Free Museums in Paris 2026
Eleven City of Paris museums have free permanent collections every day they open. Not fourteen, which is the number most lists print. Four of the eleven come with an exhibition catch, three museums in the same network are never free, and the Pompidou is closed until 2030.
Paris is the only major museum city in Europe where free is the default rather than the exception. Eleven museums run by the city have had free permanent collections since December 2001, every day they open, for everyone, with no age condition, no residence condition and no booking.
The problem is that almost every article about this gets the number wrong, and gets the conditions wrong in ways that will cost you an afternoon. Here is the list from the official tariff page, the four museums where a temporary exhibition changes the rules, and the three that sit inside the same network and are never free at all.
The eleven museums that are free every day
These are the City of Paris museums whose permanent collections are free for everyone. The list comes from the Paris Musées tariff page, which is the source that governs it.
| Museum | What it holds | Arrondissement |
|---|---|---|
| Petit Palais | Fine arts, antiquity to 1920. Courbet, Rembrandt, Cézanne | 8th |
| Musée Carnavalet | The history of Paris itself, 3,800 years of it | 3rd |
| Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris | 20th century. Matisse's La Danse, Dufy's vast La Fée Électricité | 16th |
| Musée Cernuschi | Asian art, the second-oldest such collection in France | 8th |
| Maison de Victor Hugo | The writer's apartment on Place des Vosges | 4th |
| Musée de la Vie romantique | A painter's house at the end of a cobbled lane | 9th |
| Musée Cognacq-Jay | 18th-century painting and furniture in a Marais mansion | 3rd |
| Musée Bourdelle | The sculptor's studio, left as it was | 15th |
| Musée Zadkine | Another sculptor's house and garden, tiny | 6th |
| Maison de Balzac | The house where he wrote, with a garden over the Seine | 16th |
| Musée de la Libération de Paris | Occupation and liberation, in Leclerc's command bunker | 14th |
Two of these are worth the trip on their own terms rather than because they cost nothing. The Petit Palais is a 1900 World's Fair palace with a garden courtyard in the middle, and the collection is genuinely good, not municipal filler. Carnavalet reopened in 2021 after four years of work and is the best-told city history museum in Europe.
The four with a catch
This is the part the copied lists leave out, and it is written plainly on the official page.
Maison de Balzac is free outside exhibition periods. During a temporary show, the whole house is ticketed. Check before you cross the 16th to get there.
Musée Bourdelle, Musée Cognacq-Jay and Musée Zadkine stay only partly free while an exhibition is running. The exhibition takes over rooms that are otherwise part of the permanent display, so you can still get in for nothing, but you may find a chunk of what you came for behind a paywall.
The other seven keep their permanent collections free whatever else is on. If you want a guaranteed free afternoon with no checking, pick from those.
The three that are never free
Palais Galliera, the Catacombs of Paris and the Archaeological Crypt of the Île de la Cité belong to the same Paris Musées network as the eleven above. They charge admission all year, with no free permanent collection.
This is where the number fourteen comes from. Someone counted the network, saw "free permanent collections" on the network's homepage, and published fourteen. It has been copied ever since. If a guide tells you the Catacombs are free, stop trusting the rest of that guide.
The big national museums: two different rules
The Louvre and the Orsay are national museums, not city ones, and they work differently from each other. Getting these two backwards is the single most common mistake in Paris free-museum articles.
The Louvre is free on the first Friday of the month after 6 PM, excluding July and August, plus 14 July. Not Sunday. The old first-Sunday rule was retired and half the internet has not noticed. Book a slot even though it costs nothing, because free evenings fill and the door turns people away. Full calendar and the under-26 rules in our Louvre free admission guide.
The Musée d'Orsay is free on the first Sunday of the month, all day, permanent collection and temporary exhibitions, with online booking mandatory since October 2022. Carte Blanche and Paris Museum Pass holders skip the booking. Dates, the booking window and the one Sunday in 2026 you should avoid are in our Orsay free admission guide.
Under 26: the rule is where you live, not your passport
Since 4 April 2009, the permanent collections of French national museums have been free for 18 to 25 year olds. The Ministry of Culture defines the beneficiary as someone who legally resides in an EU member state or another European Economic Area state.
Residence, not nationality. A New Zealander doing a master's in Lisbon qualifies. A French citizen who has lived in Montreal for ten years does not. Under 18s are free regardless of where they live or which passport they hold.
Bring a physical ID. A photo of your ID on your phone gets refused at the Louvre pyramid, and arguing about it in a queue of four hundred people is not a winnable position.
The Pompidou is closed until 2030
The Centre Pompidou shut on 22 September 2025 for a renovation that runs to 2030, and its collection is being redistributed across partner venues in the meantime. It used to be one of the first-Sunday free museums, which is why it still turns up on lists.
Treat it as a freshness test. If an article published this year still tells you to visit the Pompidou for free on the first Sunday, nobody has checked it since 2025. We track where the collection actually is in where to see Pompidou art in 2026.
How to build a genuinely free day
Pick a neighbourhood and stack them, because the free museums are small and clustered.
The Marais, half a day. Carnavalet, then Cognacq-Jay five minutes away, then Maison de Victor Hugo on Place des Vosges. Three museums, no tickets, and you can walk between all three in under fifteen minutes.
The 8th, two hours. Petit Palais, then Cernuschi on the edge of Parc Monceau. The Petit Palais courtyard café is the single best free sit-down in central Paris.
A first Friday, evening. The city museums until 6 PM, then the Louvre from 6 to 9 PM on its free evening. That is a full day of art in Paris for the price of the metro.
One practical note: most City of Paris museums close on Mondays, and the national museums split between Monday closures (Orsay, Orangerie) and Tuesday closures (Louvre). Monday is the worst day to try this and Tuesday is the second worst.
Frequently asked questions
How many museums are free in Paris?
Eleven. The City of Paris runs a network called Paris Musées, and eleven of its museums have had free permanent collections for everyone, every day they open, since December 2001: Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, Maison de Balzac, Musée Bourdelle, Musée Carnavalet, Musée Cernuschi, Musée Cognacq-Jay, Musée de la Libération de Paris, Petit Palais, Musée de la Vie romantique, Maison de Victor Hugo and Musée Zadkine. Most travel lists say fourteen. That number counts the whole network, including three sites that charge admission all year: the Palais Galliera, the Catacombs and the Archaeological Crypt.
Are the free Paris museums free during temporary exhibitions?
Not all of them. Four of the eleven carry a condition written into the official tariff page. The Maison de Balzac is free outside exhibition periods, so during a show you pay. The Musée Bourdelle, the Musée Cognacq-Jay and the Musée Zadkine stay only partly free while an exhibition is running, because part of the permanent display gets absorbed into the paid show. The other seven, including the Petit Palais and Carnavalet, keep their permanent collections free regardless.
Is the Louvre free on the first Sunday of the month?
No, not any more, and this is the most common outdated claim in Paris museum articles. The Louvre's free slot is the first Friday of the month after 6 PM, excluding July and August, plus 14 July. The first-Sunday rule belongs to other national museums. The Musée d'Orsay does have a free first Sunday, with online booking mandatory.
Are museums in Paris free if you are under 26?
At national museums, yes, if you live in the EU. Since 4 April 2009 the permanent collections of French national museums are free for 18 to 25 year olds who legally reside in an EU or EEA state. The condition is residence, not nationality, so a New Zealander studying in Lisbon qualifies and a French passport holder living in Canada does not. Under 18s enter free everywhere regardless of where they live. Bring a physical photo ID, because screenshots are not accepted.
Can you still visit the Centre Pompidou for free?
No, because you cannot visit it at all. The Centre Pompidou closed on 22 September 2025 for a renovation running until 2030, and its collection is being shown across partner venues instead. Any free-museums list that still includes the Pompidou was written before that date and has not been checked since. It is a useful test of whether a list is current.
What is the best free museum in Paris?
The Petit Palais, and it is not close. It is a Beaux-Arts palace built for the 1900 World's Fair, the permanent collection runs from antiquity to 1920 with Courbet, Rembrandt and Cézanne in it, the interior courtyard garden has a café, and none of it costs anything. If you want something quieter, the Musée de la Vie romantique sits at the end of a cobbled lane in the 9th and takes forty minutes.
Verified Facts
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Always-free city museums | 11, permanent collections, free to all since December 2001 |
| Conditional | Maison de Balzac free outside exhibitions · Bourdelle, Cognacq-Jay, Zadkine only partly free during exhibitions |
| Never free | Palais Galliera, Catacombs of Paris, Archaeological Crypt of the Île de la Cité |
| Temporary exhibitions | Ticketed at all city museums. Reduced rate for 18–26 |
| Donation ticket | Optional, any amount, offered at city museums |
| Louvre free slot | First Friday of the month after 6 PM, excluding July and August, plus 14 July |
| Orsay free slot | First Sunday of the month, online booking mandatory since 2 October 2022 |
| National museums, under 26 | Free for 18–25 year olds legally resident in the EU or EEA, since 4 April 2009. Under 18 free worldwide |
| Centre Pompidou | Closed 22 September 2025, reopening planned 2030 |
| Sources | Paris Musées tariffs · Ministry of Culture · Orsay admission |
Free-entry rules change, and exhibition periods change the rules at four of these museums. Confirm on the official page before you cross the city. We re-check this page monthly.
Last verified: September 2026 — confirmed against the Paris Musées tariff page, the Ministry of Culture and the Musée d'Orsay official site on 1 September 2026