Paris 2024 Olympics: the cost to public finances has reached 6 billion euros

The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games cost nearly six billion euros of public money, a large part of which was devoted to the security of this extraordinary event, the Court of Auditors announced on Monday, June 23, in "an initial estimate."

The Court estimated "organisational expenditure at 2.77 billion euros", including 1.4 billion for security, and "infrastructure expenditure at 3.19 billion euros" .

This is an initial estimate of public costs, combining numerous expenditures by the State, local authorities and public companies: bonuses for police officers, construction of the Olympic Village or the Olympic Aquatic Centre in Saint-Denis, and the acceleration of work on metro line 14 in recent weeks to arrive on time near the Olympic Village.

No figures had yet been released, except from the mouth of the first president of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici, who had suggested on the radio in March 2024 that these Games could cost "between three, four, five billion" in public spending, while specifying that this would only be known at the end of the Games.

Until now, only the accounts of the Olympic Games Organising Committee (COJO) , with 4.4 billion in expenditure (76 million euros surplus) based almost entirely on private funding, and those of the Olympic Works Delivery Company (Solideo), including a public share, were known.

"This initial estimate is of increased interest in the context of preparations for the 2030 Winter Olympics," which will be held in the French Alps, the institution commented.

The public bill is a real headache to calculate, to track over several years, and with scopes to define. Should we include the additional anti-drone equipment purchased before the Olympics that will also be used afterwards? The Court of Auditors says yes.

A more detailed report will be published by October, as some expenditures are not yet fully known, such as those of local authorities, but also certain tax expenditures.

Similarly, due to "the unavailability of data" , it did not include "the positive and negative effects of the Games on economic activity" , which it also describes as "an undeniable popular and media success" . Another report on "legacy" will be published in 2026.

Among the largest public expenditures: those related to security, with a large number of law enforcement officers mobilized in a context of terrorist risk, which represented 1.4 billion euros (including bonuses of nearly 315 million euros for the police and the gendarmerie).

Given the shortage of private security agents, the government has also invested €78 million to train new personnel. This is followed by spending on transport and mobility: €570 million, including €335 million for "service reinforcements" from RATP and SNCF.

Regarding infrastructure, as of March 2025, the State and local authorities' share in Solideo is 1.65 billion euros.

There is some uncertainty regarding the Seine's swimmability , which has attracted €1.4 billion in public investment, but some of this can be attributed to European obligations. At this stage, the Court of Auditors estimates the costs of making the Seine swimmable attributable to the Games at "between €200 million and €1 billion ." Given "this uncertainty," these costs are not included in this initial assessment.

The Cojo, which will be officially liquidated on June 30, finds that the Court has cast its net too wide, with a "bias" at the risk of "creating a bias of perception" .

"A figure disproportionate to reality," its financial director, Fabrice Lacroix, told a few journalists, estimating the public bill to be "around two billion euros."

In his response to the Court of Auditors, the president of the Cojo, Tony Estanguet, regrets that "the positive economic impact of the Games" is not taken into account. "The rushed publication of this document will unfortunately introduce confusion into the public mind about the reality of this major event, which showcased the best of our country barely a year ago," he continues in this letter.