Here is the part the marketing won’t tell you: for the typical four-day Paris visitor, the cheapest setup isn’t a pass at all. Five major tourist passes compete in 2026, the Paris Museum Pass (museums only), the Paris Visite Pass (transport-focused), the Paris Pass (an all-in-one third-party bundle), the Go City Paris Explorer Pass (pick-your-own), and the Navigo Découverte Weekly (transit-only, best for stays of four days or more). Most travelers come out ahead buying the Paris Museum Pass plus a separate Navigo Easy carnet of 10, rather than reaching for a third-party bundle. The whole paris city pass market rests on the idea that bundling saves you money, and for a narrow slice of intense, museum-stuffed itineraries it genuinely does. For the average visitor, the arithmetic points the other way. This guide runs the numbers for real traveler profiles, lays out every pass with its 2026 price and contents, and tells you plainly who should buy which. It’s the companion to our wider Paris on a budget guide.
Paris Passes at a Glance
Before the deep dives, here are the five contenders in a sentence each. Treat this as the orientation map; the detailed breakdowns follow.
- Paris Museum Pass: flat-rate skip-the-line access to 50+ museums and monuments over 2, 4, or 6 consecutive days, and the only pass with real queue-jumping value.
- Paris Visite Pass: an unlimited transport pass for 1, 2, 3, or 5 days, sold in two flavours (zones 1-3 and zones 1-5), of which only the zones 1-5 version is worth a tourist’s attention.
- The Paris Pass: a third-party bundle from Go City that wraps the Museum Pass, a hop-on-hop-off bus, a Seine cruise, and a few extras into one price. Convenient, rarely the cheapest.
- Go City Paris Explorer Pass: a credits-style pass where you choose 2, 3, 5, or 7 attractions from a list of around 25. Flexible, and useful when you already have a specific shortlist.
- Navigo Découverte Weekly: the locals’ weekly transit subscription, €31.60 for Monday to Sunday across every zone, and far cheaper than Paris Visite when your stay covers a calendar week.
The short version: if you lean toward museums and you’re staying three days or more, buy a Paris Museum Pass and sort out transit separately. Steer clear of all-in-one bundles unless you’d have happily paid full price for the bus and the cruise anyway.
Paris Museum Pass
This is the one pass we’ll recommend to most cultural tourists without hedging. It’s a flat-rate card covering 50+ museums and monuments, the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Sainte-Chapelle, Arc de Triomphe, Conciergerie, Musée Rodin, Musée Picasso, and Versailles among them. It does not cover the Eiffel Tower, the Catacombs, the Opéra Garnier, or temporary exhibitions, so don’t count on any of those.
The 2026 prices are €70 for 2 consecutive days, €90 for 4, and €105 for 6. Here’s the detail that saves people from accidental activations: the clock starts the first time you present the pass at a museum, not the day you buy it. The card is paper, with a perforated stub you tear off and mark with your start date. Once activated, it runs on consecutive calendar days whether you visit one museum or five.
The underrated benefit is skip-the-line. The standard Louvre queue can stretch to 90 minutes in summer, while pass holders use a dedicated entrance and walk straight in. Same story at the Arc de Triomphe, Sainte-Chapelle, and Versailles. You’ll still need a timed-entry slot for the Louvre and Versailles, so book those.
The break-even math is clean. The Louvre is €22, the Musée d’Orsay €16, Versailles €21, the Arc de Triomphe €16, Sainte-Chapelle €13, the Conciergerie €13, the Musée Rodin €14. Hit four of those across two days and you’re already ahead on a €70 2-day pass. The 4-day version pays for itself in five visits, the 6-day in roughly six. Few tourist products in Paris earn their keep this quickly.
When the Museum Pass doesn’t make sense: EU citizens or residents under 26, and under-18s of any nationality, already enter the national museums free with ID. Skip it, too, if you’re planning fewer than four paid museum entries. Our guide on whether the Paris Museum Pass is worth it goes deeper.
Paris Visite Pass
This is the transport pass tourists buy most often and regret most often. It comes in two zone variants: zones 1-3 (Paris proper plus the inner suburbs) and zones 1-5 (everything, airports, Versailles, and Disneyland Paris included). The 2026 zones 1-3 prices run €14.40 for 1 day, €23.40 for 2, €31.95 for 3, and €46.05 for 5. The zones 1-5 version costs €30.25, €45.95, €64.45, and €67.95 over the same durations.
The trouble with zones 1-3 is plain arithmetic. A carnet of 10 zone 1-2 tickets is €17.35 on a Navigo Easy. Two carnets buys 20 rides for €34.70, plenty for any 3-4 day itinerary. Paris Visite only breaks even at five or more rides a day, and most tourists manage two or three.
The zones 1-5 version earns its keep in one narrow case: an airport arrival paired with planned Versailles or Disneyland day trips. Outside that, the Navigo Découverte Weekly undercuts it.
As for the Paris Visite’s “included discounts,” they’re mostly 10-25% off products you wouldn’t have bought at full price to begin with.
The Paris Pass (Third-Party Bundle)
Sold by Go City, the Paris Pass is the most aggressively marketed pass in the city. It’s a bundle: the Paris Museum Pass, a 1-day hop-on-hop-off bus ticket, a Bateaux Parisiens Seine cruise, and a handful of add-ons (usually Tour Montparnasse, the Big Bus night tour, and a wine tasting). The 2026 prices run €185 for 2 days, €215 for 3, €250 for 4, and €280 for 6. It’s digital, loaded into a phone app, and activates on first use.
Now price the same pieces yourself. A 2-day Museum Pass at €70, plus a Bateaux Parisiens cruise at €18, plus a 1-day Big Bus at €42, plus Tour Montparnasse at €22, comes to €152. So the Paris Pass at €185 is €33 more expensive, not less. The 4-day version tells the same story: €172 in components versus €250 bundled.
There’s one traveler the Paris Pass actually suits: someone with limited mobility or a packed schedule who would absolutely have paid full price for the hop-on-hop-off bus and a Seine cruise, and who’d happily trade a few euros for the simplicity of a single digital pass. For that person (and we name names in the decision tree below) the Paris Pass is a fine call. For everyone else, separate components are cheaper, and the “all your tickets in one app” convenience isn’t worth a €30-80 premium.
Go City Paris Explorer Pass
This is Go City’s flexible cousin to the Paris Pass. Instead of a fixed bundle on consecutive days, you pick 2, 3, 5, or 7 attractions from a list of around 25, with 60 days from first use to redeem them. The 2026 prices are €79 for 2 attractions, €109 for 3, €149 for 5, and €189 for 7. It’s digital, and each attraction gets scanned on its own.
The included attractions skew second-tier: Tour Montparnasse, Big Bus, Bateaux Parisiens, Musée Grévin, the Opéra Garnier tour, wine tastings, the Lido cabaret, and Versailles day trips. Conspicuously missing: the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Eiffel Tower, each of which needs its own ticket.
Run the numbers. A 3-attraction pass at €109 averages €36 per attraction, which beats the door price on the pricier items (Big Bus, dinner cruises) but loses badly on the cheap ones (the Opéra Garnier self-guided tour is €15 at the door). The trick is to spend the pass only on attractions priced above its per-attraction average. A “winning” itinerary might be Big Bus (€42), Bateaux Parisiens (€18), and Tour Montparnasse (€22) at door prices: €82 against the 3-attraction pass price of €109, a €27 loss. The Explorer Pass rarely wins on math. Its real pull is convenience and the “might as well” effect that nudges travelers into attractions they’d otherwise have skipped.
Navigo Découverte Weekly
The Navigo Découverte isn’t a tourist pass in the first place. It’s the locals’ weekly transit subscription, open to anyone willing to fill out a small ID card with a passport photo. It costs €31.60 for one Monday-to-Sunday week and gives unlimited travel across all Paris zones (1 through 5), airports, Versailles, and Disneyland Paris included. The card itself adds a one-off €5. Tourists routinely have no idea it exists, which is exactly why we keep pointing them to it.
At €31.60, the Navigo Découverte Weekly is roughly half the price of the equivalent 5-day Paris Visite zones 1-5 pass (€67.95), throws in more days of coverage, and runs on exactly the same trains and buses. Two catches come with it. First, it runs on a fixed Monday-to-Sunday week no matter when you buy it, so arrive on Friday and your €31.60 only carries you through Sunday night before it expires. Second, you’ll need a passport-style photo for the card, which the Metro stations no longer print, so sort one out in advance.
Decision rule: if your stay covers at least Monday through Thursday (four days inside a single calendar week), the Navigo Découverte Weekly is almost always the cheapest way to get around Paris, airport transfers and all. If your trip straddles a weekend awkwardly (arriving Friday, leaving Tuesday), buy a Navigo Easy card and load a carnet of 10 instead. Our Navigo Pass guide walks through how the system works, where to buy the card, and how to top it up.
Decision Tree by Traveler Type
The right pass turns on days, museum focus, age, nationality, and mobility. Find the profile closest to yours below.
1-2 day visitor
Buy nothing. Use single Metro tickets (€2.15 each) or a Mobilis day pass (€8.65 for zones 1-2) to get around, and book timed-entry tickets straight from the museums you actually care about. In one or two days you simply can’t cram in enough to break even on any bundled pass, and a 2-day Museum Pass at €70 only wins if you do at least four paid museums in that window, which is a stretch on a short trip. Single tickets take it.
3-4 day museum lover
Buy a 4-day Paris Museum Pass (€90) and a Navigo Easy card loaded with two carnets of 10 (€34.70), for a total of €124.70. This is the sweet spot of the entire market. The four-day pass lets you knock out the Louvre, d’Orsay, Versailles, Sainte-Chapelle, the Arc de Triomphe, and a couple of smaller museums, clearing €100 in face-value entries before the skip-the-line value even enters the picture. Add the Eiffel Tower as a separate ticket, booked ahead on the official site.
5-7 day visitor
Buy a 6-day Paris Museum Pass (€105) and a Navigo Découverte Weekly (€31.60 plus the €5 card fee), for €141.60 covering the whole week, most major museums, and unlimited transit including airport runs and Versailles. This is the cheapest credible way for a one-week visitor to do central Paris properly. If your week doesn’t line up with Monday to Sunday, swap the Navigo for three carnets of 10 (€52.05).
Family with kids
Skip the Museum Pass for the children. Every national museum is free for under-18s of any nationality, so there’s nothing to buy. Adults should still weigh up the pass. For transit, single tickets or Mobilis work fine: kids 4-9 pay half-fare, under-4s go free. A family of four on a 4-day visit spends roughly €180 on museum entries (adults only) plus €70 on transit, a long way short of the €500-plus family bundles some sites push.
Older traveler with mobility issues
Here the Paris Pass earns a look despite the premium. The bundled hop-on bus is genuinely useful when walking is hard, and plenty of Metro stations have no elevators and long stair transfers. Pair the pass with a taxi or Uber for evening returns. In this case the €30-80 premium buys real comfort.
Math Examples
Three worked itineraries to make the abstract pricing concrete. All figures are 2026 adult rates at the time of writing, so check current prices before you buy.
Example 1: Sarah, 4-day cultural visitor
Sarah flies in Friday morning and leaves Tuesday morning. Her shortlist: Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, a Versailles day trip, Sainte-Chapelle, Conciergerie, Arc de Triomphe, Musée Rodin, and the Eiffel Tower.
Without a pass: Louvre €22 + Orsay €16 + Versailles €21 + Sainte-Chapelle €13 + Conciergerie €13 + Arc €16 + Rodin €14 = €115 in museum entries. Eiffel Tower €29 (top floor) on top of that. Transit: 3 carnets of 10 at €52.05. RER B to and from CDG at €23.60 round trip. Total: €219.65.
With a 4-day Paris Museum Pass plus Navigo Easy: Pass €90 + 2 carnets €34.70 + RER B round trip €23.60 + Eiffel Tower €29 = €177.30. She saves €42.35, plus the skip-the-line at the Louvre and Versailles that, on a busy Saturday, could buy back another hour or two of her trip.
With a 4-day Paris Pass: €250 + Eiffel Tower €29 + transit (not included) €75 = €354. Sarah loses €134 against the Museum Pass route. The hop-on bus and cruise are convenience items she never needed.
Example 2: The Patel family, 5 days with two kids aged 9 and 12
Two adults, two kids. Shortlist: Louvre, Orsay, Versailles, Eiffel Tower, Sainte-Chapelle, Centre Pompidou (when open), Arc de Triomphe, plus a bateau-mouche cruise.
Adult tickets without pass: 2 × (22+16+21+13+13+16) = €202. With 2 Museum Passes 4-day: 2 × €90 = €180. Kids free either way. Eiffel Tower for 2 adults and 2 kids €87. Bateau-mouche family ticket €55. Transit: Navigo Découverte Weekly for the 2 adults (€63.20 plus 2 cards at €10) plus 2 Mobilis day passes for the kids at €17.30. Total with passes: €412.50. The same itinerary without passes runs €437, so they save €25, plus the skip-the-line value for the family at the Louvre.
Example 3: Marco, 2-day weekender
Two days, and he wants the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, a wander through Montmartre, and a Seine cruise.
Without a pass: Louvre €22 + Eiffel €29 + cruise €18 + 1 carnet of 10 €17.35 = €86.35. Done.
With a 2-day Paris Museum Pass: €70 pass + Eiffel €29 + cruise €18 + transit €17.35 = €134.35. He loses €48, because his itinerary only puts the pass to work for a single museum (the Louvre). The pass needs at least four covered entries to break even, and Marco has one. Don’t buy it.
What Each Pass Includes and Excludes
The most common pass mistake by far is assuming the wrong things are covered. Here’s the side-by-side reality for the attractions people ask about most.
| Attraction | Museum Pass | Visite | Paris Pass | Go City Explorer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louvre | Yes | No | Yes (via Museum Pass) | No |
| Musée d’Orsay | Yes | No | Yes (via Museum Pass) | No |
| Versailles | Yes | No | Yes (via Museum Pass) | Day trip add-on only |
| Sainte-Chapelle | Yes | No | Yes (via Museum Pass) | No |
| Arc de Triomphe | Yes | No | Yes (via Museum Pass) | No |
| Eiffel Tower | No | No | No | No |
| Catacombs | No | No | Sometimes | Sometimes |
| Opéra Garnier tour | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Seine cruise | No | No | Yes (Bateaux Parisiens) | Yes (selectable) |
| Hop-on-hop-off bus | No | Discount only | Yes (1 day) | Yes (selectable) |
| Metro / RER / bus | No | Yes | No | No |
| Airport transit | No | Yes (zones 1-5) | No | No |
The headline omission across all four is the Eiffel Tower, which sells its own tickets through the official site, from €14.30 (lift to the 2nd floor) up to €29.40 (lift to the top). No bundle covers it. The same goes for the Catacombs, which only sometimes appears on third-party passes and is often easier to book directly. Our Eiffel Tower guide covers the booking detail.
Where to Buy
Buying straight from the issuing operator is almost always cheaper than going through a third-party reseller, and it rules out any chance of a counterfeit. Here’s the canonical list.
- Paris Museum Pass: the official site at parismuseumpass.fr, the Paris Tourist Office at Hôtel de Ville (rue de Rivoli), the CDG and Orly airport tourist offices, or the gift shop of any participating museum when you arrive.
- Paris Visite Pass: ticket machines and counters at any Metro or RER station, the CDG and Orly RER B stations included. Pay by card or cash.
- Navigo Découverte: staffed Metro stations (the larger interchanges; smaller stations may not stock the cards). Bring a passport-style photo. Once you have the card, the weekly subscription can be loaded at automated machines.
- The Paris Pass and Go City Explorer Pass: the official Go City site (gocity.com) or the Go City app, with email confirmation loaded into the app for use at attractions.
- Navigo Easy card: staffed Metro stations or the Bonjour RATP app for iPhone (Android coming). Carnets of 10 load straight onto the card or phone.
Avoid third-party resellers like Viator, Tiqets, and GetYourGuide for the Museum Pass and Navigo. They typically tack on a 10-30% markup for no added value. They can be competitive on individual attraction tickets, especially with skip-the-line guarantees for the Louvre and Versailles, but never on the passes themselves.
Common Pass Mistakes
Most pass regrets fall into one of five buckets. Here’s what to watch for.
- Buying the wrong number of days. Museum Pass days run consecutively once activated, with no flexibility. Buy a 4-day pass and use it Monday through Thursday, and you can’t hold the fourth day back for Saturday. Match the duration to your museum-heavy days, not to the length of the whole trip.
- Activating too early. The Museum Pass clock starts on first use rather than first purchase, and that activation can’t be undone. Don’t scan it at a museum until you’re ready to start the consecutive-day window. Some travelers activate it by accident at a gift-shop ticket counter while checking whether they qualify.
- Not bringing ID for the under-26 EU discount. EU citizens and residents under 26 enter the national museums free with valid ID (a passport for citizens, a residence card for non-EU residents living in the EU). A Museum Pass is money wasted on them.
- Confusing the Visite with the Museum Pass. They’re different products from different operators. The Paris Visite is RATP’s transit pass; the Paris Museum Pass covers museums. Buying one when you meant the other is the single most common pass mistake.
- Buying Paris Visite for short central trips. The zones 1-3 version almost never beats a carnet of 10 on the math. Buy it only if you genuinely plan five or more Metro rides a day, which most tourists don’t.
Eiffel Tower Reality
None of the five major Paris passes includes the Eiffel Tower. This is the single biggest source of disappointment, because every promotional photo for every pass plants the tower in the background, and plenty of buyers assume entry comes baked in. It doesn’t. The tower is run by SETE, an independent operator that sells its own tickets directly.
The 2026 Eiffel Tower prices: stairs to the 2nd floor €14.20, lift to the 2nd floor €22.40, lift to the top €29.40. Tickets are timed-entry and sell out 30-60 days ahead for peak summer slots, so book at the official site (toureiffel.paris). Skip the third-party resellers, many of which charge a 50% premium for the same ticket plus a “skip-the-line” that doesn’t actually exist, since everyone already has a timed entry.
A handy workaround: book the stairs ticket, climb the 330 steps to the 2nd floor, then take the lift to the top for an extra €15. Our full Eiffel Tower guide covers booking strategy and photo angles.
2026 Pricing Summary
The whole picture on one card. Prices are 2026 adult rates for the standard durations; check the official sites linked above for current numbers and family pricing.
| Pass | Duration | 2026 Price | Best For | Skip If |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paris Museum Pass | 2 days | €70 | Museum-heavy weekenders | Under 26 EU or under 18 |
| Paris Museum Pass | 4 days | €90 | Classic 4-day cultural trip | Under 26 EU or under 18 |
| Paris Museum Pass | 6 days | €105 | Week-long Paris | Under 26 EU or under 18 |
| Paris Visite 1-3 | 1 day | €14.40 | Heavy Metro day | Light Metro use |
| Paris Visite 1-3 | 5 days | €46.05 | Few cases | Almost always — carnet wins |
| Paris Visite 1-5 | 1 day | €30.25 | Airport arrival day | Train-station arrival |
| Paris Visite 1-5 | 5 days | €67.95 | Versailles + Disney week | If Mon-Sun aligned (use Navigo) |
| The Paris Pass | 2 days | €185 | Mobility-limited weekend | Cost-conscious travelers |
| The Paris Pass | 4 days | €250 | Convenience-focused tourist | Anyone doing the math |
| The Paris Pass | 6 days | €280 | Maximum-bundle vacationers | Most travelers |
| Go City Explorer | 2 attractions | €79 | Specific shortlist | If list includes cheap items |
| Go City Explorer | 5 attractions | €149 | Convenience over math | If most picks are under €25 |
| Navigo Découverte Weekly | Mon-Sun | €31.60 | Stays spanning a calendar week | Weekend-bridging trips |
| Navigo Easy + carnet of 10 | Anytime | €17.35 | Light Metro users | If you need 30+ rides |
Beyond Passes: When Single Tickets Win
For one whole category of traveler, no pass is the right answer. Several specific groups get free or near-free access to most of the major sites, and any of the passes above would just be money down the drain.
Under-18s of any nationality. Free at every French national museum and monument: Louvre, Orsay, Versailles, Sainte-Chapelle, Arc de Triomphe, Conciergerie, and dozens more. Bring a passport or other proof of age. Children just need an adult escort, not a pass of their own.
EU citizens and residents aged 18-25. Free at the national museums with a valid EU passport or a residence card from any of the 27 EU states. Carry ID, because spot checks do happen.
First Sunday of every month, November through March. Most French national museums (the Louvre, Orsay, and many others) open free to all visitors on the first Sunday of each month from November to March. The Louvre and Orsay both still require pre-booked timed slots even on free days, and those slots evaporate within 24 hours of release, so book the moment they open. None of this applies from April through October.
July 14, Bastille Day. Many national museums are free or run reduced hours, and the public fireworks from the Trocadéro or Champ-de-Mars are unticketed. Pair it with a self-catered picnic and you’ve got a near-zero-cost national-holiday day.
For the full rundown of always-free options, see free museums in Paris, which covers the city-run permanent collections (the Musée Carnavalet, the Petit Palais, the Maison de Victor Hugo) that are free to everyone year-round. For a deeper strategy on the headline site, head to our Louvre museum guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Paris Museum Pass worth it for 2 days?
Only if you plan at least four paid museum entries inside the consecutive 2-day window. The 2-day pass is €70 and the average covered entry runs €15-22, so four entries (Louvre, Orsay, Sainte-Chapelle, Arc) get you to break-even with the skip-the-line as a bonus. Three entries lose money. See our detailed Paris Museum Pass analysis.
Can I buy the Paris Museum Pass when I arrive?
Yes. It’s sold at the CDG and Orly airport tourist offices, at the Paris Tourist Office at Hôtel de Ville, and at the gift shops of participating museums. Buying online adds nothing, since the pass is paper and has to be physically collected, either at a Paris pickup point or shipped to your home address, which only makes sense for long-haul travelers with delivery time to spare.
Do any passes include the Eiffel Tower?
No. The Eiffel Tower is run independently and sells its own timed-entry tickets through toureiffel.paris. Avoid the third-party resellers; their “skip-the-line” is the same timed entry the official site gives you, just with a markup attached.
Is the Paris Visite Pass ever worth it?
Rarely. A carnet of 10 beats the zones 1-3 version on math for any normal tourist day. The zones 1-5 version is only worth considering for airport-arrival days with heavy Metro use planned, or for Disneyland day-trippers without a Navigo Découverte. For stays of four days or more, the Navigo Découverte Weekly is almost always cheaper.
What about the Paris Pass for first-time visitors?
It’s convenient and rarely the cheapest. First-timers who pay €185-280 for one all-in-one product get a Museum Pass, a bus tour, and a cruise in a single app, but those same components bought separately usually run €30-80 less. If you value “one purchase covers everything” over saving money, the Paris Pass works. If you’re doing the math, it doesn’t.
Can children use the Paris Museum Pass?
No, and they don’t need to. Under-18s of any nationality enter French national museums free. The pass is sold purely as an adult product, and children walk in beside a parent for free with ID showing their age. The family bundles some third-party sellers advertise are often misleading, since they price in “child passes” that carry no real-world benefit.
How do I get a Navigo Découverte if I land on a Sunday?
Buy the card and the subscription separately. The card itself (€5 plus a photo) is sold at staffed Metro counters, and the weekly subscription (€31.60) loads onto it at any machine. Land on a Sunday, though, and the weekly subscription you load that day only covers you until Sunday night before resetting. So most Sunday arrivers buy a carnet of 10 for the first day and load the weekly subscription on Monday morning instead.
What is the cheapest credible Paris pass setup for a week?
For a Monday-to-Sunday visitor: a 6-day Paris Museum Pass (€105), a Navigo Découverte Weekly (€31.60 plus the €5 card), and the Eiffel Tower booked direct, for €160-176 all in. Buy the components directly and skip the third-party bundles.
For the wider budget context, flights, accommodation, food, see our pillar guide to visiting Paris on a budget. Passes are one piece of the puzzle, and usually a smaller one than people expect.
Plan the rest of your trip
Use these to round out your trip:
