Cost of smoking calculator
Smoking adds up quietly. Enter how many cigarettes you smoke a day and the price of a pack to see the cost by day, month, year and over ten years, and what quitting would save.
How it works
The maths is simple, but the total often surprises people. The tool works out the cost of a single cigarette by dividing the pack price by the number of cigarettes in a pack. It then multiplies that by how many you smoke a day for the daily cost, by seven for a week, and by 365.25 for a year. The monthly figure is the yearly cost split into twelve, and the ten-year figure is the yearly cost times ten.
The yearly total is also the headline saving from quitting, because it is money you would simply stop spending. Put another way, a 20-a-day smoker is spending the price of a substantial holiday every year on cigarettes. Redirecting that to savings, debt or a pension turns a daily habit into a visible sum.
Worked example
Take 20 cigarettes a day with a pack of 20 priced at £16.60. That is £16.60 a day, since one pack is smoked daily, which comes to £116.20 a week and £505 a month. Across a full year it reaches £6,063, and over ten years £60,632. Halving the amount smoked roughly halves every one of those figures.
Common questions
How much does smoking cost a year?
It depends on how much you smoke and the pack price. A 20-a-day habit at £16.60 a pack works out at about £6,063 a year, or £60,632 over ten years. Cutting down or stopping leaves that money with you.
How much would I save by quitting?
The whole amount. Because the yearly cost is money you would no longer spend, your saving from quitting equals your current yearly cost, and it compounds. Many people redirect it to a holiday, debt or savings.
Does the cost include health effects?
No. This tool only counts the price of the cigarettes. The wider costs of smoking, such as higher life and health insurance and lost earnings from illness, are real but not included here.
Is stopping smoking support free on the NHS?
Yes. Local NHS stop smoking services offer free advice, and options like nicotine patches, gum and licensed vapes greatly improve your chances of quitting for good. A GP or pharmacist can point you to your local service.
What pack size should I use?
The default is 20 cigarettes per pack, which is the standard size in the UK, since packs of 10 are no longer sold. If you buy pouches of rolling tobacco, work out roughly how many cigarettes a pouch makes and set the pack size and price to match.