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Un des aspects les plus méconnus de Versailles est la façon dont furent financées les sommes énormes que Louis XIV et ses successeurs dépensèrent pour sa construction et son embellissement. Initialement, les coûts de construction étaient essentiellement une affaire privée : Versailles ne devait être qu'une résidence secondaire de Louis XIV, à laquelle on se référait comme à la « demeure du roi ». En conséquence, les premières dépenses furent financées en grande partie sur les fonds propres du roi, provenant de son apanage ainsi que des revenus de la Nouvelle-France, qui était une possession personnelle du roi et donc exemptée du contrôle des Parlements.

La construction du château de Versailles, tableau de Adam François van der Meulen.

Une fois la campagne de construction de Louis XIV commencée, la question devint davantage publique, particulièrement après que Colbert soit devenu ministre des Finances. Les dépenses concernant Versailles sont enregistrées dans le compendium portant le nom de Comptes des bâtiments du roi sous le règne de Louis XIV, qui fut édité et publié en cinq volumes par Jules Guiffrey au 19^e siècle. Ces registres contiennent des matériaux utilisables permettant de tracer toutes les dépenses pour des métiers allant des artistes aux piégeurs de taupes.

Pour compenser les coûts de Versailles durant les premières années du règne de Louis XIV, Colbert décida que ce palais devrait être la « vitrine de la France ». Pour cela, tous les matériaux utilisés dans la construction et la décoration devaient provenir de France. Comme, au 17^e siècle, Venise avait le monopole de la fabrication des miroirs, Colbert réussit à débaucher des artisans vénitiens pour fabriquer ceux qui devaient orner la Galerie des Glaces ; cependant, le gouvernement vénitien ordonna l'assassinat de ces artisans, pour que la technologie utilisée reste un secret de la République de Venise.

De même, pour décorer et meubler Versailles, Colbert nationalisa la fabrique de tapisseries possédée par la famille Gobelin, celle-ci devenant la Manufacture royale des Gobelins. En 1667, elle prit le nom Manufacture royale des Meubles de la Couronne ; les Gobelins étaient chargés de tous les besoins en tissus de décoration du palais, sous la supervision de Charles Le Brun.

Louis XIV visite les Gobelins avec Colbert, le 15 octobre 1667. Tapisserie de la série « Histoire du roi », conçue par Charles Le Brun, et tissée entre 1667 et 1672. Des objets de l'argenterie personnelle de Louis XIV apparaissent dans cette tapisserie.

One of the most costly elements in the furnishing of the Grands appartements during the early years of the personal reign of Louis XIV was the silver furniture, which can be taken as a standard – with other criteria – for determining a plausible cost for Versailles. The Comptes meticulously list the expenditures on the silver furniture – disbursements to artists, final payments, delivery – as well as descriptions and weight of items purchased. Entries for 1681 and 1682 concerning the silver balustrade used in the salon de Mercure serve as an example:

• Year 1681

II. 5 In anticipation: For the silver balustrade for the king's bedroom: 90,000 livres
II. 7 18 November to Sieur du Metz, 43,475 livres 5 sols for delivery to Sr. Lois and to Sr. de Villers for payment of 142,196 livres for the silver balustrade that they are making for the king's bedroom and 404 livres for tax: 48,861 livres 5 sol.
II. 15 16 June 1681 – 23 January 1682 to Sr. Lois and Sr. de Villers silversmiths on account for the silver balustrade that they are making for the king's use (four payments): 88,457 livres 5 sols.
II. 111 25 March – 18 April to Sr. Lois and Sr. de Villers silversmiths who are working on a silver balustrade for the king, for continued work (two payments): 40,000 livres

• Year 1682

II. 129 21 March to Sr. Jehannot de Bartillay 4,970 livres 12 sols for the delivery to Sr. Lois and de Villers silversmiths for, with 136,457 livres 5 sol to one and 25,739 livres 10 sols to another, making the 38 balusters, 17 pilasters, the base and the cornice for the balustrade for the château of Versailles weighing 4,076 marc at the rate of 41 livres the marc including 41 livres 2 sols for tax: 4,970 livres 12 sols.

Accordingly, the silver balustrade, which contained in excess of one ton of silver, cost in excess of 560,000 livres. It is difficult – if not impossible – to give an accurate rate of exchange between 1682 and today. However, Frances Buckland provides valuable information that provides an idea of the true cost of the expenditures at Versailles during the time of Louis XIV. In 1679, Mme de Maintenon stated that the cost of providing light and food for twelve people for one day amounted to slightly more than 14 livres. In December 1689, to defray the cost of the War of the League of Augsburg, Louis XIV ordered all the silver furniture and articles of silver at Versailles—including chamber pots—sent to the mint to be melted.

Clearly, the silver furniture alone represented a significant outlay in the finances of Versailles. While the decoration of the palace was costly, certain other costs were minimised. For example, labour for construction was often low, due largely to the fact that the army during times of peace and during the winter, when wars were not waged, was pressed into action at Versailles. Additionally, given the quality and uniqueness of the items produced at the Gobelins for use and display at Versailles, the palace served as a venue to showcase not only the success of Colbert's mercantilism, but also to display the finest that France could produce.

Costs of restoration programmes

The ravages of war and neglect over the centuries have left their mark on the palace and its park. Modern French governments of the post-World War II era have sought to repair these damages. They have on the whole been successful, but some of the more costly items, such as the vast array of fountains, have yet to be put back completely in service. As spectacular as they might seem now, they were even more extensive in the 18th century. The 18th-century waterworks at Marly— the Machine de Marly that fed the fountains— was possibly the biggest mechanical system of its time. The water came in from afar on monumental stone aqueduct which have long ago fallen in disrepair or been torn down. Some aqueducts were never completed for want of resources or due to the exigencies of war. The search for sufficient supplies of water was never fully realised even during the apogee of Versailles' glory as the seat of government, as the fountains could not be operated together satisfactorily for any significant periods of time.

The restoration initiatives launched by the Fifth Republic have proven to be perhaps more costly than the expenditures of the palace in the Ancien Régime. Starting in the 1950s, when the museum of Versailles was under the directorship of Gérald van der Kemp, the objective was to restore the palace to its state – or as close to it as possible – in 1789 when the royal family left the palace. Among the early projects was the repair of the roof over the Hall of Mirrors; the publicity campaign brought international attention to the plight of post-war Versailles and garnered much foreign money including a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Concurrently, in Russia, the restoration of the Pavlovsk Palace located outside of Leningrad – today's Saint Petersburg – brought the attention of French museum authorities, including the curators of Versailles.

Pavlovsk Palace was built by Catherine the Great's son Paul. The czarevitch and his wife, Marie Feodorovna, were avid francophiles, who, on a visit to France and Versailles in the 1780s, purchased great quantities of silk, which they later used to upholster furniture in Pavlosk. The palace survived the Russian Revolution intact – descendants of Paul I were living in the palace at the time the communists evicted them – however, during the Second World War, the furniture and artifacts housed in the palace, which had been transformed into a museum, were removed. In the process of evacuation the museum collections, remnants of the silks purchased by Paul I of Russia and Marie Feodorovna were found and conserved. After the war when Soviet authorities were restoring the palace, which had been gutted by the retreating Nazi forces, they recreated the silk fabrics by using the conserved 18th-century remnants.

La « grille royale », restaurée en 2009.

When the French authorities saw the results of Russian efforts and the high quality they were able to achieve, the French revived 18th-century weaving techniques so as to reproduce the silks used in the decoration of Versailles. The two greatest achievements of this initiative are seen today in wall hangings used in the restoration of the chambre de la reine in the grand appartement de reine and the chambre du roi in the appartement du roi. While the design used for the chambre du roi was, in fact, from a design that had been used during the Ancien Régime to decorate the chambre de la reine, it nevertheless represents a great achievement in the ongoing restoration at Versailles. Additionally, this project, which took over seven years to achieve, required several hundred kilograms of silver and gold to complete. One of the more costly endeavors for the museum and the government of France's Fifth Republic has been to repurchase as much of the original furnishings as possible. However, because furniture with a royal provenance – and especially furniture that was made for Versailles – is a highly sought after commodity on the international market, the museum has spent considerable funds on retrieving much of the palace's original furnishings/

In 2003, a new restoration initiative – the "Grand Versailles" project – was started, which necessitated unexpected repair and replantation of the gardens. The project will be on-going for the next seventeen years, funded with a state endowment of €135 million allocated for the first seven years. The project will address such concerns as security for the palace, and continued restoration of the bosquet des trois fontaines. Vinci SA underwrote the €12 million restoration project for the Hall of Mirrors, which was completed in 2006/

Estimates of the amount spent to build Versailles are speculative. An estimate in 2000 placed the amount spent on Versailles during the Ancien Régime as US$2 billion. This figure in all probability is an under-evaluation of the money spent on Versailles. France's Fifth Republic expenditures alone that have been directed to restoration and maintenance at Versailles undoubtedly surpass those of the Sun King.