Paris Croissant Prices in 2026, Most Bakeries Still Charge 1.10 to 1.40 Euros While Palace Versions Pass 4
Paris has a reputation for expensive everything, and then there's the croissant. Walk into an ordinary neighbourhood boulangerie in 2026 and a butter croissant still costs somewhere between 1.10 and 1.40 euros. Stohrer on rue Montorgueil, open since 1730 and about as historic as a Paris bakery gets, charged 1.40 when a Barcelona newspaper's food writer compared the two cities' croissants.
That price has held even though the main ingredient hasn't. The national bakers' confederation says butter now makes up about 30 percent of what it costs to make a croissant, and butter has had a rough few years. Wholesale butter at Rungis rose about 40 percent in a year going into 2025, eggs followed, and bakers spent 2025 and 2026 warning about costs. The everyday croissant has only moved by a few cents.
Where the price jumps
The window is where the money is. A tart piled with raspberries, like the one above, or a cream cake behind the glass, sits in a different price world from the trays of viennoiserie on the counter. Pastry by the slice or by the individual cake is labour, fruit and display, and it's priced that way.
The same split runs through croissants. Once a pastry chef's name goes on the bag, the price stops following butter and starts following fame. Yann Couvreur sold a croissant at 1.80. Ritz Paris Le Comptoir, the hotel's pastry shop off Place Vendôme, charged 4 euros, and people queue for it. An oversized croissant at Polka went for 7.80. None of these are bad deals if you want the experience. They just aren't breakfast prices.
What a croissant buys you
A few things worth knowing before you order:
The word "croissant" alone can mean margarine. Ask for, or look for, "croissant au beurre" on the label.
Counter beats table. A coffee and croissant standing at a café counter costs a few euros. The same order at a table on a busy square can cost nearly double, and you're paying for the chair.
Prizes are a good guide and cost nothing extra. In May 2026 the Paris bakers' federation named the best butter croissant in Greater Paris, and it came from the Boulangerie du Sentier in the 2nd arrondissement. Prize-winning bakeries rarely charge palace prices.
Go early. Croissants are best within an hour or two of baking, and the good bakeries sell out of them before lunch.
For the cooking side of French pastry, and more on what goes into it, there's plenty on Peppers.org. Check the board at the counter before you order, since prices move a little every year and nobody posts them online.