Eiffel Tower summit tickets sold out? What still works

Start with the official ticket shop

The Eiffel Tower is on France's list as "Ascend the Eiffel Tower at dusk", and the dusk part is the hard one: the summit is the floor that fills first. The tower belongs to the City of Paris and is run by the Société d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE) under a public service contract that runs to 2032. SETE's warning about scams is blunt: "The only official addresses are toureiffel.paris and ticket.toureiffel.paris." It tells visitors to be wary of any other site calling itself official, including ones pushed by search engines or recommended by AI tools.

This is a planning guide, not a report of a recent visit. On 25 October 2026 every toureiffel.paris page blocked automated visits, so the rules and prices below come from archived copies of SETE's official pages, the newest from 15 September 2026 and the terms of sale from November 2025. The shop's calendar could not be read that day, so this guide does not say which dates are gone. Check the price in the shop before you pay.

Why it sells out

Lift tickets, to the summit or the 2nd floor, go on sale online 60 days ahead, and stairs tickets 30 days ahead. SETE says its timed online tickets, "mostly elevator tickets to the top floor or to the second floor", sell out quickly, and that in July, August and the Christmas holidays summit tickets "sell out very quickly". In the shop, orange dates mean the last tickets and grey or lined-out dates are sold out online. SETE adds that tickets "become available again online at regular intervals".

The summit is small. When it is full, the ticket offices at the foot stop selling summit tickets until space frees up. Access to the top can also be restricted in severe weather or peak periods, and it closes every January for maintenance: in 2026 that ran from 5 January to 6 February. The archived pages give no dates for January 2027.

Official options first

1. Queue at the stairs ticket office. The ticket that takes you up the stairs to the 2nd floor and then by lift to the top costs €28. SETE says it is sold mainly at the tower for immediate use, and only "in very small quantities" online, and calls it "a smart and economical way" to reach the summit when the lift tickets are gone. The climb to the 2nd floor is long, so it suits people happy with a lot of stairs, in must30's view.
2. Buy at the tower on the day. The ticket offices sell every ticket type at the same price for immediate use, but only while the summit has room. They open with the tower, not before, and stop selling summit tickets about 1 hour 45 minutes before closing.
3. Go late. SETE says the ticket offices stay open in the evening with shorter waits, and suggests arriving at opening or after 20:30. For a visit at dusk, the evening queue is the natural plan, in must30's view.
4. Keep checking the shop. More tickets come back online at regular intervals, and a slot later the same day can open up.
5. Look at the official extras. The shop also sells the summit with a glass of champagne (€60.70), an official guided tour to the top (€71.70), a guided tour of the 2nd floor with access to the top (€66.70) and the summit with brunch at Madame Brasserie (€121.70). SETE does not say whether these have their own places, so check them on a date where the plain ticket is gone.
6. Settle for the 2nd floor. It costs €23.50 by lift or €14.80 by stairs. You cannot upgrade to the top once you are at the tower, so decide before you buy.

There are no free days, and the Paris Museum Pass is not accepted.

Tours with summit access included

SETE alone sells plain lift tickets. Resellers may only sell a lift ticket combined with an extra service, such as a guided tour, at the public price plus the price of that service. SETE names no partners and says it awards no "official partner" or "authorized website" status, so any site that claims one is not telling the truth. There is also no skip-the-line system at the tower. Resellers may only call what they sell "reserved access".

Tickets are personal and cannot be resold, and SETE may refuse entry to anyone holding a ticket bought from a third party not authorised to sell it. That is why must30 links only to summit access sold with a guide or host, the one kind of resale the tower allows. Check that the listing includes the top and not just the 2nd floor, give each visitor's name as it appears on their ID, and expect to pay well above €36.70.

If you book through these links, must30 earns a commission at no extra cost to you.

Timing that helps

The tower opens every day of the year, from 9:30 to 23:45, and from 9:00 to 00:45 between late June and early September. The last lift to the summit leaves at 22:30, or 23:00 in summer, unless the top closes early on a very busy day, and visitors are asked to leave the top 45 minutes before closing. SETE flags the French school holidays (to 2 November 2026) and the Christmas holidays (19 December 2026 to 4 January 2027) as busy.

The time on your ticket is when you pass security at the foot of the tower. Arrive at the esplanade at the start of your slot and allow 10 to 20 minutes for the checks. If you are late, you go in only if the next slot has room. Children under 12 must be with someone aged 18 or over, and the summit and the stairs are not suitable for people with limited mobility.

What not to do

• Do not buy a bare ticket anywhere but ticket.toureiffel.paris. Resellers may only sell it with a service, and the tower can refuse entry.
• Do not pay extra for "skip the line". The tower says no such ticket exists.
• Do not bring a suitcase or a Swiss army knife. There are no lockers or cloakrooms near the tower, and banned items are binned, not returned.
• Do not count on a refund for weather. Bad visibility is not refunded, and if the summit closes you only get back the difference with a 2nd floor ticket, paid automatically, never at the tower.

Keep planning

• France's list, where the tower appears as "Ascend the Eiffel Tower at dusk".
• The case for doing the famous thing early, on timing the big sights.
• The other ticket guides, including the Sainte-Chapelle on the Île de la Cité and the Colosseum.