The Louvre is open from 9 am, and the Louvre Museum opening hours run to 6 pm on four days of the week and to 9 pm on Wednesday and Friday, per the museum’s official site. It is closed on Tuesday. This guide gives the Louvre Museum opening hours by day, last entry, the best time to go, how to get there and what to know at the door. If you want to book, my comparison of every Louvre Museum ticket has the guided tours with entry included.
Louvre Museum Opening Hours
Today, Saturday 7 November 2026, the Louvre Museum opening hours per Google Maps are 9 am to 6 pm. The week looks like this:
Day
Hours per Google Maps
Monday
9 am to 6 pm
Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday
9 am to 9 pm
Thursday
9 am to 6 pm
Friday
9 am to 9 pm
Saturday
9 am to 6 pm
Sunday
9 am to 6 pm
The official Louvre Museum opening hours on louvre.fr match this table: 9 am to 6 pm on Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and 9 am to 9 pm on Wednesday and Friday. Last entry is 1 hour before closing, and rooms are cleared 30 minutes before closing. The official page also says the Cour Carree is currently closed and that some rooms may be closed or open later on certain days, so check it on the morning you go.
Louvre Opening Hours
The Louvre Museum opening hours that matter most are the late evenings. Wednesday and Friday run to 9 pm, which gives you three more hours than the other days, and last entry is then 8 pm. If you can only visit on a Monday, Thursday, Saturday or Sunday, last entry is 5 pm, and the rooms start to clear at 5:30 pm.
Louvre Opening Hours Paris
Visitors often ask whether the Louvre Museum opening hours change with the seasons, and for Paris the answer from the sources I could read is no.
The Louvre Museum opening hours in Paris are the same all year in the data I have, and nothing on the official page I read gives a seasonal change. Holiday closures are the exception: 1 January, 1 May and 25 December. Google Maps lists the museum at 75001 Paris, with 4.7 stars from 382,121 reviews.
What Time Does the Louvre Museum Open
Every visitor I picture planning a day here asks this first, and the Louvre Museum opening hours answer it in one line.
The museum opens at 9 am on every day it is open, so the Louvre Museum opening hours start the same way all week. That is also when the first tours begin: the Walks France-Spain, Mon Petit Paris and GetYourGuide France listings use fixed start times, and the guides arrive at the start time rather than before. Several tours meet away from the museum entrance, so open your confirmation before you head to the Pyramid. The GetYourGuide France tour meets at a kiosk facing the Comedie-Francaise, a 5-minute walk from the entrance.
Louvre Museum Operating Hours
The operating hours of a museum this size are not the same as the time you can stay in a gallery. Rooms are cleared 30 minutes before closing, so on a 6 pm day I would treat 5:30 pm as the end of your visit. On Wednesday and Friday the same rule gives you until 8:30 pm.
The Louvre Museum operating hours are the same as the opening hours, 9 am to 6 pm or 9 pm. A museum can open later on certain days because of staffing and room closures, and the official page says so, which is why I treat the Google Maps table as a guide and the louvre.fr page as the answer.
Louvre Museum Hours of Operation
The Louvre Museum hours of operation also decide when you can enter. With last entry one hour before closing, a Friday visit gives you until 8 pm to get in, while a Saturday visit gives you until 5 pm. Plan to arrive well before that, because a highlights tour takes 1 to 3 hours in the listings.
When Did the Louvre Open As a Museum
The Louvre opened as a museum in 1793, according to Wikidata, which records the opening year. It is housed in the Louvre Palace, built in the late 12th to 13th century under Philip II, and Francis I turned the fortress into a royal residence in 1546, per Wikipedia. Wikidata gives 2,825,000 visitors in 2021.
Best Time to Visit the Louvre Museum
The quietest time I can support from the data is the first slot of the day or one of the late openings. The Walks France-Spain listing has a morning option, and reviewers of several tours say the skip-the-line entry saved them from the long line. One reviewer of the Extime tour wrote that it was excellent to get into the Louvre without waiting in the long line. I could not find an official statement of the quietest hours, so treat this as a pattern from reviews, not a promise.
For the season, the Open-Meteo data below is for 2025 and shows what a month usually looks like in Paris. A museum visit does not depend on sunshine, but November and December are the rainiest and darkest.
Month
Sunset
Rainy days
Sunshine hours per day
January
17:22
17
2.7
April
20:42
7
11
July
21:49
15
12.1
October
19:00
10
6.5
November
17:10
13
4.3
December
16:54
8
3.7
Source: Open-Meteo historical weather, Paris, 2025. In November the sun sets before 5:15 pm, so a Wednesday or Friday evening visit ends in the dark and a walk to the Seine is better done before you go in.
How to Get to the Louvre Museum
The museum is at 75001 Paris on the Right Bank. The walking times below are my estimates from straight-line distance multiplied by 1.3 at 4.8 km/h. Palais Royal - Musee du Louvre and Louvre - Rivoli metro stations are about 4 minutes away. Pont Neuf is about 7 minutes, Pyramides about 9, and Chatelet, Tuileries and Les Halles about 11. The station list comes from Google Maps, and the lines serving them are on the RATP site.
Read your meeting point, because it decides where you go. The Tour Guy and My Super Tour meet under the statue of Louis XIV in front of the Pyramid. Memories France and Exploring Tours meet at the Arc du Carrousel, opposite the Pyramid. GetYourGuide France meets at the Kiosque des Noctambules, and UTG Experience Europe lists 162 Rue de Rivoli. Mon Petit Paris has two meeting points depending on your option.
Things to Do Near the Louvre Museum
Sainte-Chapelle is 0.79 kilometres away on Google Maps, rated 4.6 from 50,854 reviews, Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris 1.24 kilometres, rated 4.7 from 103,341, and Place de la Concorde 1.32 kilometres. The Panthéon is 1.72 kilometres away. See my Louvre Museum map for the wings and the Pyramid.
Louvre Museum Audio Guide
None of the listings I compared includes an audio guide: the guided tours give you a licensed guide with headsets to hear the guide better, and the 2-hour Mona Lisa tour at $66 is rated 4.7 from 7,135 reviews. I could not read the official page, so I cannot confirm whether the museum rents its own audio guide or what it costs. Check the Louvre Museum opening hours and services at louvre.fr. For a guide, my Louvre Museum tours compare them.
Louvre Museum Dress Code
I could not read the official visitor rules, so I cannot give you a dress code, and none of the listings states one. What they do say is practical: arrive on time, because the guides start at the booked time. Plan on about 2 hours with a guide, and wear shoes for the long galleries during the Louvre Museum opening hours.
Louvre Museum Free Entry
I found no free-entry rule for the Louvre in my data, and I will not guess at which groups qualify. One listing quotes a 28 euro entrance ticket for adults as part of a skip-the-line guided tour at $55, rated 4.9 from 456 reviews. For any concession, check the Louvre Museum opening hours and ticket page at louvre.fr.
What to Know Before You Go
Your confirmation is the document that sets your time. The listings state the practical rules. Arrive on time, because the guides at GetYourGuide France start at the booked time rather than before it. Almost all of the tours cancel free up to 24 hours before. Under-18s and EEA residents under 26 with ID enter free per the official site, and the GetYourGuide France listing says its price is adjusted for those categories. The official page recommends booking a time slot, including for free-admission visitors.
I could not read the official visitor rules, so I cannot give you the bag size limit, the cloakroom rules or the dress code. Check the Louvre site before you go. If you have a large bag, the Stasher luggage storage near the museum costs $10 for a day with no size limit, and I would use it on a full-day visit.
Time to allow depends on the ticket: 1 hour for the Mon Petit Paris and UTG Experience Europe highlights tours, about 2 hours for most of the others, and 3 hours for Walks France-Spain.
GetYourGuide France
Louvre Museum Tour Mona Lisa & Iconic Masterpieces
★4.7 (7,135 reviews)
2 hours
Free cancellation
My pick: If I had to book one slot: 4.7 from 7,135 reviews, 2 hours, five languages and free cancellation up to 24 hours before.
What you get, where you meet, what reviewers say
Included
✓ Guided tour in English
✓ Licensed guide
✓ Pre-reserved entrance ticket (€28 per adult) and reservation fee (€90 per group) are included
✓ Under 18 years old and some other categories, admission is free. Prices have been adjusted accordingly
✓ Headsets to hear the guide better
✓ Standard group (max 20 participants)
Not included / not suitable
✕ Transportation
✕ Food and drinks
✕ Small (max 6 participants) or private group
Meeting point: Do not go to the Louvre museum directly.
Meet at the time selected at the Kiosque des Noctambules, a colorful artistic structure decorated with Murano glass beads facing the Comédie Française. It is a 5-minute walk from the Louvre entrance.
Look for your guide holding a GetYourGuide flag; they will arrive at the tour start time, not before.
The nearest metro stop is Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre (exit "Place Colette") 12 Pl. Colette, 75001 Paris, France
Languages: Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish, English
Duration: 2 hours
Cancellation: Cancel up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund
“Great guide. She was very knowledgeable about art and history.” – GetYourGuide review
The Louvre is open 9 am to 6 pm on Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and 9 am to 9 pm on Wednesday and Friday, according to the museum's official site. Google Maps lists the same hours. It is closed on Tuesdays.
What time does the Louvre museum open?+
It opens at 9 am on every day it is open, per the official site and Google Maps. Several guided tours I compared meet earlier than the entry time or away from the building, so read your confirmation for the meeting time.
What time is last entry at the Louvre?+
The official site gives last entry as 1 hour before closing, and rooms start to clear 30 minutes before closing. On a 6 pm day that means the last entry is at 5 pm, and on the 9 pm evenings it is 8 pm.
Which days is the Louvre closed?+
The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays and on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December, per its official site. The same page warns that some rooms may be closed and that opening can be later on certain days.
How long do you need at the Louvre?+
The guided tours I compared run from 1 hour to 3 hours. A reviewer of the Mon Petit Paris tour called the museum a giant five-floor maze, so I would allow 2 hours for a highlights tour and more if you want to carry on alone afterwards.
Is the Louvre free on the first Friday of the month?+
Yes after 6 pm, except in July and August, according to the Louvre's official site. It is also free on 14 July. Visitors under 18 and EEA residents under 26 with valid ID enter free every day.
