365 packs
A pack a day for a year
7,300 cigarettes. Here is what that comes to in money and in time.
Written by Lee H. Last reviewed 6 October 2026.
The count
A pack of 20 a day for 365 days is 7,300 cigarettes: 365 packs, or 36 and a half cartons. Where packs of 25 are common, as in Australia, a pack a day is 9,125 cigarettes a year.
The money
A year of a pack a day costs 365 times your pack price. Pick the row nearest yours.
| Price per pack | One year | Five years |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | 2,920 | 14,600 |
| 10 | 3,650 | 18,250 |
| 12 | 4,380 | 21,900 |
| 14 | 5,110 | 25,550 |
| 16 | 5,840 | 29,200 |
| 20 | 7,300 | 36,500 |
| 30 | 10,950 | 54,750 |
| 40 | 14,600 | 73,000 |
| 50 | 18,250 | 91,250 |
The figures are in the currency of your pack price. Prices rise most years, so a real five years usually costs more than the table shows.
The time
The best current estimate is that one cigarette costs about 20 minutes of life, 17 for men and 22 for women, from Jackson, Jarvis and West, "The price of a cigarette: 20 minutes of life?", published in Addiction in 2025.
On that average, 7,300 cigarettes is 146,000 minutes, which is 101 days, 9 hours and 20 minutes. On the separate figures it is 86 days, 4 hours and 20 minutes for a man and 111 days, 12 hours and 40 minutes for a woman.
The 20 minute figure is an average across a population of smokers, and a flat multiplication means less the further it is pushed. The page on the 20 minute figure explains where it stops working, and the calculator uses a model that caps the loss.
A year the other way
A year without that pack is the same numbers in your favor: the money stays in your pocket, and on the same averages the time stays yours. The Long View counts both from the day you stop, and keeps every day you have stayed smoke free even after a slip.
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
Your own yearly spend
From 5 a day to 30, at four pack prices.
5,000 cigarettes
Two hundred and fifty packs, most of a year. The money, and the time.
One year smoke free
What a year without cigarettes gives back.