Stoptober
28 days is the whole idea
Stoptober asks for 28 days, because that is where the odds change. Here is what those days are worth in your own case, worked out in your browser.
No app, no account, nothing you type leaves the page.
The question underneath it
28days
is what the campaign asks for. What it is worth depends on how much you smoke and how long you have smoked. It is your own number.
Twenty-eight days is the point where the odds stop being against you.
Stoptober is built on one finding: people who reach 28 days smoke free are around five times more likely to stay stopped for good. That is the reason the campaign asks for a month. A month is a thing a person can picture.
What Stoptober actually is
An annual campaign from the UK Department of Health and Social Care, run every October since 2012. It asks smokers to stop for the 28 days of the challenge, and it puts free support behind that ask: local stop smoking services, the NHS Quit Smoking app, and the National Smokefree Helpline.
This is not the official Stoptober site. The official information and all of the free help are on the NHS Better Health website. This page is on the website of a quit smoking app, written by the person who builds it. Nothing here is affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the NHS or to Stoptober, and the section below points at the free help first because that is the honest order to put it in.
The free help, before anything else
If you are in England, the most effective thing available to you is free and is not an app.
- Your local stop smoking service. Free through the NHS, and the option with the strongest evidence behind it, because it combines behavioral support with medication. Search for your council's service by name.
- The National Smokefree Helpline. In the UK that is 0300 123 1044, England only.
- The NHS Quit Smoking app. Free, no subscription, published by the Department of Health and Social Care.
- NHS Better Health. The campaign's own information and tools.
Take those first. Nothing on the rest of this page replaces any of them, and an app is a poor substitute for a trained adviser.
What 28 days is worth, in your own numbers
The campaign gives you a target. It does not tell you what hitting it is worth, and that depends entirely on your own history: how much you smoke, and for how long you have smoked.
The quit smoking calculator works that out from three answers. It runs in your browser, it asks for no account, and nothing you type is sent anywhere. Every figure behind it, and where each one comes from, is on the methodology page.
Two things worth saying plainly about that number. It is an estimate built from population averages, and your own outcome can differ. And it is not a reason to feel worse: the same working that says smoking has cost you time says that stopping gives some of it back, and the second half is the half that is still in your hands.
If day nine goes wrong
Most 28 day attempts do not end because the month was too long. They end on one bad evening, when somebody decides that having smoked one means the attempt is over and there is no point counting any more.
That is a counting problem. A challenge measured as an unbroken run has exactly one failure state and it is permanent. Twenty-seven good days and one bad one is a good month by any honest measure, and it scores zero on a streak.
So if you are going to track this, track it in a way that survives a bad day. Cross the days off a calendar and keep the calendar. Whatever you use, decide now what happens when you smoke one, because deciding it on the night is how attempts end.
Where The Long View fits, stated as disclosure
Mine, so read it as disclosure, and use the free NHS options above first.
The Long View is a quit smoking app for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, Android, Wear OS and Windows. It shows the time you have won back, so a day you smoked is a number you log: the figure moves down, then it starts moving back up. It also works before you stop, because it starts from what you smoke now. That matters in October, when a lot of people are still deciding whether to start.
The estimate, the daily check-in, a photo of your reason, your smoke-free day count and your full history are free forever. Premium adds money saved, widgets, the Watch apps, the quit plan and sync, and after a year of smoke-free days it shows you how to cancel and keep everything.
Common questions
When is Stoptober 2026?
Through October, starting on 1 October. The challenge is 28 days.
Why 28 days and not 30?
Because 28 is the figure the evidence is attached to. People who reach 28 days smoke free are around five times more likely to stay stopped, and that finding is what the campaign is built on. It is quoted by NHS trusts across England for exactly that reason.
Is this the official Stoptober website?
No. Stoptober is run by the UK Department of Health and Social Care, and the official information and free support are on NHS Better Health. This page is on the website of a quit smoking app and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the NHS or Stoptober.
Do I need an app to do Stoptober?
No, and the free NHS options above have more evidence behind them than any app does. If you want a number without software, the calculator needs no download and no account.
What if I slip during the 28 days?
Then you have slipped during the 28 days, which is a thing that happens to most people who eventually stop for good. Whether it ends the attempt is your decision. Decide in advance what you will do, because deciding on the night rarely goes well.
Nothing on this page diagnoses, treats or prevents any condition, and none of it is medical advice. Every figure is an estimate built from population averages and no guarantee is made about its accuracy or about what will happen to any one person. Talk to a doctor or a stop smoking service. In the US, that is 1-800-QUIT-NOW.
Keep reading
Where to go next
Quit smoking calculator
The years smoking has likely cost you, and the years quitting returns.
How many years do you get back?
The four published bands, and why recovery follows a curve.
The best quit smoking apps
Seven apps by what each is good at, including where they beat this one.