Eiffel Tower Tickets: What to Know Before You Book

What each ticket actually buys you, the two queues nobody separates, the entrance printed on your ticket, and the Sundays this autumn when the nearest metro station is shut.

OfficialGuides is a directory of independent licensed tour guides. We are not the Eiffel Tower ticket office — that is toureiffel.paris, operated by SETE. The two ticket links on this page go to an authorised resale platform and are affiliate links; the price you pay is not affected.

The on-site ticket office queue at the foot of the tower. In high season it regularly runs well over an hour — and it is only one of the two lines you will meet.

The Eiffel Tower — la tour Eiffel — is a 324-metre iron lattice tower on the Champ-de-Mars, on the Left Bank. Gustave Eiffel built it for the 1889 Exposition Universelle as a temporary structure, and it survived largely because it turned out to be useful as a radio mast. It now takes more than six million visitors a year, which makes it the most-visited paid monument in the world.

There are really only two decisions to make: how high you go — the 2nd floor at 115 m or the summit at 276 m — and how you get up, by lift or on foot. Price, queue and time all follow from those two.

The two queues — and what a timed ticket actually skips

This is the single most misunderstood thing about visiting the tower, and it is why people who paid extra still end up standing in a line.

There are two separate queues at the base:

1. The ticket office queue. This is the long one in the photographs, and it exists only for people buying on the day at the box office. Any ticket bought in advance — official or resale, cheap or expensive — skips it completely. You do not need a premium product to avoid this queue. You need to have bought anything beforehand.

2. The security queue. Every visitor without exception passes through a bag check and metal detector inside the fenced perimeter, airport style. No ticket skips this one. Budget 10 to 20 minutes for it in season, and travel light — large bags and suitcases are refused outright, and there is no left-luggage facility at the tower.

So when a listing says “skip the line”, what it means in practice is queue number one, which your €23.50 official ticket already skips. What a more expensive product genuinely buys is one of three things: a host who takes you through the process, a guaranteed slot on a date the official site has sold out, or a package with something else attached — a cruise, a meal, a guide. Those can be worth paying for. Faster entry, on its own, is not what you are buying.

Which entrance is yours

The tower has four pillars — North, South, East and West — and your ticket assigns you to a specific entrance. Lift tickets normally go through the east side, stair tickets through the south, and the perimeter is fenced, so you cannot simply cut across underneath. Walking the wrong way around the base takes ten to fifteen minutes and eats straight into your time slot.

Read the entrance on your ticket before you set off, and aim to be there about 15 minutes before your window opens. The official access map names Entrance 1, Allée des Refuzniks, on the Bir-Hakeim side, which is the one most metro arrivals reach first — but confirm against your own booking rather than assuming.

Your window has a tolerance of roughly 30 minutes in practice, but staff apply it at their discretion on busy days. Arriving an hour early does not help; you will be turned away and told to come back.

Summit or 2nd floor?

The summit at 276 m is a different experience, not just a higher one: a genuine 360° panorama, Gustave Eiffel’s reconstructed office with its wax figures of Eiffel, his daughter Claire and Thomas Edison, the beacon that sweeps across Paris at night, and a small champagne bar. It is also the level that sells out first and the one that closes in high wind.

The 2nd floor at 115 m is the practical choice, and a surprising number of repeat visitors prefer it. You are close enough to read the city — to pick out the Invalides dome, the Arc de Triomphe, the Seine bends, Montmartre on its hill — where from the summit Paris flattens into a grey-beige map. It is cheaper, less crowded, and the right call with tired legs or small children.

From the summit at 276 metres the panorama is complete — but the city reads as a map. Many visitors find the 115 m platform more legible.

Lift or stairs

The stairs to the 2nd floor are 674 steps up the open ironwork, and at €14.80 the cheapest way into the monument. It is also the only way to see the structure itself properly — the rivets, the curve of the arches, the way the whole thing is a piece of engineering rather than a viewing platform. Most reasonably fit adults manage it in 30 to 45 minutes with stops.

Two caveats. Stair access closes earlier than the lifts, often in the early evening out of season, and it can shut in bad weather. And there is no longer any ticket that lets you climb all the way to the top: the stairs end at the 2nd floor, and the summit is by lift only. The €28.00 combo — stairs up, then the summit lift from the 2nd floor — is the cheapest route to 276 m.

The lift is the all-weather option and the only one for prams and reduced-mobility visitors. Lifts run from the ground to the 2nd floor, where you change cars for the dedicated summit lift.

Opening hours and weather closures

The tower opens every day of the year, with no regular closure day. Hours are seasonal:

• Mid-June to early September: roughly 09:00 to 00:45, with the last summit ascent around 23:00.
• Rest of the year: roughly 09:30 to 23:00 by lift, last entry around 22:30. Stairs close considerably earlier, often around 18:00–18:30.

The 2nd floor at 115 metres — close enough to identify the monuments below, which is why many visitors rate the view here above the summit.

The part worth planning around is the summit. It is an exposed platform on a metal tower and it closes at short notice in strong wind, storms and occasionally in freezing conditions — the tower itself sways a little in high wind by design, and the operator stops summit lifts long before that becomes a safety question. It also closes for scheduled lift maintenance, usually in the quiet weeks of January and February. Summit tickets are not refunded when this happens mid-visit; you are simply held at the 2nd floor.

Two practical consequences. If the summit is the reason for your trip, check the live status on the official site or the Eiffel Tower app on the day, and if you have flexibility, book it early in your stay so a wind-blown day is not your only attempt. And never book a summit slot for the evening you fly out.

How to get to the Eiffel Tower

The official address is 5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007 Paris, on the Champ-de-Mars. Public transport is the sensible option; the streets around the tower are congested and parking is scarce.

• 🚇 Metro line 6 to Bir-Hakeim — the closest station, under ten minutes on foot to Entrance 1. The elevated approach along line 6 is also one of the best free views in Paris.
• 🚇 Metro line 9 to Trocadéro — about fifteen minutes’ walk, on the other side of the river. Worth the detour: this is where the postcard view is, and you approach the tower head-on down the Palais de Chaillot steps.
• 🚇 Metro line 8 to École Militaire — fifteen minutes, approaching up the length of the Champ-de-Mars lawn.
• 🚆 RER C to Champ de Mars–Tour Eiffel — a short walk from the southern pillars.
• 🚌 Buses 42, 69, 82 and 87 stop within a few minutes of the base.

⚠️ Sunday metro closures, September to November 2026

This is worth checking before you plan a Sunday visit. Because of modernisation works, metro line 6 is suspended between Charles de Gaulle–Étoile and La Motte-Picquet–Grenelle on seven Sundays this autumn, which closes Bir-Hakeim, the station closest to the tower. The dates are 6 and 20 September, 4, 11 and 18 October, and 8 and 22 November 2026. A replacement bus runs along the closed section and bus 73 is reinforced.

If your visit falls on one of those Sundays, do not plan around Bir-Hakeim. Use Trocadéro (line 9), which is a nicer arrival anyway, École Militaire (line 8), or RER C. Add fifteen minutes to whatever your map application tells you, and remember that your timed slot will not wait for a transport problem.

The tower without a ticket

A ticket buys you the view from the tower. It is worth saying plainly that the view of the tower — the one on everyone’s photographs — is free, and that many visitors get more out of it.

• ✨ The sparkle. After dark the tower’s 20,000 bulbs flash for five minutes at the top of every hour, until 23:00 (later in midsummer). It is free from anywhere with a sightline, and it is the single most reliable good moment of a Paris evening.
• 📸 Trocadéro. The Palais de Chaillot terrace is the classic frontal view. Crowded and heavily worked by hawkers, but the composition is unbeatable — go early morning for it to yourself.
• 🌿 Champ-de-Mars. The lawn behind the tower, where Parisians actually sit. Best in the hour before sunset.
• 🌉 Pont de Bir-Hakeim. The two-level bridge with the metro running above — the diagonal view along the river that photographers use, and quieter than Trocadéro.
• 🏛️ Rue de l’Université, no. 29. The tower framed at the end of a narrow Haussmannian street, five minutes from the base. A local trick rather than a landmark.

If you are travelling on a budget with a family, a €14.80 stair ticket for one adult plus an evening on the Champ-de-Mars for everyone is a defensible plan. Nobody is obliged to spend €150 to enjoy this monument.

Eating at the tower

There are three options inside, and they are genuinely different things. Madame Brasserie on the 1st floor is a sit-down restaurant with lift access included in the booking, so the visit becomes lunch or dinner rather than a queue — and because the table comes with its own lift access, the ticket queue stops being your problem. Le Jules Verne on the 2nd floor is the Michelin-starred one, booked weeks ahead, priced accordingly. And there are ordinary buffets and bars on the 1st and 2nd floors and a champagne bar at the summit for people who just want a sandwich or a drink with the view.

Restaurant tables are booked directly through the restaurants’ own sites, not through ticket platforms, and a restaurant booking is not a ticket to the upper levels — it gets you to its own floor.

Eiffel Tower ticket prices

These are the official rates set by SETE, the operator, and they apply both online and at the box office. Booking on the official site costs the same as queuing for it — there is no online surcharge, which is why the official site should always be your first stop.

Young people aged 12–24 pay roughly half the adult rate and children 4–11 roughly a quarter, across the range €3.80–€18.40. Under-4s go free but still need a zero-euro ticket, because lift capacity is counted by head. Visitors with a disability and one companion qualify for reduced entry — bring proof. Figures are the current published rates; confirm the exact amount at checkout.

When the official site is sold out

Official lift tickets are released about 60 days ahead and stair tickets about 40 days ahead, and summit slots around sunset go first. If your dates come back empty, resale platforms hold separate allocations, usually bundled with a host who meets you and takes you through entry. You pay more than the official fee for that service, not for faster access.

Resale prices move with date and demand and are shown live at checkout. No ticket at any price skips the security screening.

Practical tips

• 🎒 Travel light. Suitcases and large bags are refused and there is no storage on site.
• 📱 Keep the ticket on your phone. It is a timed QR code, scanned at more than one checkpoint.
• 🪪 Bring ID for reduced rates. Youth, under-26 EU and disability rates are all checked at the barrier.
• 🚫 You cannot upgrade inside. A 2nd-floor ticket stays a 2nd-floor ticket; choose the summit at purchase if there is any doubt.
• 🧥 Dress for the top. The summit is open-air and consistently colder and windier than the ground, even in July.
• 🕒 Allow two to three hours for the visit itself — longer if you want to eat or stay for the sparkle.

Building the rest of the day

The tower is a half-day at most, and it sits awkwardly far from the Right Bank museums. If you are planning a full Paris itinerary, the Louvre runs on the same timed-entry logic and is worth its own separate morning rather than being squeezed in after the tower — our Louvre ticket prices and access guide covers the 2026 two-tier pricing and which entrance to use.

Frequently asked questions