Cost of smoking calculator
What smoking costs, and what quitting saves. Money and time together, at a week, a month, a year and five years, plus what it has already cost so far.
Nothing you type leaves this page. The math happens on your own device, and none of it is stored or sent anywhere. See the privacy page for what the site records. The answer is an estimate built from the price you enter and published research, and it gives no financial or medical advice: the limits are below, and the full math is on the methodology page.
The other two calculators are about years of life. This one is about the wallet as well as the clock: it turns the cigarettes you would not smoke into money and time together, from the same count. For years of life, use the quit smoking calculator or the life expectancy calculator.
Your numbers
Your estimate
A $10.00 pack of 20 works out to $0.50 a cigarette, the number that is easy to buy without ever adding up.
| If you stay quit for | Cigarettes and packs | Time | Money |
|---|---|---|---|
| A week | 105 cigarettesabout 5 packs | about 1.2 days | $52.50 |
| A month | 457 cigarettesabout 23 packs | about 5.4 days | $228.28 |
| A year | 5,479 cigarettesabout 274 packs | about 65 days | $2,739.38 |
| 5 years | 27,394 cigarettesabout 1,370 packs | about 323 days | $13,696.88 |
| So far (20 years) | 109,575 cigarettesabout 5,479 packs | about 1,294 days (about 3.5 years) | $54,787.50 |
The last row uses the "years you have smoked" figure above. The rows above it all assume you stay quit starting today.
What this cannot tell you
- The baseline is not a never-smoker figure. The life table describes the whole general population, smokers included, so it is a slight underestimate of what quitting is really worth.
- Anything past age 64 is extrapolation. Jha et al.'s published recovery bands stop at 64. Past that, the same slope continues and is floored, which is a reasonable estimate for the part of the curve nobody has measured.
These two limits describe the wider model behind all three calculators on this site. The money and time figures above do not use the life table or the age bands directly, they are listed here for the same reason the sources below are: so the whole model is visible in one place.
The figure above is a motivational estimate built from population averages. It is not a prediction about you, it does not diagnose, treat or prevent any condition, and it is not medical advice. No guarantee is made or offered about the accuracy of any figure or calculation on this site. Talk to a doctor or a quitline about stopping smoking. In the US, that is 1-800-QUIT-NOW.
Frequently asked
How is this different from the other two calculators?
The quit smoking calculator and the life expectancy calculator are both about years of life. This one is about money and clock time, at several horizons, computed from the exact same avoided cigarette count so the two figures never disagree with each other.
Is this a quit smoking savings calculator?
It is the same tool read the other way round. Every figure here is the price of the cigarettes you smoke, so the identical number is what you keep once you stop. The cost of a year of smoking and the saving from a year of not smoking are the same figure, which is why one calculator covers both.
Why show time next to money?
Because both come from one number: the cigarettes you did not smoke. Showing minutes and dollars side by side, from that same count, makes it obvious the two figures are not two separate estimates that happen to agree, they are the same math read two ways.
What if my pack is not 20 cigarettes?
Change the cigarettes per pack field above. Packs of 20 are common in the United States, but not universal, and assuming 20 for everyone would misprice anyone who buys a different size. The figures update immediately.
Is this financial or medical advice?
No. These are estimates from a price you enter and a published minutes-per-cigarette figure, and they give no financial planning or medical advice. Nothing here diagnoses, treats or prevents any condition. A doctor or quitline can advise on stopping smoking itself. In the US, that is 1-800-QUIT-NOW.
Does this calculator send my price or habits anywhere?
No. The numbers you type stay on your own device, and so does the calculation. Nothing is stored or sent anywhere. See the privacy page for what the site does record.
Sources
- Jackson, S. E., Jarvis, M. J. and West, R., "The price of a cigarette: 20 minutes of life?", Addiction, 2025 (doi 10.1111/add.16757), for the minutes of life per cigarette used in the time column.
- US Social Security Administration, 2023 period life table, Social Security area population, part of the wider model behind this site's calculators.
- Jha, P. et al., "21st-Century Hazards of Smoking and Benefits of Cessation in the United States", New England Journal of Medicine, 2013, part of the wider model behind this site's calculators.
The price and pack size are numbers you provide. For the sourced math behind the time column, see how the estimate is calculated.