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Eiffel Tower Paris Tours › What Eiffel Tower Tours Cost in 2026, and What Moves the PriceUpdated 2026-09-09

What Eiffel Tower Tours Cost in 2026, and What Moves the Price

Hours, prices and access verified by the Eiffel Tower Paris Tours team — last checked 2026-09-09

The Eiffel Tower rising between Haussmann facades on a Paris avenue

The short version. Guided ascents of the Eiffel Tower run from about $53 to about $235, and the spread is not mostly about height. Six things move the number: whether the fare goes inside at all, which floor it reaches, whether the top is included or an option, the group size, what else is bundled with it, and the refund window. Two of those six explain most of the range.

Every figure below is the fare a booker pays, checked on the date at the top of this page, and each one sits with the small-group Eiffel Tower tours.

The bands, and what sits in each

BandWhat it buysTypical shape
Under $55A guided climb, or a wider Paris tour that passes the tower674 steps to the second floor; or a bike ride, a photoshoot, a city walk
$55–$80A guided lift ascent with the ticket pre-bookedSecond floor in the fare, top as a checkout option
$80–$120A combination, or a mealThe tower plus a Seine cruise; lunch at the first-floor restaurant; a full-day Paris tour
$120–$160The top included, or a small groupSix people, the summit in the fare rather than optional
Over $200An evening, capped, with champagneTimed evening entry, both upper levels, a glass at 276 metres

Set those against the monument's own rates — €14.80 to €36.70 — and the guiding is costing between about $25 and about $200 a head. That spread is the subject of this guide.

What actually moves the price?

1. Whether it goes inside at all

This is the biggest single factor and the least obvious one from a price-sorted grid. Several of the fares listed here never take you into the monument: their own itineraries give the Eiffel Tower an admission type of no, and one of them gives it five minutes as a photo stop on a wider city loop. A $53 bike tour and a $53 guided climb are not the same product at the same price.

2. Which floor it reaches

The second floor at 115 metres or the top at 276. The official gap is €13.20, and on a guided fare it is usually more, because the top also costs the operator a second queue. Which floor each one reaches is on the second floor and summit page.

3. Included or optional

Most guided ascents put the summit behind a checkout option: the second floor is in the fare and the top is an upgrade you tick and pay for. A handful include it outright. Two fares reading identically at $65 can end at different altitudes.

4. Group size

A cap of six against a cap of twenty-five is most of the difference between the $153 fare and the $53 one. It is also the thing reviewers write about most, because on narrow platforms it decides whether you can hear anything.

5. What else is bundled

A Seine cruise, a meal, a photographer, a coach from a cruise terminal 200 kilometres away. Each adds real cost and each is a genuinely separate product wrapped into one booking.

6. The refund window

It does not show up as a line on the price, but it is worth money. Most fares here refund in full at 24 hours. One is a final sale. One returns half. On a monument whose top floor closes for wind, that is not a footnote.

Why is one of these under forty dollars?

Because it is a thirty-minute photoshoot at the foot of the tower rather than a visit to it. It is the cheapest fare on this list and it is excellent value for what it is — a professional photographer, edited high-resolution files inside forty-eight hours — but it includes no floor of the monument and takes you through no security check.

That is the general shape of the bottom of the range. The cheapest fares are either climbs, where the ticket itself is €14.80, or products where the tower is scenery. A price-sorted grid puts them next to each other and tells you nothing.

And why is one over two hundred?

Timed evening entry, a cap of six people, both upper levels by lift, and a glass of champagne at the top. Set against the monument's own rates that is roughly €60.70 of ticket-and-champagne plus the guiding, the small group and an evening slot on the one floor that sells out first.

Whether that is worth it is a genuine question rather than a rhetorical one. What you can say is that the components are real and priced: the champagne ticket exists at the official rate, the cap is stated, and the evening slot is the hardest one to get.

Where does the value actually sit?

Three places, and none of them is the cheapest row.

  • The guided stair climb, around $53. The ticket underneath it is €14.80, so you are paying roughly $37 for a guide, a booked slot and half an hour inside the ironwork. It is the highest-volume ascent on this list for a reason.
  • The reserved-access lift fare, around $65. The ticket is €23.50, so about $40 buys a pre-booked timed entry, somebody who walks you to the right pillar, and a full refund at 24 hours.
  • The stairs-and-lift official ticket at €28.00, if you are happy without a guide. It reaches 276 metres for €8.70 less than the all-lift route.

What does a tour cost per hour at the tower?

A more useful number than the fare, and it reorders the list.

Shape of fareTime at the towerRoughly
Guided stair climbAbout 2 hours, all of it at the tower$26 an hour
Reserved-access liftAbout 1–1.5 hours$43–$65 an hour
Small-group summit2 hours$76 an hour
Half-day city walk30 minutes, from the outside$152 an hour at the tower
Private city loop5 minutes, from the outsidenot a tower visit

The bottom two rows are not criticisms. A half-day walk covering thirty-plus landmarks is a good product and the tower is one stop on it. The number simply shows what you are buying, which a fare on its own does not.

Do the cheaper fares cut corners on the ticket?

No, and this is worth being clear about. Every fare that goes inside includes a real ticket to the floor it names. What varies is the floor, whether the top is an option, and what else comes with it.

What none of them includes is a way past the security check. Some fares name skip-the-line among their own exclusions, and the monument states that everybody clears both checks whatever they hold. If a fare seems to be charging for that, it is charging for something else. The detail is on what to expect.

Do the prices move?

Yes, and some of the fares on this list were carrying a live discount on the day they were checked. The figures here are what a booker paid on that date; treat them as indicative and confirm on the booking page. Prices, ratings and availability belong to the operators, and the terms are set out on the affiliate disclosure.

What should you actually pay?

If you want…Expect to payBecause
The cheapest way up, guidedAbout $53The stair ticket is €14.80 underneath it
The ticket bought and timed for you$60–$76A lift ticket plus a host and a refund window
The top guaranteed, in a small group$130–$155The summit in the fare, capped at six
The tower and the Seine together$65–$85Two separately ticketed things on one booking
An evening with champagne at the topOver $200Timed evening slot, cap of six, a glass at 276 m
Photographs rather than a visitUnder $40A shoot at the foot of the tower; no floor included

If you are choosing on price alone, take the guided climb. If you are choosing on certainty, take a fare where the top is included rather than optional and the refund window is 24 hours. The full comparison is on Eiffel Tower Paris Tours.

Frequently asked questions

How much do Eiffel Tower tours cost?
Guided ascents start at about $53 for a stair climb to the second floor and run to roughly $153 for a small-group tour with the top floor included. A guided lift ascent with the ticket pre-booked sits around $65. The wider Paris tours that pass the tower rather than going up it start at about $37.
What do official Eiffel Tower tickets cost in 2026?
The monument's own published adult rates are €23.50 for the lift to the second floor, €36.70 for the lift to the top, €14.80 for the stairs to the second floor and €28.00 for the stairs plus the lift to the top. Youth 12 to 24 pay roughly half and children 4 to 11 about a quarter. These are the tower's figures, not ours, and it sets and sells them itself.
Do you need a guided tour to go up the Eiffel Tower?
No. The monument sells its own timed tickets directly, and going up alone is a perfectly good visit. A guided departure buys you three things instead: a ticket already bought and timed, somebody who knows which pillar and which queue, and the story of what you are standing inside.
Can you cancel an Eiffel Tower tour?
Most of the tours listed here refund in full up to 24 hours ahead, and each card says which policy it carries. The exceptions are a final sale, or half the fare back at 24 hours. Check the line on the card before you pay, because those are the exceptions rather than the rule.
Should you book the second floor or the top?
The second floor at 115 metres is where the views of individual monuments are sharpest, and it is where the tower's own pages send you for them. The top at 276 metres is higher, colder and further from the city, and it needs a second queue for a second lift. Book the top if the height itself is the point; book the second floor if the view is.
Which Eiffel Tower ticket should you buy?
Take the stairs ticket if you are happy on stairs and want the cheapest way up, and the lift to the second floor if you are not. Add the top only if the height is the reason you came. The stairs-plus-lift combination is the cheapest route to 276 metres by a clear margin.

One tour from each price band