Michelangelo's David: Accademia Tickets, Hours and Tours

As of October 2026, seeing Michelangelo’s David means a ticket to the Galleria dell’Accademia, and this year it costs more. Since 1 February 2026 the full price has been €20, up from €16, and booking an entry time adds €4. The gallery opens Tuesday to Sunday from 8:15 am to 6:50 pm, with last entry at 6:10 pm. It is closed every Monday, and on 1 January and 25 December.

The statue and its copies

The gallery gives the David as 517 cm high including its carved base, and 5,560 kg. It describes the material only as white marble; according to studies, the block came from Carrara. The statue left Piazza della Signoria for good on the night of 31 July 1873. The David in front of Palazzo Vecchio today is a copy, as is the bronze one at Piazzale Michelangelo, and neither costs anything to see.

The rest of the gallery is easy to overlook. The listing on this page names Michelangelo’s Prisoners and St Matthew, works gathered from Florence’s art academies and from suppressed convents, and a collection of old musical instruments from the Cherubini Conservatory. The gallery itself dates from 1784, when Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo created the Academy of Fine Arts.

What a ticket costs in 2026

• Full price: €20, plus €4 to book an entry time; the fee applies to every ticket type.
• EU citizens from 18 until their 25th birthday pay €2, and so do citizens of Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Uruguay.
• Under-18s go free; children under 12 must come with an adult.
• New this year: €26 for the Accademia and the Bargello within 48 hours, and €38 for all the group’s open museums within 72 hours, which cannot be used on a Monday. Both carry the €4 booking fee.

B-Ticket is the only official online channel authorised by Italy’s Ministry of Culture, the gallery says, and Firenze Musei takes bookings by phone on +39 055 294883. Tickets bought online or by phone carry the visitor’s name. The name can be changed once, at least 24 hours ahead, and if it does not match your ID you are refused entry with no refund.

The free days still ahead in 2026 are Sunday 1 November, Wednesday 4 November and Sunday 6 December. On those days the booking service is switched off and everyone waits their turn at the entrance.

The 2026 rules for tour operators

The Accademia belongs to an institute that also runs the Bargello and the Medici Chapels, the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze e Musei del Bargello. On 24 July 2026 it adopted new ticket conditions. Tour operators may not advertise entry as “skip the line”, “fast track” or “priority entrance”, and they may sell the museums’ tickets only inside a package, with the ticket’s cost shown and no higher than its face value. They may not present themselves as official resellers either.

None of this changes what a reservation is for. The gallery’s own advice is to reserve, because without a reservation, it says, the wait for access may be long.

The timed entry on this page

The ticket on this page is a reserved entry time at the Accademia with a digital audio guide app, from $32 as of October 2026 and rated 4.5 from 21,643 reviews. It is marked Official ticket. It includes no live guide. You exchange the voucher at the gallery’s red point (the green point for bookings of seven or more) and can collect the ticket from 15 minutes before your slot. The slot is binding once booked, and anyone who misses it is refused entry, so leave a margin. Cancellation is free up to 24 hours before, and you need to bring a passport or ID card.

An entry bought directly from B-Ticket costs €20 plus the €4 fee in 2026. What the listing adds is the audio guide app, where the gallery’s own audio guide costs €6 at its bookshop, and its own cancellation terms.

If you want to see the David at your own pace, at a time you choose, with an app for commentary and a day’s notice to cancel, this is the ticket to book.

See dates for the timed entry →

Who needs a guide

Inside the Accademia only licensed professional guides may guide. Groups are limited to 20 plus the guide, and the museum makes headsets compulsory for groups of six or more. The two tours below add that guide, and both include the gallery ticket. They suit visitors who want the David explained by a person rather than an app, or who want the Uffizi on the same booking. If you only want to stand in front of the statue, the timed entry does that for less.

How long to allow

The guided tours listed here spend 45 minutes to an hour inside the Accademia. The gallery shuts its musical instrument rooms and its first-floor rooms at 6:40 pm, ten minutes before closing, so a late-afternoon slot gives you less time than it looks.

Bags matter too. There is no cloakroom, so large bags, backpacks and helmets are refused; the rules set a limit of 40 x 30 x 18 cm, and water bottles of up to half a litre are allowed. Luggage can be left at the MyAccademia shop.

Guided ways to see the David

THE TRAVELER TOURS’ guided tour with timed entry (from $50, 4.7 from 4,676 reviews) spends an hour in the gallery with a guide and a headset, in English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese or Italian. The guide waits at a meeting point that depends on the option you book, holding a The Traveler Tours sign. Arrive 15 minutes early, because latecomers are not admitted. After the tour you can stay on until closing.

To see the David and the Uffizi on one day, the Uffizi page lists three tours that do both, among them an art historian’s walk for nine guests at most that ends in the Accademia (from $149, 4.9 from 227 reviews). The dome climb is a separate booking: the Duomo page covers it, with tours only from operators on the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore’s 2026 list of authorised partners.