"I am amazed by the beauty of the building's interior and the quality of its preservation. It's understandable that this is the case, as it is an active government building. It exceeded my expectations. Of course, I was completely disappointed that I couldn't take a single photo as proof that I was there, but what can you do?"
From Free to $92 · The Full Price Ladder
Buckingham Palace Tickets
There are four ways to spend money at Buckingham Palace and one way to spend nothing. This page prices all of them honestly — including the one case where you should ignore us and buy direct from the Palace's own operator.
From
$51
per person
- 4.6 / 5 157+ Reviews
- From $51 State Rooms Entry (Oct 2026)
- £1 Benefits Ticket Scheme
The Experience
What the $51 State Rooms Ticket Includes
What is in the price, and what is explicitly excluded from it.
Highlights
- Enjoy entry to the State Rooms of Buckingham Palace
- Uncover 19 rooms filled with treasures owned by the Royal Family
- See chairs used for coronation ceremonies and art by Rembrandt and Rubens
- Continue exploring the royal side of London at your own pace with an audio tour
What's Included
- Buckingham Palace State Rooms entry ticket
- Buckingham Palace State Rooms audio guide in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Brazilian Portuguese
- Royal London’ audio guide app in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Chinese
- Any applicable fees and taxes
Good to know: After booking, you will receive an email or Whatsapp notification from VoxCity International. Click the link to check in for your trip and to download your audio guide app. · Visitors can head directly to the Buckingham Palace Ticket Office, located at Buckingham Palace Road · Please arrive 15 minutes before your booked timeslot, and have your ticket downloaded and ready to show · Entry is subject to a security check: no sharp objects, bicycles or luggage. Some items must be checked in, including pushchairs and long umbrellas · Photography and filming is strictly prohibited inside Buckingham Palace. You may take pictures or videos in the garden area · Your ticket is only valid for the date and time booked · Not Included: Guided tour, Headset and mobile device (for Royal London audio guide app)
How Booking Works, Step by Step
Check the season, book a timed slot, clear security, walk the rooms. The order matters more than you would think.
Check That the Palace Is Even Open
The State Rooms are not a year-round attraction. The 2026 season ran 9 July to 27 September, and Royal Collection Trust releases summer 2027 tickets in November (rct.uk, checked October 2026). Outside the summer weeks there is no interior visit for general visitors, and the day becomes a Changing of the Guard morning instead.
Book a Timed Slot in Advance
Entry is by a selected time slot, and the listing is blunt about the consequence: late arrivals cannot be admitted. Book online, keep the voucher on your phone, and give yourself a buffer — you have to exchange the voucher before your slot, not at it.
Enter at Gate A and Clear Security
The State Rooms Visitor Entrance is Gate A, on the south side of the Palace at Buckingham Gate. There is an airport-style security check: no sharp objects, no luggage, and pushchairs must be checked in and reclaimed at the exit. Baby carriers are lent free of charge, subject to availability.
Walk the 19 Rooms, Then the Garden
You go room to room at your own pace with a multimedia guide in nine languages — the Grand Staircase, the Throne Room, the White Drawing Room, the Ballroom. Photography and filming are not permitted inside. The route exits through the garden, where cameras are allowed and the Garden Café is.
Photo Gallery
What the Ticket Gets You Into
The rooms, the forecourt and the garden route — the last of which is the only place a camera is allowed.
Book Your Experience
Check Availability & Prices
Select your preferred date and time. The listing does not offer free cancellation, so check your date before you book.
What a Buckingham Palace Ticket Actually Buys
The cheapest way in costs nothing and the most expensive way in costs about seventy dollars. They are not the same product — here is exactly what separates them.
| Feature | GETS YOU INSIDE State Rooms Entry + Audio App | No Ticket at All | Cheapest Guided Option |
|---|---|---|---|
| What You Pay | From about $51 per person (October 2026) | £0. There is no ticket for standing outside the Palace | From about $20 per person (October 2026) |
| What You Get Into | The 19 State Rooms and the garden exit route, plus a royal-London audio app for afterwards | The pavement, the Victoria Memorial steps and The Mall — which is where the ceremony happens anyway | Nothing ticketed. You are paying for a guide, not for admission |
| When It's Available | Summer season only, while the Palace is not in official use | Any day of the year, though the ceremony itself is not daily | Year-round, which is the point — this still works in February |
| Who You Buy From | Vox City Walks, a reseller bundling palace entry with its own audio app | Nobody | A tour operator. GetYourGuide badges this one as an Originals product |
| Cancellation | The listing does not offer free cancellation | Not applicable | Free cancellation, and the tour runs rain or shine |
| The Catch | Timed entry: arrive 15 minutes before your slot. No photography inside. No live guide | You will not see a single room, and on a wet day you may not see a ceremony either | This operator deliberately does not stand at the forecourt, because the view from there is poor |
| Best For | Summer visitors who want the interior and are happy going in self-guided | Anyone visiting outside the summer window, or on no budget at all | Anyone who wants the ceremony explained without paying palace-entry money |
| Check Availability | See the $20 Tour |
More Options
The Price Ladder, Cheapest First
Every Buckingham Palace product we would recommend, ordered by what it costs — from a $20 guided ceremony walk upwards (prices as listed in October 2026).
FROM $20London: The Original Changing of the Guard Experience
Join the guards as they march towards Buckingham Palace on a unique guided tour in London. Get closer for fantastic photo opportunities and delve deep into the …
FROM $24London: The Changing of the Guard Tour and Buckingham Palace
The Royal Westminster and Changing of the Guard (English) guided walking tour offers you the ability to get up close and personal with London’s most famous and …
FROM $44London: Westminster Abbey, Big Ben & Buckingham Guided Tour
Join us on a 4- or 3-hour walking tour of Central London with 2 different options to experience Westminster Abbey's spiritual ambiance: as a city tour with …
FROM $82London: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey & Big Ben Tour
Explore the incredible sights of London on this attraction-packed history walking tour that takes you to some of the city’s most iconic landmarks and attractions. …
FROM $92Buckingham Palace Entry Ticket & Royal Walking Tour
Enjoy a guided walking tour of the royal sights in London. See top sights like St. James's Palace, Clarence House, and The Mall. Save time with skip-the-line tickets …
The Price Ladder
What a Buckingham Palace Ticket Costs, and What It Buys
Platform prices in dollars, gate prices in pounds, the £1 scheme most visitors never hear about, and the three cases where you should buy direct instead.
Status, 22 October 2026: the 2026 season has closed, and Royal Collection Trust says summer 2027 tickets will be released in November. It had not published 2027 prices or dates when checked, so the pound figures below are the 2026 rates; the dollar listings were checked in October 2026.
The cheapest way to experience Buckingham Palace costs nothing, and the most expensive interior ticket we would recommend costs about $92. Between those two points sit four genuinely different products, plus Royal Collection Trust’s own ticket sold direct, and most pages that rank for “Buckingham Palace tickets” blur them together.
Here is the ladder, priced honestly, with the sources named.
How much does a Buckingham Palace tour cost?
In dollars, as listed in October 2026:
| Option | From | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| Watch the Changing of the Guard | Free | The ceremony, no ticket, no booking |
| Guided Changing of the Guard tour | ~$20 | A guide, positioning, commentary. No palace entry |
| Guard tour with royal Westminster walk | ~$24 | The above plus The Mall, St James’s Park, Parliament Square |
| State Rooms entry + royal-London audio app | ~$51 | 19 rooms, the palace audio guide, garden exit, plus a self-paced app for the rest of the day |
| State Rooms entry + live guided walk | ~$92 | Same admission, plus a guide for the streets outside |
Royal Collection Trust’s own standard State Rooms ticket is no longer listed alongside these products; it is sold direct on rct.uk, in pounds.
At the gate, Royal Collection Trust sells in pounds. Standard adult admission for the 2026 season is £32 booked in advance and £35 on the day. There are reduced rates for 18–24s and for children, under-5s go free but still need a ticket, and — the part almost nobody mentions — there is a £1 ticket scheme for visitors receiving qualifying UK benefits.
The full pound ladder, as RCT publishes it:
- State Rooms, standard adult admission — £32 in advance, £35 on the day, with concessions available
- Garden Highlights Tour — £15 per adult, and it is an add-on rather than a ticket in its own right. RCT requires it to be booked together with a State Rooms ticket, so the realistic all-in for the pair is £32 + £15 = about £47 in advance — not a separate higher-priced product
- East Wing Tour — £90 per adult, which includes the 60-minute guided tour of the East Wing
- Royal Day Out (State Rooms + The King’s Gallery + Royal Mews) — £65.70 adult in advance, with Young Person (18–24) at £42.70, Child (5–17) at £32.80 and disabled visitors at £32.80, and a 10% saving built in over buying the three separately
One honest note. Those pound figures were read on rct.uk and tickets.rct.uk on 1 August 2026. Royal Collection Trust changes its prices between seasons and prices on-the-day tickets above advance ones, so confirm on rct.uk before you budget.
When you should ignore us and buy direct
We earn a commission on the platform tickets on this page, and we are going to tell you when not to use them. There are three cases:
1. If you want the 1-Year Pass. Royal Collection Trust lets you convert a ticket into twelve months of free re-admission to the site you visited, by asking for your purchase to be treated as a donation — you sign and print your name on the ticket before you leave. Its terms are explicit: tickets booked through a tour operator or ticket agent cannot be converted. A £2 transaction fee applies when you pre-book the return visit. If you are the sort of traveller who will come back, that changes the maths entirely.
2. If you need step-free access or a companion ticket. Royal Collection Trust’s own ticket terms say so: if you require a step-free access route you must book directly with Royal Collection Trust, and complimentary companion tickets are direct-only as well.
3. If you qualify for the £1 benefits ticket. That scheme exists on rct.uk and nowhere else.
Outside those three cases, the platform tickets are the same admission to the same rooms, priced in your own currency, with something bundled around them: an audio app for royal London, or a live guide for the walk to the door. The guided combination carries free cancellation up to 24 hours in advance; the audio-app ticket does not offer free cancellation, so book that one once your dates are fixed.
Is the Buckingham Palace tour worth it?
Yes if your dates fall inside the summer opening and you want the interior; no if you are hoping to see private royal life.
Judged purely as a transaction: about $51 on the platform (or £32 direct) buys entry to 19 rooms, a visit that Royal Collection Trust itself says to allow two to two and a half hours for, the palace audio guide in nine languages and the garden walk out. Against other major-city landmark interiors that is not expensive, and reviewers of both platform tickets rate them 4.5 to 4.6 out of 5 (October 2026).
What tips it against, for some people:
- No live guide — guides are not permitted inside, on any ticket
- No photography anywhere indoors
- No private apartments, ever
- A queue that reviewers put at around thirty minutes even with a pre-booked ticket
- No map included — the printed guidebook is £7 on site
And if your dates fall outside 9 July – 27 September 2026, the question is moot: the interior does not open, and the best value on this entire site becomes the $20 guided guard-change walk, which delivers more experience per dollar than anything else we list.
What the $51 ticket includes and excludes
Straight from the seller’s listing.
Included: the Buckingham Palace State Rooms entry ticket; the palace’s own audio guide in nine languages; a “Royal London” audio guide app in six languages for the rest of the day; fees and taxes.
Excluded: a guided tour; the headset and mobile device for the app. Because it is bought through an agent, it cannot be converted into Royal Collection Trust’s 1-Year Pass.
Not on the listing but worth knowing from the reviews: no printed map or guide is handed out, the on-site guidebook costs £7, and there is a café on the garden route at the end. The audio guide has a separate children’s version that parents in the reviews rate highly.
Do you need to book in advance?
Yes, on three separate grounds. Advance tickets are cheaper than on-the-day ones at the gate. Entry is by narrow timed slot and you need to arrive 15 minutes before it with the ticket downloaded and ready. And the season is only eleven weeks long, so the supply of slots is genuinely finite.
Reviewers who pre-booked still describe a queue of around half an hour. Reviewers who did not pre-book describe a considerably worse morning. If your dates might move, the guided combination’s free cancellation up to 24 hours before is the safer booking.
The cheaper things worth knowing about
The ceremony is free. No ticket, no booking. Watching the Changing of the Guard is the single best free thing on a royal-London itinerary, and a $20 guided walk buys you positioning rather than access.
The neighbours are cheaper and open longer. The Royal Mews — a working stable housing the 260-year-old Gold State Coach — and The King’s Gallery, with its changing exhibitions, are separate Royal Collection Trust attractions on Buckingham Palace Road with far longer seasons. Both were listed as open daily at the time of writing, though the Mews closes for part of the winter. The King’s Gallery’s 2026 exhibition marking the centenary of Queen Elizabeth II’s birth was extended because of demand; adult admission is reported at around £22.
The combined ticket is genuinely cheaper. If you want all three sites, the Royal Day Out at £65.70 advance beats buying them separately by about 10%.
Ready to book? Check live availability and prices. And if you would rather buy direct for the 1-Year Pass or an access requirement, rct.uk is the place, and we would rather you did that than pay for the wrong thing here.
Written 1 August 2026. The 1-Year Pass mechanism and its exclusion of agent-bought tickets come from rct.uk. Every pound price on this page — £32 advance / £35 on the day standard adult admission, the £15 Garden Highlights add-on and its requirement to be booked alongside a State Rooms ticket, the £90 East Wing Tour, and the £65.70 Royal Day Out with its £42.70 young-person and £32.80 child and disabled rates — was read at source on rct.uk / tickets.rct.uk and re-confirmed on 1 August 2026. RCT does change its prices between seasons, so confirm before booking. The £1 benefits scheme, the concession structure and the 2026 season dates come from rct.uk and its 8 July 2026 press release. The King’s Gallery price is reported rather than verified. Dollar prices, ratings, review counts, inclusions and reviewer quotes come from the tour listings, captured in 2026, and change over time. Confirm all prices on rct.uk before budgeting.
Guest Reviews
What Ticket-Holders Say
4.6/5
from 157 verified guests
"We had bought our tickets a few days before the visit. We didn't have to wait to get in, even fifteen minutes before the indicated time. How wonderful!We really enjoyed how it worked with the live guide, which really allowed us to move at our own pace. The staff are friendly. Well-organized tour."
"It was a beautiful experience and very well put together on the audio speaker. I really enjoyed this and it was well worth the money. Don’t miss this one."
"Really great. Easy booking, instructions to get tickets. Very well organized and I like that there’s a limited amount of people to go through the rooms at a time."
"Very interesting. A bit warm, and there could be more rooms to see."
"Very strict security check. Again, a lot of people despite the time slot…(?) The feeling in the palace was very special, since otherwise only invited guests are allowed to enter. (It's just not an everyday thing.) Photos were not allowed. I liked the Gemäldegalerie the best. Unfortunately, I didn't find any reference to Lady Diana. (Too bad)"
"The absolute highlight of my trip to London! Didn’t expect to actually be able to walk around inside the rooms. The grounds were lovely and the restrooms were even meticulously cared for! Gift shop had a wide range of items and lines moved along nicely even though it was fairly busy. If you are a fan of the Royals, don’t miss this!"
"Overall, the premises were impressive. Especially considering that they are actually still in use. Nevertheless, in relation to the existing rooms, you only saw a small part, namely only the state rooms. A subsequent coffee in the garden is the grand finale. I recommend booking the garden tour as well; otherwise, you will only see the garden during a 10-minute walk to the exit. It's a completely different side. It is also advisable to bring only a small bag, as the admission check is carried out very carefully."
Read all 157 verified reviews
See All ReviewsState Rooms Entry, Plus an Audio App for Afterwards
State Rooms entry with the palace's own audio guide and a royal-London audio app for the rest of the day, sold by Vox City Walks. Rated 4.6 from 157 reviews, from about $51 (both as listed in October 2026). Timed entry, summer season only, and the listing does not offer free cancellation. Starting from $51 per person.
Check Availability & BookCan't Make These Dates?
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Find a tour that fits your schedule. Dates and cancellation terms are on each listing.
Buckingham Palace Tickets FAQ
What each ticket costs, what it actually includes, where to buy it, and the one reason to buy direct instead of through us.
State Rooms entry with a royal-London audio app starts around $51 per person and the ticket-plus-guided-walk combination is about $92 (October 2026); a guided Changing of the Guard tour with no palace entry starts around $20; and watching the ceremony unguided costs nothing. At the gate, Royal Collection Trust's standard adult admission for 2026 is £32 in advance and £35 on the day. Reduced rates apply for 18–24s and children, under-5s are free but still need a ticket, and there is a £1 ticket scheme for visitors receiving qualifying UK benefits. Beyond that, the Garden Highlights Tour is a £15 per-adult add-on that must be booked together with a State Rooms ticket rather than bought alone, the guided East Wing Tour is £90 per adult, and the Royal Day Out is £65.70 adult in advance (Young Person 18–24 £42.70, Child 5–17 and disabled £32.80). Those pound figures were read on rct.uk on 1 August 2026; RCT revises prices between seasons, so confirm before booking. Dollar prices come from the tour listings, captured in 2026, and move over time.
Yes if your dates fall inside the summer opening and you want to see the interior; no if you are hoping for a glimpse of private royal life. Judged purely on money: about $51 on the platform, or £32 direct, buys entry to 19 rooms, roughly two to two and a half hours of visit on Royal Collection Trust's own estimate, a nine-language multimedia guide, and the garden walk out. That is not expensive for a major-city landmark interior, and reviewers of both platform tickets rate them 4.5 to 4.6 (October 2026). What tips it for some people and against it for others is what is absent — no live guide, no photography, no private apartments — plus a queue that reviewers put at around half an hour even with a booked ticket. If the summer window does not fit your trip, the honest answer is that a $20 guided guard-change walk gives more experience per dollar than anything else on this page.
A State Rooms entry ticket if you are here between 9 July and 27 September 2026; a guided Changing of the Guard tour at any other time. Within the summer window, the further choice is about what is bundled: Royal Collection Trust's plain ticket, sold direct on rct.uk at £32 in advance; the same entry with a royal-London audio app at about $51; or the same entry with a live guide for the streets outside at about $92 (prices as listed in October 2026). All three walk the identical route through the identical rooms, because guides are not permitted inside. Our State Rooms page compares the two platform tickets side by side.
Buy direct from Royal Collection Trust if any of three things apply to you — otherwise the platform is fine, and we will say so even though we earn a commission on the platform. Buy direct if: (1) you want the 1-Year Pass, since RCT lets you convert a ticket into a year of free re-admission by treating the purchase as a donation, and its terms explicitly exclude tickets booked through a tour operator or ticket agent; (2) you need a step-free access route or a complimentary companion ticket, both of which Royal Collection Trust's own ticket terms say must be booked directly with it; (3) you qualify for the £1 benefits ticket. Outside those cases the platform tickets are the same admission, priced in your own currency, with an audio app or a live guide bundled around them.
Royal Collection Trust says to allow between two and two and a half hours, and that is the figure to budget against. It covers the 19 State Rooms at your own pace plus the exit route, which is a half-kilometre gravel walk through the garden rather than a door. Reviewers report a range: one finished comfortably in an hour and a half, others use the full allowance. On top of that, add the queue — around thirty minutes is the figure reviewers keep citing, even with a pre-booked ticket. Admission is in narrow timed slots and late arrivals are not admitted, so arrive early rather than on time. The East Wing Highlights Tour adds about another hour.
The guided State Rooms combination carries free cancellation up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund, per its listing; the State Rooms ticket with the royal-London audio app does not offer free cancellation. Royal Collection Trust's direct-purchase terms are its own and differ, so check them if you buy on rct.uk. Whichever route you take, the ticket is for a specific timed slot — a refund policy is not the same thing as flexibility on the day, and late arrivals are not admitted.
No — general public access is limited to the summer opening, listed for 2026 as 9 July to 27 September. Seven days a week in July and August, Thursday to Monday in September. For the remaining forty-one weeks of the year the State Rooms are closed to general visitors, and only a small programme of guided tours runs on selected dates, sold direct by Royal Collection Trust in limited numbers. That is why this site treats the Changing of the Guard as the main event rather than the sideshow: it is the thing that is actually available when most people visit London.
Included, per its listing: State Rooms entry, the palace's own audio guide in nine languages, and a royal-London audio guide app in six languages. Excluded: a guided tour, and the headset and phone for the app; as an agent-bought ticket it cannot become a 1-Year Pass. Not stated on the listing but worth knowing from reviewers: no printed map or guide is handed out, and the on-site guidebook costs £7. There is a café on the garden route at the end. The audio guide has a separate children's version, which reviewers travelling with kids single out as genuinely good rather than a token.
Yes, and one of them is free. Watching the Changing of the Guard costs nothing at all — no ticket, no booking — and it is the single best free thing on a royal-London itinerary. A guided guard-change walk at about $20 buys commentary and, more usefully, positioning. Royal Collection Trust's £1 ticket scheme covers visitors on qualifying UK benefits for the interior itself. And if you are doing more than one royal site, the Royal Day Out combining the State Rooms, The King's Gallery and the Royal Mews is priced at £65.70 in advance with a 10% saving built in, which beats buying the three separately.
Yes. Entry is by timed slot, on-the-day tickets are priced higher than advance ones, and you need to arrive 15 minutes before your slot. Reviewers who pre-booked still queue about half an hour; reviewers who did not pre-book describe a much worse morning. The season is eleven weeks long and slots are finite, so the practical advice is to book as soon as your dates are firm and pick a free-cancellation product if they might change.
They are separate Royal Collection Trust attractions on Buckingham Palace Road with their own tickets and much longer seasons — both were listed as open daily at the time of writing, though the Royal Mews closes for part of the winter, so check the dates you are travelling. The Mews is a working stable and houses the 260-year-old Gold State Coach, with a free multimedia tour included. The King's Gallery runs changing exhibitions; the 2026 show marking the centenary of Queen Elizabeth II's birth was extended because of demand, with adult admission reported around £22. If you want all three, the Royal Day Out combined ticket is the cheaper route.
No to both. The Royal Collection Trust sells tickets direct at rct.uk. Every product listed here is sold through GetYourGuide.
Still have questions? Email us at info@buckingham-palace-tour.com