Every 24-Hour Pharmacy in Barcelona (2026): Addresses, Maps, and How to Find One Open Now
Barcelona has roughly ten genuinely 24/7/365 pharmacies — not the fifteen or sixteen older guides still list — and reaching one at 3 a.m. is easier than you think, once you know which directory to trust.
Two completely different systems keep Barcelona supplied with medicine after dark, and conflating them is the single biggest reason travellers end up wandering the Eixample at 2 a.m. The first is the farmàcia de guàrdia — a legally mandated rotating duty roster in which every licensed pharmacy in the city takes its turn covering nights, Sundays, and holidays. The second is the small group of pharmacies that voluntarily stay open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, on top of the rotation.
Both dispense at the same nationally fixed prices, but only the second category can be relied upon by name and address — the guàrdia changes daily. This guide identifies the ten verified 24-hour pharmacies inside Barcelona's municipal boundary as of May 2026, explains the duty system that keeps roughly fifty additional pharmacies open across the city on any given night, and addresses several persistent myths that English-language travel content keeps repeating, including the much-cited "overnight surcharge" that doesn't actually exist for prescription medicines.
It also flags what visitors most need to know up front: Spain bans medicine sales outside pharmacies entirely, foreign prescriptions don't work at the counter, and Google Maps cannot reliably tell you which of Barcelona's 1,017 pharmacies is actually open right now. Every fact in what follows is sourced to a primary authority — the Col·legi de Farmacèutics de Barcelona (COFB), the Servei Català de la Salut (CatSalut), the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Agencia Española de Medicamentos (AEMPS), and the BOE and DOGC legal gazettes.
What "Open All Night" Really Means in Barcelona
The legal anchor is Article 2.4 of Llei 31/1991, de 13 de desembre, d'ordenació farmacèutica de Catalunya (still in force in May 2026, mirrored in the BOE as BOE-A-1992-2621), which requires "continuous pharmaceutical assistance" and authorises the Departament de Salut to regulate opening hours, urgency services, and temporary closures. The operational rules sit in Decret 321/1996, d'1 d'octubre, sobre horaris d'atenció al públic, serveis d'urgència, vacances i tancament temporal voluntari de les oficines de farmàcia, which fixes the daytime urgency band at 09:00–22:00 and the nighttime band at 22:00–09:00, mandates that every pharmacy participate in the rotation, and imposes the signage rules described below. Decret 12/1992 delegated day-to-day management of the rotation to the four Catalan pharmacy colleges — in Barcelona's case, the COFB.
The practical taxonomy of late-night pharmacy access in Barcelona breaks into three categories. Permanent 24-hour pharmacies stay open every day of the year by their own choice, on top of any guàrdia obligations. Guàrdia de nit pharmacies are on the rotating night roster between 22:00 and 09:00 — different addresses every night. Standard pharmacies close around 22:00 and post a sign on the door directing you to the nearest open option. Knowing which category you're dealing with at any given moment is the difference between five extra minutes of walking and forty-five minutes of confused taxi rides.
The Institutions That Run the System
Barcelona's pharmacy network is administered through a layered structure that many tourists never see and that locals largely take for granted.
The Col·legi de Farmacèutics de Barcelona (COFB), founded in 1898 and based at C/ Girona 64-66, 08009 Barcelona, is the public-law professional corporation to which every practising community pharmacist in the province must belong. As of year-end 2024 it had 9,344 colegiados, second only to Madrid's college nationally. The COFB approves the guàrdia rotation, supervises deontological compliance, and runs the only live, authoritative pharmacy-finder for the province: FARMAGUIA, at farmaguia.net, available in Catalan, Spanish, and English. The college's institutional site is cofb.org — the older "farmaceuticosdebarcelona.com" address that circulates in tourist forums is informal and not the registered domain.
On the public side, the Servei Català de la Salut (CatSalut) finances the prestación farmacéutica, manages the Rec@t electronic prescription that now carries roughly 96% of all SNS prescriptions in Catalonia, and operates 061 CatSalut Respon, the 24-hour multilingual health hotline that doubles as the easiest spoken-word way to find a pharmacy at 4 a.m. The Departament de Salut de la Generalitat sets pharmacy policy through DOGC decrees. The Agencia Española de Medicamentos y Productos Sanitarios (AEMPS, aemps.gob.es) authorises medicines, classifies them as prescription-only or OTC, and publishes the customs rules travellers need before flying in with controlled medication. At national level the four Catalan colleges federate into the Consell de Col·legis Farmacèutics de Catalunya (CCFC), which feeds into the Consejo General de Colegios Oficiales de Farmacéuticos (CGCOF), operator of portalfarma.com.
How the Duty Rotation Actually Works
Under Decret 321/1996, every pharmacy in Barcelona is obliged to take its turn on the rotation; non-participation requires authorised justification. The COFB's Junta de Govern approves the schedule, distributing duty across the city's àrees bàsiques de salut (ABS) and sanitary sectors. Shifts may be assigned daily or weekly, and the decree fixes urban-density minimums: at least one daytime urgency pharmacy per three ABS or per 75,000 inhabitants, and a nocturnal minimum that scales with population — one for cities up to 100,000, two up to 275,000, and an additional pharmacy per further 160,000 inhabitants. Barcelona therefore has dozens of guàrdia pharmacies open on any given night. The COFB's 2023 internal memoria recorded 19,398 night-guard services across the province in one year, averaging 53 pharmacies on duty each night.
Three public channels expose this rotation in real time. FARMAGUIA (farmaguia.net) plots open pharmacies on a live map and filters by date, time, district, and specialist service. The 061 CatSalut Respon mobile app mirrors the same data and is the easiest option once you're already on the street. And every closed pharmacy in the city is legally required, under Decret 321/1996, to display on its façade, visibly, the address of the nearest on-duty pharmacy. The on-duty pharmacy itself signals its status with an illuminated green Maltese cross — the creu de Malta lluminosa encesa. If you find yourself outside a darkened pharmacy door at 1 a.m., the printed sheet by the entrance is doing exactly what the law tells it to.
The Overnight Surcharge That Doesn't Exist
One of the most persistent myths in English-language Barcelona guides is that night pharmacies levy a regulated recargo por servicio de urgencia of roughly €1.30–€1.50 on every dispensation. We could not verify this charge from any primary Catalan source, and the regulatory architecture in fact rules it out for prescription medicines.
Spanish medicine prices are fixed nationally by the Comisión Interministerial de Precios de los Medicamentos under articles 94–99 of Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2015 (the consolidated medicines law, BOE-A-2015-8343). A registered medicine's PVP is the PVP whether it is dispensed at 11 a.m. or 4 a.m.; the pharmacist cannot legally alter it. Industry sources confirm explicitly that Spanish duty pharmacies do not add a customer surcharge to SNS-prescribed medicines at night. The Catalan "euro per recepta" introduced in 2012 by Llei 5/2012 was suspended by the Tribunal Constitucional in 2014 and has never returned. The various nocturnidad supplements of €1.75/hour that appear in some search results are internal labour-cost line items under the XXV Convenio Colectivo Estatal de Oficinas de Farmacia — paid to the pharmacy's employees, not collected from patients.
The one place where genuine price variation creeps in is non-medicament parafarmacia (cosmetics, supplements, baby formula, sun cream) sold from the same counter. These products have free retail pricing, and central or tourist-zone 24-hour pharmacies do tend to charge noticeably more than a residential pharmacy in Sant Andreu. For prescription drugs themselves, what you pay at 03:00 at Farmàcia Clapés is the same PVP a CatSalut beneficiary pays at midday three streets away. The 22:00–09:00 band defined by Decret 321/1996 is the duty-roster timing, not a price-surcharge window.
Need a Spanish prescription tonight?
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Get a prescription →From €15 · Licensed Spanish physicians · Valid at any Spanish pharmacy
The Ten 24-Hour Pharmacies You Can Actually Rely On
Cross-referencing the Ajuntament de Barcelona's official directory (which flags genuine 24h pharmacies with the suffix "*24 hores"), each pharmacy's own current website, commercial databases, and recent 2024–2026 Google reviews and listings, ten pharmacies inside Barcelona's municipal boundary operate permanently 24/7/365 in May 2026. Several "famous 24h" addresses that still appear in travel blogs have quietly reduced their hours — those are flagged separately below.
| Pharmacy | Address · District | Metro · Phone |
|---|---|---|
| Farmàcia Clapés AntojaThe city's flagship tourist 24h. Opposite La Boqueria. English-speaking staff. Window service after 22:00. | La Rambla 98, 08002Ciutat Vella / Barri Gòtic | Liceu (L3)+34 933 012 843 |
| Farmàcia Torres"Farmacia Abierta 24 Horas". SPD service, wheelchair accessible. | C/ Aribau 62, 08011Eixample / Antiga Esquerra | Universitat (L1/L2)+34 934 539 220 |
| Farmàcia Garcia (Aragó 1)Closest 24h to Sants Estació and Plaça Espanya. | C/ Aragó 1, 08015Eixample / Nova Esquerra | Tarragona (L3)+34 932 296 070 |
| Farmàcia Laguna VentosaEffectively the Sagrada Família pharmacy. ~150 m from Plaça Gaudí. | C/ Provença 459, 08025Eixample / Sagrada Família | Sagrada Família (L2/L5)+34 934 551 207 |
| Farmàcia Hormigós PérezThe only 24h serving Les Corts and Camp Nou. ~700 m from the stadium. | Riera Blanca 191–193, 08014Sants-Montjuïc / La Bordeta | Plaça de Sants (L1/L5)+34 933 321 595 |
| Farmàcia Boada i SolerOperating over 90 years. Strong in homeopathy and fórmulas magistrales. | Plaça de la Bonanova 6, 08022Sarrià–Sant Gervasi / La Bonanova | La Bonanova (FGC L6)+34 934 178 032 |
| Farmàcia Boquer TorrensOrtopèdia and homeopathy. Buses 58, 73, 75, 85. | Passeig de Sant Gervasi 53, 08022Sarrià–Sant Gervasi / La Bonanova | Plaça Molina (FGC L6/L7)+34 934 170 240 |
| Farmàcia Penella PerisFormerly Cervera Bech. Listed 24h by the Ajuntament; call ahead at night — one aggregator reports reduced hours. | C/ Muntaner 254, 08021Sarrià–Sant Gervasi / Galvany | Gràcia (FGC) / Hospital Clínic (L5)+34 932 000 996 |
| Farmàcia Albert Diloy"Maragall 24 hores". The only 24h in Horta-Guinardó. Serves Park Güell and Hospital Sant Pau. | Passeig Maragall 177, 08041Horta-Guinardó / El Guinardó | Maragall (L4/L5)+34 933 519 507 |
| Farmàcia Biosca & Fernández24h since 2002. Closest permanent 24h to Diagonal Mar and the eastern beaches. | Rambla Guipúscoa 67–69, 08020Sant Martí / Sant Martí de Provençals | Bac de Roda (L2)+34 933 144 820 |
All ten accept Visa and Mastercard; American Express acceptance is inconsistent but confirmed at Clapés. After about 22:00, essentially every one of them switches to ventanilla nocturna — window service: you ring the bell at a metal grate, speak to the pharmacist through a microphone hatch, and pay through the slot. Bring your prescription on paper or in the La Meva Salut app.
Pharmacies that are no longer 24-hour
A few names that English-language sources still list as 24-hour but are not in May 2026:
Farmàcia Álvarez at Passeig de Gràcia 26 was for decades a famous 24h address. It now operates Monday–Friday 08:00–22:00, Saturday 09:00–22:00, closed Sunday. Farmàcia La Pedrera (Castells Soler) at Passeig de Gràcia 90, next to Casa Milà, still markets itself as "open 365 days a year" on its own website, but multiple 2024–2025 trade sources and Google reviews using past tense indicate operating hours of roughly 07:30–22:00. It is not flagged on the Ajuntament's "*24 hores" list. Farmàcia Chacón (Indústria 128) and Farmàcia Sunyer (Pg. Sant Joan 111) are similarly off the permanent-24h list. There is no 24h pharmacy at Aragó 222 or 224.
The trend, documented in the Catalan pharmacy trade press, is gentle contraction: from twelve or thirteen permanent 24h pharmacies in the mid-2010s to ten today, attributed to staffing costs, security incidents (concentrated on La Rambla), and the unfunded nature of guàrdia duty.
Barcelona's Ten Districts, Pharmacy by Pharmacy
Barcelona has approximately 1,017 community pharmacies inside the city limits, per the CGCOF Estadísticas de Colegiados y Farmacias Comunitarias 2024 published in July 2025 and confirmed by COFB. The widely cited "≈1,063" figure circulating in older content is outdated. Catalonia as a whole counts 3,290 pharmacies and Spain 22,231. With roughly 1.7 million residents inside the municipal boundary, Barcelona's density is around 60 pharmacies per 100,000 inhabitants — well above the European mid-range of about 32/100k but, perhaps surprisingly, only mid-table by Spanish standards. The province carries an average of 2,471 inhabitants per pharmacy.
District-by-district public counts vary because the COFB does not publish a district-level breakdown; the figures below are best public approximations rather than official statistics.
| District | Population / pharmacies | 24h pharmacies |
|---|---|---|
| Ciutat VellaLa Rambla, Gòtic, El Born, El Raval, Barceloneta | 111,155 · ~65 | Clapés Antoja |
| EixamplePlaça Catalunya, Passeig de Gràcia, Sagrada Família | 274,636 · ~167 | Torres, Garcia, Laguna Ventosa |
| Sants-MontjuïcSants Estació, Plaça Espanya, Poble Sec, Fira | 191,391 · ~115 | Hormigós Pérez |
| Les CortsCamp Nou, ESADE, Diagonal business spine | 83,551 · ~51 | None — uses Hormigós |
| Sarrià–Sant GervasiBonanova to Galvany, Pg. de Sant Gervasi | 151,890 · ~94 | Boada, Boquer, Penella |
| GràciaVila de Gràcia, Park Güell southern edge | 125,787 · ~76 | None — rotation only |
| Horta-GuinardóHospital Sant Pau, Park Güell main entrance | 180,138 · ~108 | Albert Diloy (Maragall) |
| Nou BarrisNorthern residential | 179,590 · n/a | None — rotation only |
| Sant AndreuNorthern residential | 155,470 · n/a | None — rotation only |
| Sant MartíPoblenou, 22@, Glòries, Diagonal Mar, eastern beaches | 249,206 · ~149 | Biosca & Fernández |
If you're orienting by landmark
| If you're near... | Nearest 24-hour pharmacy |
|---|---|
| La Rambla, Cathedral, Plaça Reial | Farmàcia Clapés Antoja (La Rambla 98) |
| Casa Batlló, Casa Milà, Passeig de Gràcia | Farmàcia Torres (Aribau 62) or Farmàcia Garcia (Aragó 1) |
| Sagrada Família | Farmàcia Laguna Ventosa (Provença 459) |
| Sants Estació, Plaça Espanya | Farmàcia Garcia (Aragó 1) |
| Camp Nou, Les Corts | Farmàcia Hormigós (Riera Blanca 191) |
| Park Güell (Olot entrance) | Farmàcia Albert Diloy (Pg. Maragall 177) |
| Park Güell (Vallcarca entrance) | Rotation only — use FARMAGUIA |
| Glòries, Diagonal Mar, Poblenou | Farmàcia Biosca & Fernández (Rambla Guipúscoa 67–69) |
| Barceloneta, W Barcelona | No 24h within 1.5 km — taxi or Nitbus to Clapés on La Rambla |
| Hospital Clínic | Penella Peris (Muntaner 254) or Torres (Aribau 62) |
| Hospital del Mar (Vila Olímpica) | Rotation only — use FARMAGUIA |
What You Can and Cannot Buy After Dark
Two facts surprise nearly every North American or British visitor on their first pharmacy run. The first is that Spain enforces an absolute pharmacy monopoly on medicine sales: there is no Tesco-aisle paracetamol, no 7-Eleven ibuprofen, no Walmart cold-and-flu shelf. Even basic analgesics must come from a licensed farmacia. The second is that Spain reclassified several formerly easygoing OTC products as prescription-only in a 2015 reform, including paracetamol 1 g, ibuprofen 600 mg, salbutamol inhalers (Ventolin), and most single-agent pseudoephedrine.
Available without a prescription, day or night
| Medication | Common Spanish brands |
|---|---|
| Paracetamol 500/650 mgPain relief, fever | Gelocatil, Termalgin, Apiretal |
| Ibuprofen 400 mgPain, inflammation | Neobrufen, Espidifen |
| AspirinPain, fever | Aspirina |
| LoperamideDiarrhoea | Fortasec |
| Cetirizine, loratadineAntihistamines | Alercina, Virlix, Civeran, Clarityne |
| AntacidsHeartburn, indigestion | Almax, Rennie |
| Levonorgestrel emergency contraceptionOTC since September 2009. No age limit. | NorLevo, Postinor |
| Ulipristal emergency contraceptionOTC since March 2015. | EllaOne |
Requires a Spanish prescription, no exceptions
All antibiotics (amoxicillin, azithromycin, clavulanic acid combinations) under strictly enforced SEVEM verification rules since February 2019; all combined oral contraceptive pills; all sleeping pills (zolpidem / Stilnox); all benzodiazepines (Valium, Trankimazin); all opioids; methylphenidate and other ADHD medications; salbutamol and other inhaled bronchodilators; metamizole (Nolotil); and high-dose NSAIDs. Pseudoephedrine as a single agent is generally Rx, but several combination products (Reactine, Rinobactil, Rino-Ebastel) remain OTC.
Spanish pharmacists practise under two doctrinal labels worth knowing. Dispensación informada is the legal obligation to dispense any medicine with appropriate verbal information about its use. Indicación farmacéutica is the formal professional service in which a pharmacist, without a doctor's prescription, evaluates minor self-limiting symptoms — cold, mild headache, simple gastroenteritis, allergic rhinitis, sunburn, insect bites — and recommends an OTC product. Pharmacists cannot diagnose disease or write prescriptions; for anything beyond minor symptoms, they will refer you to a CAP, a hospital, 061, or 112. Every practising community pharmacist in Barcelona Province holds a five-year Grado en Farmacia and mandatory COFB membership.
Need an antibiotic, an inhaler, or any prescription medication?
If your home-country prescription won't work in Spain, PrescribeMe connects you with a licensed Spanish physician online. Consultation, valid Spanish e-prescription, redeemable at any of the pharmacies in this directory.
Get a prescription →From €15 · Licensed Spanish physicians · Valid at any Spanish pharmacy
Paying, Insuring, and Speaking English at the Counter
Card payment is effectively universal in Barcelona pharmacies — debit, credit, contactless, Apple Pay, and Google Pay all work, and a tiny minority of older neighbourhood farmacias that remain cash-only will not be among the 24-hour list. International travel insurance is almost never accepted for direct billing at a retail pharmacy counter; the established practice is to pay, keep the ticket de farmacia receipt, and claim reimbursement at home.
For European visitors the EHIC and UK GHIC matter, but with an important catch. They entitle the holder to the same pharmacy co-payment as a Spanish resident — but only when accompanied by a Spanish public-system prescription issued by a doctor working inside the Spanish national health system. An EHIC or GHIC presented with a UK, German, or French prescription does not trigger discounted pricing; under EU cross-border prescription rules you pay full retail. A pure OTC purchase always costs the unsubsidised retail price.
For SNS-prescribed medicines the co-payment structure (set by Real Decreto 16/2012) ranges from 0% for low-income and unemployed beneficiaries, through approximately 10% capped monthly for pensioners (€8.23–€18.52 depending on income band), to 40–60% for active workers (60% above €100,000 annual income). A tourist with a foreign prescription pays the full regulated retail price — which, thanks to Spain's price-ceiling regime under RDLeg 1/2015, is usually a fraction of equivalent US private retail and broadly comparable to UK private pricing.
English-speaking staff are the norm at the three most tourist-facing 24-hour pharmacies — Clapés on La Rambla, Laguna Ventosa at Sagrada Família, and Torres on Aribau — and unreliable but possible elsewhere. There is no official COFB register of English-capable pharmacies; the best fallback is to show the medicine name on your phone, since Spanish pharmacists are trained on international nonproprietary names (INNs) and the AEMPS CIMA database recognises virtually every brand sold in the EU.
Getting There at 3 a.m.
Barcelona's transport network closes at predictable hours that are worth committing to memory before your trip.
| Mode | Hours | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Metro (TMB)All lines | Sun–Thu 05:00–00:00Fri 05:00–02:00Sat continuous | Continuous on New Year's Eve, Sant Joan, La Mercè, Festa Major de Gràcia. |
| NitbusNight bus network | ~22:00–06:00 nightly | 17 lines (N0–N17). All except N0 pass Plaça Catalunya. ~20 min frequency. T-casual valid. |
| Official taxisBlack-and-yellow, ~11,000 citywide | 24/7 | Card payment mandatory. T-2 night rate applies 20:00–08:00 weekdays and all weekends/holidays. |
| Free Now, Uber, Cabify, PideTaxiApps | 24/7 | Uber in Barcelona uses licensed taxis, not private VTC. Tariffs identical. |
| BicingPublic bike-share | 24/7 | Requires DNI/NIE or residency — not practical for short-stay visitors. |
Rough night taxi fares from Plaça Catalunya at the T-2 rate (€1.48–€1.66 per kilometre, €2.55–€2.80 flagfall): about €8–€10 to Hospital Clínic, €9–€11 to Hospital del Mar, €10–€13 to Hospital Sant Pau, €15–€20 to Vall d'Hebron, and €39–€45 to the airport (with the airport supplement). The Nitbus line N17 connects Plaça Catalunya to the airport in 50–55 minutes.
When a Pharmacy Isn't Enough
A 24-hour pharmacy can dispense a salbutamol inhaler or a course of paracetamol against a Spanish prescription; it cannot stitch a wound, scan for appendicitis, or treat anaphylaxis. The Catalan public system gives visitors three escalation tiers above pharmacy advice.
Dial 112 — free, multilingual, pan-European — for any life-threatening situation: chest pain, stroke symptoms, severe bleeding, anaphylaxis, severe trauma, breathing difficulty, suspected poisoning, or unconsciousness. Dial 061 (CatSalut Respon) for 24-hour non-emergency health advice, including help finding the nearest open pharmacy or urgent care centre; from abroad, +34 933 038 158. The CAP (Centre d'Atenció Primària) network covers primary care across the city, and the larger CAPs operate CUAP urgent-care wings, some 24-hour; walk-in is permitted, and tourists with EHIC/GHIC are billed at resident rates.
24-hour hospital emergency departments in Barcelona
| Hospital | Address · Metro | Phone |
|---|---|---|
| Hospital ClínicPublic, major teaching hospital | C/ Villarroel 170, 08036Hospital Clínic (L5) | +34 932 275 400 |
| Hospital del MarPublic. Closest to Barceloneta/Vila Olímpica. | Passeig Marítim 25-29, 08003Ciutadella–Vila Olímpica (L4) | +34 932 483 000 |
| Hospital Sant PauPublic. UNESCO-listed modernist campus. | C/ Sant Quintí 89, 08041Sant Pau–Dos de Maig (L5) | +34 935 537 000 |
| Hospital Vall d'HebronCatalonia's largest hospital complex. | Pg. Vall d'Hebron 119-129, 08035Vall d'Hebron (L3/L5) | +34 934 893 000 |
| Clínica Sagrada FamiliaPrivate. Foreign-patient service with insurance direct billing. | C/ Torras i Pujalt 1, 08022El Putxet (FGC) | +34 936 029 456 |
Present EHIC or GHIC plus passport on arrival at any public hospital and you will be treated under the SNS at resident rates — generally free for emergency care, with co-payment on any prescribed medication. EHIC/GHIC does not work in private hospitals or in the private wings of public hospitals; confirm "asistencia sanitaria pública" before signing anything.
For Visitors from the US, UK, Ireland, and Australia
Your home-country prescription does not work directly at a Spanish pharmacy. A UK NHS prescription, a US doctor's script, an Irish HSE script, or an Australian PBS script will not be dispensed at the Farmàcia Clapés counter — Spanish pharmacists are legally required to dispense only against a Spanish receta (paper or Rec@t electronic) or an EU cross-border prescription conforming to Directive 2011/24/EU (which post-Brexit UK prescriptions generally do not). The practical options are to obtain a Spanish prescription from a CAP, a private GP, or a licensed Spanish telemedicine service.
Brand-name translations
| Home brand | Active ingredient | Common Spanish brand |
|---|---|---|
| Tylenol / Panadol | Paracetamol | Gelocatil, Termalgin, Apiretal |
| Advil / Nurofen | Ibuprofen | Neobrufen, Espidifen |
| Aleve | Naproxen (Rx-only in Spain) | Naproxeno |
| Benadryl | Diphenhydramine (uncommon in Spain) | Use cetirizine (Alercina, Zyrtec) or loratadine (Civeran, Clarityne) |
| Pepto-Bismol | Bismuth subsalicylate (unavailable) | Almax, Aerored, Smecta |
| NyQuil | Multi-ingredient (no direct match) | Frenadol, Couldina, Pharmagrip |
| Sudafed | Pseudoephedrine | Reactine, Rinobactil (combination OTC) |
| Imodium / Lomotil | Loperamide | Fortasec |
| Ambien | Zolpidem (Rx-only) | Stilnox |
| Valium / Xanax | Diazepam / alprazolam (strictly Rx) | Valium, Trankimazin |
| Adderall | Amphetamine salts (unavailable) | Methylphenidate: Rubifén, Concerta, Medikinet. Lisdexamfetamine: Elvanse. |
Tools and Directories Worth Bookmarking
The single most useful Barcelona pharmacy tool for visitors is FARMAGUIA at farmaguia.net/desktop/en/: the COFB's live, English-language, real-time map of every open pharmacy in the province, filterable by date, time, and service. The 061 CatSalut Respon app carries the same data and is the easiest option in motion. The Generalitat's medicaments.gencat.cat carries a cercador that defers to FARMAGUIA as the authoritative source, plus open-data downloads of every pharmacy in Catalonia. portalfarma.com and farmaceuticos.com (CGCOF) cover the national picture but, for Barcelona, simply route back to COFB.
Avoid relying on Google Maps for after-hours questions: it displays scheduled business hours and cannot represent the rotating guàrdia, so a pharmacy on duty tonight may still show "Closed" and one closed tonight may still show "Open". The legally mandated printed sheet on every closed pharmacy door, listing the nearest on-duty pharmacy, is the offline backup that always works.
What Is Genuinely Ambiguous, Recently Changed, or Contested
A few areas of this topic deserve explicit transparency about the limits of public information or recent change.
The exact list of permanent 24h pharmacies fluctuates. Pharmacy hours change without notice, and Spain has no central registry of "24-hour pharmacies" specifically — only of pharmacies and their declared opening hours, which the pharmacy can modify. The ten verified in this guide are cross-checked across the Ajuntament's guia.barcelona.cat directory (which uses the "*24 hores" suffix), each pharmacy's own current website where one exists, and recent Google Business listings. Three (Penella Peris, Boada i Soler, Boquer Torrens) carry conflicting data points across sources; call before relying on them.
The new Spanish medicines law is pending. The Anteproyecto de Ley de los Medicamentos y Productos Sanitarios approved by Spain's Council of Ministers on 8 April 2025 introduces nurse and physiotherapist prescribing, updates the national reference-price system, and accelerates generics and biosimilars. As of May 2026 it remains in parliamentary process. Likewise, the CCFC has been formally negotiating a new Llei d'Ordenació i Atenció Farmacèutica de Catalunya to replace the 1991 statute. Both are pending and could change the regulatory framing of duty services within the next year.
The overnight surcharge. As covered in detail above, no current Catalan source verifies a regulated price supplement on prescription medicines for night service. If a reader has direct documentary evidence to the contrary — a specific Generalitat resolution, a posted price list, a current receipt — we would update this guide. As of May 2026, we treat the claim as not substantiated.
The "098" hotline. Older travel content references a "098" number for finding duty pharmacies. We could not find any reference to this number in COFB, CatSalut, or Generalitat materials. It appears to be either a defunct service or a confusion with another regional system.
Decret 40/2017. This citation appears in some online materials. It does not appear in DOGC or Portal Jurídic as a Catalan pharmacy regulation. The pharmacy-relevant Catalan instruments currently in force are Llei 31/1991, Decret 12/1992, Decret 321/1996, and (for SPD only) Decret 15/2025.
FAQ
How many 24-hour pharmacies are there in Barcelona?
Approximately ten pharmacies inside Barcelona's municipal boundary operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year as of 2026. Several addresses listed as 24-hour in older travel guides have since reduced their hours. On top of these permanent 24-hour pharmacies, roughly fifty more rotate into the COFB-organised farmàcia de guàrdia duty roster each night, covering every district.
Do Barcelona pharmacies charge a surcharge at night?
No. Spanish medicine prices are fixed nationally by the Comisión Interministerial de Precios de los Medicamentos under articles 94–99 of Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2015. The price of a prescription medicine is the same at 4 a.m. as at 11 a.m. Non-medicinal parafarmacia products (cosmetics, supplements, sun cream) have free retail pricing and can cost more in tourist-area pharmacies, but prescription drugs themselves do not carry a night surcharge.
Can I use my US, UK, Irish, or Australian prescription in Barcelona?
Generally no. Spanish pharmacists dispense against a Spanish receta (paper or electronic Rec@t) or an EU cross-border prescription compliant with Directive 2011/24/EU. Post-Brexit UK prescriptions, US scripts, Irish HSE scripts, and Australian PBS scripts do not qualify. The practical options are to visit a CAP (primary care centre), a private clinic, or a licensed Spanish telemedicine service to obtain a valid Spanish prescription.
What is a farmàcia de guàrdia?
A farmàcia de guàrdia is a duty pharmacy on the rotating roster mandated by Catalan law. Under Decret 321/1996, every pharmacy in Barcelona is obliged to take its turn covering nights (22:00–09:00), Sundays, and public holidays. The Col·legi de Farmacèutics de Barcelona organises the rotation. Every closed pharmacy must display, on its façade, the address of the nearest on-duty pharmacy.
How do I find an open pharmacy in Barcelona right now?
Use FARMAGUIA at farmaguia.net, the official live finder run by the Col·legi de Farmacèutics de Barcelona. It plots every open pharmacy in real time, filterable by date, time, and service, in Catalan, Spanish, and English. The 061 CatSalut Respon mobile app provides the same data. Google Maps is unreliable for after-hours pharmacy questions because it cannot represent the rotating duty system.
Are airport pharmacies open 24 hours?
No. Pharmacies at Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN) are not 24-hour. Per Aena's published schedule, T1 Arrivals and T1 Departures pharmacies operate roughly 07:00–20:30, and T2B operates 08:30–20:00 weekdays and shorter hours on weekends. For a late-night arrival needing medicine immediately, travel into the city via Aerobús or rodalies train and use one of the 24-hour pharmacies listed in this guide.
Can I buy antibiotics over the counter in Spain?
No. All antibiotics require a valid Spanish prescription, and the rule has been strictly enforced through the SEVEM verification system since February 2019. Pharmacies face significant fines for dispensing antibiotics without a prescription. This applies day and night at 24-hour pharmacies.
Is the morning-after pill available at night without a prescription?
Yes. Levonorgestrel-based emergency contraception (NorLevo, Postinor) has been available without a prescription in Spain since September 2009, and ulipristal acetate (EllaOne) since March 2015. There is no age restriction and no consultation requirement. Any 24-hour pharmacy in Barcelona will dispense it at 4 a.m.
Does my EHIC or UK GHIC work at a Barcelona pharmacy?
The EHIC and UK GHIC entitle holders to the same pharmacy co-payment as a Spanish resident, but only when accompanied by a Spanish public-system prescription issued by a doctor working inside the Spanish national health system. An EHIC or GHIC presented with a UK, German, or French prescription does not trigger discounted pricing. Pure over-the-counter purchases always cost the full retail price.
What's the nearest 24-hour pharmacy to my hotel?
For La Rambla, the Gothic Quarter, and Plaça Reial: Farmàcia Clapés Antoja at La Rambla 98. For Passeig de Gràcia and Casa Batlló: Farmàcia Torres at C/ Aribau 62 or Farmàcia Garcia at C/ Aragó 1. For Sagrada Família: Farmàcia Laguna Ventosa at C/ Provença 459. For Sants Estació: Farmàcia Garcia at C/ Aragó 1. For Camp Nou and Les Corts: Farmàcia Hormigós at Riera Blanca 191. For Diagonal Mar and Poblenou: Farmàcia Biosca & Fernández at Rambla Guipúscoa 67–69. For Barceloneta: there is no 24-hour pharmacy nearby; take a taxi or Nitbus to Clapés on La Rambla.
What should I do in a medical emergency rather than a pharmacy question?
Dial 112 for life-threatening emergencies — free, multilingual, pan-European. Dial 061 (CatSalut Respon) for 24-hour non-emergency health advice in multiple languages. For walk-in urgent care, the CUAP centres operate within several CAPs across the city. The major 24-hour A&E hospitals are Hospital Clínic, Hospital del Mar, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, and Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron. EHIC and GHIC are accepted at public hospitals for emergency care at Spanish-resident rates.
Get a valid Spanish prescription, online, from a licensed physician
If you're in Barcelona and your home-country prescription won't work at the counter, PrescribeMe is an online consultation with a licensed Spanish doctor registered with the Colegio Oficial de Médicos. Valid e-prescription, redeemable at any pharmacy in Spain — including every 24-hour pharmacy in this guide.
Get a prescription →From €15 · Licensed Spanish physicians · Valid at any Spanish pharmacy