How the maths works
For packs, one cigarette costs the pack price divided by the number in the pack. Multiply by how many you smoke a day, then by 365 for a year. A month here is a year divided by 12.
For rolling tobacco, one roll-up costs the pouch price divided by the pouch weight, times the grams in each roll-up, plus papers and filters. Ten years “with prices rising” adds your yearly price rise to each year in turn.
An example: 10 a day from a 20-pack at $10.15 is about $5.08 a day, $1,852 a year and $18,524 over ten years at today’s price.
What a pack costs right now
Prices depend heavily on where you live, mostly because of tax.
| Where | Pack of 20 | Source |
|---|---|---|
| USA, national average | about $10.15 | Tobacco Free Kids, 2026 |
| Missouri (cheapest state) | about $8.01 | Tobacco Free Kids |
| New York (most expensive state) | about $14.83 | Tobacco Free Kids |
| UK, 20 king size | about £16.60 (Jan 2025) | ONS price data |
The US average is weighted by sales and includes state sales tax, though most city and county taxes aren’t included. Some cities, such as Chicago, add their own taxes on top. Check the price you actually pay. It is the only number that matters for you.
Why it keeps going up
Most of a pack’s price is tax, and governments raise it on purpose. The World Health Organization calls tobacco tax the most cost-effective way to cut smoking and recommends that tax make up at least 75% of the retail price.
In the UK, the ONS measured cigarette prices about 6% higher than a year earlier through mid-2025. That is why the calculator has a price-rise field: the ten-year figure at today’s prices is almost certainly too low.
Rolling tobacco: cheaper, but by how much?
A roll-up usually costs less than a factory cigarette, but how much less depends on how much tobacco you use. People roll very differently. A survey across 18 European countries found a median of 0.75 g per roll-up, from 0.48 g in England to 1.15 g in Spain. In the international ITC survey, roll-ups in the US averaged about 1.07 g and in Canada 0.76 g. In the UK and Australia, where tobacco is taxed more heavily, smokers rolled thinner cigarettes over time, using about 2% less tobacco per roll-up each year.
The easiest way to know your own number: count how many roll-ups you get from one pouch and divide its weight by that.
Costs the calculator leaves out
The calculator only counts what you pay at the till. It leaves out lighters and the cost to health. Across the whole US, the CDC estimates smoking-related illness cost more than $600 billion in 2018. That figure includes more than $240 billion in health care spending and nearly $372 billion in lost productivity.
If you want to cut down or stop, free help exists. In the US, there is smokefree.gov and the quitline 1-800-QUIT-NOW. In the UK, there is NHS Better Health: Quit smoking. And if you don’t want to, that’s your call. Knowing the number is useful either way.
Track the real number
A calculator works from an estimate of how many you smoke. Most people guess low. Loosie is a cigarette and tobacco log for iPhone and Apple Watch. You log each one with a single tap, set what your packs, or tobacco, papers and filters cost, and see what it adds up to over time. Everything stays on your devices and in your own iCloud. 18+.
Sources
- Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. State Cigarette Excise Tax Rates & Rankings (PDF) and State excise and sales taxes per pack of cigarettes (PDF).
- Office for National Statistics. RPI: average price, cigarettes 20 king size filter and RPI: percentage change over 12 months, cigarettes.
- World Health Organization. Tobacco fact sheet and WHO Europe, Promoting taxation on tobacco products.
- Branston JR, McNeill A, Gilmore AB, Hiscock R, Partos TR. Keeping smoking affordable in higher tax environments via smoking thinner roll-your-own cigarettes: findings from the International Tobacco Control Four-Country Survey 2006–15. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2018;193:110–116. University of Bath research portal.
- Gallus S, Lugo A, Ghislandi S, La Vecchia C, Gilmore AB. Roll-your-own cigarettes in Europe: use, weight and implications for fiscal policies. European Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014;23(3):186–192. PMC4127802.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About the Office on Smoking and Health (economic costs of smoking, 2018).