London's National Gallery has made its collection audio guide free for all visitors for the first time, dropping a charge that previously ran to seven pounds. From 19 October, the 60-stop guide to the Trafalgar Square collection is available at no cost via visitors' smartphones, by scanning a QR code in the gallery or through a link on its website.

The guide features voices including writer and actor Stephen Fry, astrophysicist Becky Smethurst and the gallery's director, Gabriele Finaldi, who said the change was part of an effort to remove barriers at a time when art can feel inaccessible. Ticketed exhibitions, such as the current Renoir show, keep a separate paid audio guide, bookable with tickets or on arrival.

Free access has been provided through the gallery's partnership with Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app from Bloomberg Philanthropies, which is the gallery's digital innovation partner for 2026 to 2028. The relationship grew out of an earlier digital accelerator programme that ran from 2021 to 2024, and Bloomberg Connects already supports tours at institutions including the National Portrait Gallery and Dulwich Picture Gallery, as well as guides for around a thousand museums worldwide.

The move is a small but tangible access reform: a guide that once cost visitors money now sits alongside free admission as part of the core visit. For a national collection that draws millions of visitors, removing even a modest fee changes who can hear the stories behind the pictures, and signals how philanthropic digital partnerships are reshaping what museums offer without charge.