A carton and a half
How much do 500 cigarettes cost?
It depends on where you buy them, and the answer in money is only half of it.
Written by Lee H. Last reviewed 24 August 2026.
First, what 500 cigarettes is
Twenty-five packs, if a pack holds 20. Two and a half cartons. In Australia and a few other markets where packs of 25 are common, 500 is 20 packs instead.
In time, it is roughly a month of ordinary smoking:
| A day | 500 lasts |
|---|---|
| 10 | 50 days |
| 15 | 33 days |
| 20 | 25 days |
| 25 | 20 days |
| 40 | 12 days |
So this is not an abstract quantity. For most people asking, 500 cigarettes is about what they will get through between now and the same date next month.
The money
There is no single answer, because tobacco is taxed differently in every country and often differently again by state or province. What there is instead is a straight line: 500 cigarettes is 25 packs of 20, so the cost is 25 times whatever a pack costs you.
| Price per pack | 500 cigarettes |
|---|---|
| 8 | 200 |
| 10 | 250 |
| 12 | 300 |
| 14 | 350 |
| 16 | 400 |
| 20 | 500 |
| 30 | 750 |
| 40 | 1,000 |
| 50 | 1,250 |
The figures are in whatever currency your pack price is in, because the multiplication does not care. Pick the row nearest your own price and you have it.
Two notes on reading that table. The United States spans most of it on its own: a pack costs far more in New York than in Missouri, so a national average is close to useless for any individual. And Australia sits at the bottom rows, with packs commonly between about $35 and $55, which puts 500 cigarettes at roughly $875 to $1,375. There is a separate page on Australian prices, because the numbers there are unlike anywhere else.
The other cost
The best current estimate is that one cigarette costs about 20 minutes of life, 17 for men and 22 for women. That comes from Jackson, Jarvis and West, "The price of a cigarette: 20 minutes of life?", published in Addiction in 2025.
Multiply it out and 500 cigarettes is 10,000 minutes. That is 6 days, 22 hours and 40 minutes. A little under a week, for a month of smoking.
That multiplication has a limit, and it matters. The 20 minute figure is an average drawn across a population of smokers. Nobody loses their whole life 20 minutes at a time, and the further you push a flat multiplication the less it means. It is a useful way to picture one month. It is not a way to price a lifetime. The page on the 20 minute figure explains where it breaks down, and the calculator uses a model that caps the loss.
Why people work this out
Almost nobody searches for the price of 500 cigarettes out of curiosity. They are usually holding a carton, or looking at a month of receipts, and doing the sum to see whether it is as bad as they think.
It usually is. The thing worth knowing is that the number runs the other way too. Every one of those 500 not smoked is money not spent and, on the same averages, time not lost. That is the number this site is built around: what stopping gives back.
This page reports a motivational estimate built from population averages. It is not a prediction about any one person or any one cigarette, it does not diagnose, treat or prevent any condition, and it is not medical advice. Prices are examples and 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.
Keep reading
Where to go next
Cost of smoking calculator
Your own pack price, your own count, in money and time together.
200 cigarettes
One carton. The money at every common pack price, and the same 200 in time.
1,000 cigarettes
Fifty packs, five cartons. The money, and the time.
5,000 cigarettes
Two hundred and fifty packs, most of a year. The money, and the time.
What a year costs
A read-off table from 5 a day to 30, at four pack prices.
What one cigarette costs
About 20 minutes, and why that figure cannot be multiplied forever.
Quit smoking calculator
The years smoking has likely cost you, and the years quitting returns.
Sources
- Jackson, S. E., Jarvis, M. J. and West, R., "The price of a cigarette: 20 minutes of life?", Addiction, 2025.
See the full model on the methodology page, run your own numbers on the cost of smoking calculator, or go back to all guides.