The Louvre revises its prices – How much it costs to enter the world’s greatest museums

While museum in Paris will soon raise its fees for non-European visitors, here’s a look at admission prices at the Met in New York, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Vatican Museum. As of January 1, 2026, non-European tourists will have to pay a higher entrance fee to enter the Louvre, the French president announced on Tuesday, January 28. The increase will help finance the renovation of the Paris museum, a project estimated to cost between 700 and 900 million euros. The price of admission will rise from €22 to a yet-to-be-announced higher amount.

Admission prices to the world’s most visited museums

The Louvre, which attracts more than 8 million visitors a year, remains one of the most affordable museums in terms of price. It is beaten by Met in New York, where tickets cost $30 (€28.8) to see the treasures of antiquity and the paintings and sculptures of Europe’s greatest masters. The National Museum of Natural History in New York is not cheap either, with tickets costing $28 (€26.9), while the National Gallery of Art in Washington, one of the world’s top 10 most-visited museums, is free. In Europe, to visit Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, you pay €25 for full admission. Admission is free for under-18s. To discover the greatest art collections assembled by popes over the centuries, visit Vatican Museum for €20 (full price) or €8 (reduced price). Admission is free on the last Sunday of the month, by reservation.

In Spain, the Prado offers admission at €15 full price to discover European paintings from the 14th to the early 19th centuries, collected by the Habsburgs and Bourbons. A reduced rate of €7.50 is available and free entry for under-18s and students aged 18-25. Louvre Abu Dhabiwhich opened in 2017, has an admission price of €17.

Prestigious museums at affordable prices

Other equally prestigious museums are more accessible, such as the National Taipei Palace Museum in Taiwan, where admission costs NT$350 (€10.2) for foreign visitors. Taiwanese visitors pay NT$150 (€4.35). Admission is free for young people under 18, regardless of nationality, and for the disabled. Museum Hermitage in St Petersburg, which houses many pieces from antiquity as well as paintings from Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt to Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, charges 500 NTB (about €5) to enter the building. To visit the entire complex, you’ll have to pay about double that – €10.

Other museums, such as those in London, offer free admission. For example British Museumwhere only guided tours and some temporary exhibitions are charged. For example, the “Silk Roads” exhibition, which runs until February 23 in the museum dedicated to human history and culture, costs £22 (€26.2).

Admission to National Gallery is also free except for exhibitions. Like Tate ModernLondon’s museum focusing on modern and international contemporary art, which charges between £10 and £22 (about €11 and €26) for admission to exhibitions.

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