:30pm for a full two hours.

On other days the museum closes at 6pm, and it is closed every Tuesday. The visitor guide to the late openings has the whole week, the holidays and the exceptions.

How do you book a timed ticket for a late night?

Online, from the museum, for a set time slot. The museum recommends a time slot for every visitor, including those who enter free, and it warns you never to buy from street sellers. Choose a slot at 6pm or later on a Wednesday or Friday.

A ticket bought this way cannot be changed, exchanged or refunded, and payment is in euros only. You can still buy at the door: the Pyramid has a queue for visitors without tickets, but it adds time to your evening.

The same ticket covers the permanent collections and the exhibitions, plus the Eugène Delacroix museum the same day and the next. An exhibition in the Hall Napoléon asks for its own time slot.

Who pays €22, €32 or nothing?

Since 14 January 2026 there are two prices. Citizens and residents of the European Economic Area pay €22; everyone else pays €32. The museum sells no reduced-rate ticket.

Entry is free for:

• anyone under 18, of any nationality;
• EEA citizens and residents under 26;
• disabled visitors and the person with them;
• everyone on the first Friday of the month after 6pm, except in July and August;
• everyone on 14 July.

Free visitors should still book a time slot. Bring ID that shows your age or residence.

What are the museum's own Friday evening tours?

Welcome to the Louvre is the museum's highlights tour. In English it runs at 11am and 2pm on every day the museum opens, and every Friday at 6pm and 7pm. It lasts about 90 minutes, meets at the groups reception area, and covers the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the medieval moat.

It costs €12 on top of your ticket, or €9 at the reduced rate for visitors who enter free. Another Louvre, a tour away from the crowds, runs on Fridays at 6pm. Both are booked with the museum, and both are Friday-only in the evening.

Which entrance should you use with a ticket?

On a late night, the Pyramid or the Carrousel entrance at 99 rue de Rivoli. Both stay open until closing, and the Carrousel entrance takes visitors who already hold a ticket. At the Pyramid, the queue for ticket holders is separate from the queue for visitors without one.

Avoid the other two after dark. The Passage Richelieu shuts after 7:30pm on Wednesdays and Fridays, and the Porte des Lions shuts at 6pm every day. The map of the entrances and meeting points shows all four.

What if you need help getting round?

The museum makes it easy. Disabled visitors and the person with them enter free and get priority access without queuing. The Pyramid's tube lift carries wheelchair users and prams down to the hall, and the assistance desk lends wheelchairs, stools and rolling chairs at no charge.

On your own, you set the pace, which a shared tour cannot do. A private guide can do the same, and the private tours from the arch list wheelchair access.

Is the €6 audio guide enough?

The museum rents audio guides for €6. It gives you the facts at your own pace, which suits a confident visitor with a plan. It does not give you a route, and it cannot tell you where the queue is or which room closed this week.

If you go with an audio guide, pick three or four works in advance and follow the signs between them. The what to see in two hours gives you a list by wing.

Is the free first Friday worth the crowd?

It is free for everyone after 6pm on the first Friday of each month, except July and August. The next dates are 2 October, 6 November and 4 December 2026. In January 2027 the first Friday is New Year's Day, when the museum is closed.

Free evenings are busy. If you are an adult from outside Europe, you save €32 and trade it for a longer queue and fuller rooms. For a family whose children enter free anyway, a Wednesday may be the better evening. Every date is on the evening events page.

What does a booked guide add?

Three things you cannot buy at the museum. A booked tour runs on Wednesdays as well as Fridays. It refunds in full up to 24 hours before the start, where a museum ticket never does. And the group is small: six at most, or your party alone.

A guide also plans around the evening. On a two-hour tour, the famous works come first and the route bends round a closed room. The group of six from the metro exit costs $175.22 a person, ticket and every booking fee included. The group of six before closing costs $170.67 a person.

Then there is the time a guide saves. You meet outside with the booking done, you pass security together, and nobody spends ten minutes reading a floor plan. On a first visit, with last entry at 8pm and the rooms clearing half an hour before closing, those minutes are a good share of your evening. A guide also answers the questions an audio guide cannot, from which staircase is quickest to why a room is shut tonight.

When is going alone the better choice?

• You know what you want to see, and you like your own pace.
• Your children are under 18 and enter free, so a ticket costs you only the adults.
• It is a first Friday, and you are willing to queue for a free evening.
• You want to stay until the rooms clear, which the museum's own tour does not plan for.

You can spend a whole evening this way for €22 or €32 each.

When is a guide the better choice?

• It is your first visit and you have one evening. A guide turns 73,000 m² into two hours.
• It is a Wednesday, when the museum runs no evening tour of its own.
• Your plans may change, and you want a refund if they do.
• You want a private route: the three-hour private evening from 6pm covers all three wings for $336.54 a person for a party of two.

How do you plan a route without a guide?

Keep it to one wing and a half. The museum shows about 35,000 works across 73,000 m², and its own advice for families is to keep the visit short. Start in Denon for the famous paintings, drop to Sully for Greek sculpture and the Egyptian crypt, and finish by 8:30pm near the Pyramid.

The hour-by-hour plan for one evening does exactly this, with the rooms named. For the doors and the queues, see what to expect on the night.

Every way to spend the evening, compared

Here is what an evening costs two adults from outside the EEA, from the museum's own prices and the tour fares. Euros are the museum's; dollars are the tours', ticket included.

A booked tour costs more than the museum's own, and a private guide more again. Whether the difference is worth it is the subject of the post on how to visit the museum at night, and of every way to spend the evening, compared.

Frequently asked questions

When a guide is worth it

Night at the Louvre: Guided Museum Tour | Max 6-Guests

Two hours with a licensed guide and five other guests at most, from the metro exit on rue de Rivoli. The museum ticket and every booking fee are in the fare.

From $175 per person

Check Availability

Louvre Museum Closing Time Guided Tour with the Mona Lisa

Two hours with a licensed guide in a group of up to six, in the last hours before the museum closes. You meet at the horse statue beside the Pyramid; the ticket is in the fare.

From $170 per person

Check Availability

Private tour Louvre By night

Three private hours from 6:00pm at the foot of the arch facing the Pyramid, through the Sully, Denon and Richelieu wings and back out as the museum closes. Two travellers minimum; the timed ticket is in the fare.

From $336 per person For a party of two; the per-person fare falls as your group grows

Check Availability