Which quai Branly ticket do I need?

I write this page for the reader who has just typed “quai Branly tickets” and wants to be told what to do. The museum is closed on Mondays, open late on Thursdays until 22:00, and last admission is 45 minutes before closing. Those three facts decide more visits than any ticket. What follows is the order in which I would ask the questions.

Step one: do you qualify for free entry?

A surprising number of people buy a ticket they do not need. The museum admits these visitors free at the desk:

• Under-18s, from anywhere. Bring something with a date of birth on it.
• EU residents aged 18 to 25, with ID showing residence. A French student on a Sunday has no reason to be on GetYourGuide at all.
• Everyone on the first Sunday of the month. It is also the busiest day the museum has, so weigh the saving against the crowd.
• Disabled visitors plus one companion. See the accessibility page for the ramp, lifts and folding-seat loan.

One caveat that trips people up: the temporary exhibitions can require a free timed reservation even for free entrants. Check the current shows on quaibranly.fr or my 2026 exhibitions page before you arrive, and reserve if one asks for it. The full list of proofs and edge cases is on the free admission page.

Step two: if you pay, which ticket?

Three routes. The admission ticket is the default; the other two are for a different kind of trip.

The timed skip-the-line admission ticket

This is the one for a non-EU adult with a fixed day in Paris. It covers the permanent collections, roughly 3,500 works from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, plus the temporary exhibitions, and it is valid for one day. You enter through the “access with ticket” door rather than the general one. It is rated 4.6 from 292 reviews; Ana Lucia called the collection “very well presented” and counted three good temporary exhibitions on her visit. Reserve now, pay later is offered, and cancellation is free up to 24 hours before.

A combo: museum plus Seine cruise, or museum plus digital tour

The cruise combo pairs a museum entry with a one-hour Seine cruise ticket that is valid for a month and has no fixed departure time. The digital-tour combo delivers the museum ticket through the operator’s app and adds a two-hour GPS-mapped audio walk of the Eiffel Tower district, with nothing narrated inside the museum. Both make sense only if you would have done the second thing anyway. I compare them side by side, with the honest note about the boat queue, on the combo tickets page.

The Paris Museum Pass

Two, four or six consecutive days across sixty-plus museums and monuments, quai Branly permanent collections included. It is a multi-museum decision, not a quai Branly one: worth it for three or more paid museums, not for one. Remember that the Louvre still needs its own free timeslot, that the Orangerie and Cité de l’Architecture need reservations, and that many museums close on Mondays, which eats into a short pass.

How the e-ticket works on the day

The admission ticket is a mobile voucher. Here is the sequence, because one reviewer lost an hour to it.

1. Walk through the garden to the entrance at 37 quai Jacques Chirac (the quay was renamed in 2021; the museum keeps “quai Branly” in its name). The how to get there page has the métro and RER options.
2. Security check. Bags are scanned. Only small backpacks are allowed; suitcases and bulky objects are refused and there is no left-luggage for them, so leave luggage at the hotel or a station locker.
3. Find the “access with ticket” entrance, not the general desk. Fran wrote that her entry took an hour because the confirmation format was not accepted at first. Have the voucher open on your phone, with the QR code visible, and if a staff member hesitates, ask for the ticket-holders’ door by name.
4. Take the free map. The plateau flows Oceania to Asia to Africa to the Americas without walls and the lighting is dim by design; the map keeps you oriented. What to see lists the highlights in that order.

Cancellation and changing your mind

The admission ticket cancels free up to 24 hours before the visit, and the digital-tour combo offers the same. Paris plans change; I have cancelled and rebooked a Thursday evening for friends more than once. Where a listing states different terms, the GetYourGuide page is the authority, so read the cancellation line before you confirm. Reserve now, pay later, on the admission ticket, means you can hold a date without committing money to it.

When to use the ticket

Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at 10:30 are quiet. Thursday after 19:00 is quieter still, and the only evening the museum is open. Weekend afternoons, first Sundays and school holidays are the times I avoid. The garden opens from 9:15, so arriving early and walking Gilles Clément’s thicket before the doors open is a decent way to start.

Check availability for the admission ticket

Live dates below. If you would rather see all five listings first, they are on the all tickets page.

Frequently asked questions