Cigarette Prices Australia 2026: Pack Cost and Tax Data

If you are checking cigarette prices in Australia in 2026, the short version is that a pack of 20 now carries more than $31 of tobacco duty before GST, and the last dated shop-price survey puts packs at roughly $40 to $61 (about $43 to $65 once updated with the official tobacco price index, which is our estimate). This guide gives the 2026 duty rates with their effective dates, typical prices with the date they were collected, and what a pack-a-day habit costs in a year.

The short answer: about $40 to $60 a pack, and more than $31 of it is duty

A pack of 20 cigarettes in Australia cost roughly $40 to $61 depending on the segment when Tobacco in Australia, a Cancer Council Victoria resource, last priced the market in September 2025: $39.69 on average for supervalue brands, $54.99 for mainstream and $60.72 for premium. JPS 20, one of the brands most popular among Australians who smoked in 2022, was about $42.99, or $2.15 a stick. Source: Tobacco in Australia, section 13.3.

Duty has risen twice since those prices were collected. The tobacco duty rate is now $1.55274 per stick from 1 September 2026, which is about $31.05 on a pack of 20 before GST is added. Source for the duty rate: the Australian Border Force Customs Notice 2026/32.

We have no dated shelf-price survey after September 2025, so here is a cross-check from official data. The Australian Bureau of Statistics tobacco price index (all capital cities) rose from 96.66 in the September 2025 quarter to 104.23 in the June 2026 quarter, up 7.8% (ABS Consumer Price Index data, Tobacco). Applying that rise to the survey prices gives roughly $43 for supervalue packs, $59 for mainstream and $65 for premium. That is our arithmetic on two published numbers, not a price read off a shelf, and it does not yet include the 1 September 2026 duty step.

For prevalence and trends, see our guide to smoking statistics in Australia in 2026. For how Australia compares with other countries on tax share, see cigarette tax by country and the share of the pack.

Excise per stick and the indexation dates in 2026

Australia taxes tobacco with two layers. A specific excise is set per stick, and a 10% goods and services tax (GST) is added at the point of sale. Tobacco manufacturing in Australia ceased in 2016, so everything sold pays excise-equivalent customs duty at the excise rate, and this guide calls it duty. See Tobacco in Australia, section 13.6.

The rate is indexed to Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings on 1 March and 1 September each year. The two 2026 steps are below, taken from the Border Force notices for March 2026 and September 2026.

The step from March to September 2026 adds about $0.49 to the duty on a pack of 20. Over a longer period, Tobacco in Australia reports that the excise on factory-made cigarettes increased 4.3-fold between August 2013 and September 2026. Duty is a fixed dollar amount per stick, so it does not shrink when a brand is cheaper.

Typical pack prices by segment

Since 1 July 2025, factory-made cigarette packs in Australia can only contain 20 cigarettes, and roll-your-own pouches can only contain 30 grams, so pack sizes of 25, 40 or 50 no longer appear in the table. The September 2025 listing prices below come from a national tobacconist chain’s online listings, as collected by Tobacco in Australia.

The per-stick column is the pack price divided by 20. For the mainstream segment the source lists $2.32 a stick, which does not match $54.99 divided by 20, so we show the division. The spread between supervalue and premium is about $21 a pack at these prices. A 30-gram pouch of Champion roll-your-own tobacco was $99.99 in the same survey, or $2.00 a stick assuming 0.6 grams of tobacco per cigarette. The report also notes that JPS 20 rose 4% between March and September 2025.

Why Australia is so expensive: the tax share of a pack

The share of a pack that is tax is higher for cheaper brands, because duty is a fixed amount. Tobacco in Australia worked this out for a pack of 20 using the March 2025 duty of $28.06 per pack. A typical budget brand advertised at $37.95 carried $31.51 of tax (83.0% of the price), of which excise was 73.9% of the price. A typical premium brand advertised at $54.99 carried $33.06 of tax (60.1%), of which excise was 51.0%. The manufacturer’s component was only 8.9% of the budget price, against 31.8% for premium.

GST works differently: it is added at 10% of the sale price, which means it makes up one-eleventh, or 9.1%, of what a customer pays. Duty on a pack of 20 has moved from $28.06 in March 2025 to about $31.05 at the September 2026 rate, a rise of about $2.99 per pack in 18 months. Source: Tobacco in Australia, section 13.6 and the Border Force notice above.

The illicit tobacco problem: what can be said as fact

Because duty makes up so much of a pack, illicit tobacco is a live policy issue in Australia, and the Tobacco in Australia project devotes an in-depth chapter to it: avoidance and evasion of taxes on tobacco products. This guide does not quote illicit-market estimates, because the figures come from different methods and some come from the tobacco industry. It also gives no advice on buying cheaper or overseas tobacco. Duty-paid prices are what this page covers.

Roll-your-own tobacco: pouch prices and duty

Roll-your-own (RYO) pouches have been standardized at 30 grams since 1 July 2025. At September 2025, the average 30-gram pouch cost $90.53 for supervalue brands, $93.99 for value, $102.55 for mainstream and $115.50 for premium, while traditional RYO brands averaged $108.10 and newer brands $96.87 (Tobacco in Australia, section 13.3).

The duty on loose tobacco is $2,587.90 per kilogram of tobacco content from 1 September 2026 (Border Force Customs Notice 2026/32), which works out to about $77.64 of duty in a 30-gram pouch. Tobacco in Australia reports that RYO excise rose 5.8-fold between August 2013 and September 2026, faster than the 4.3-fold rise for factory-made cigarettes, partly because the weight assumed per cigarette was lowered to 0.6 grams by 1 September 2026. Switching to rolling does not escape the duty.

What a pack a day costs in a year

At a pack a day, you buy 365 packs and burn 7,300 sticks a year. The table uses the September 2025 prices from the segment table and, for the last row, the duty rate alone at $1.55274 a stick.

On those figures a pack-a-day habit costs roughly $14,500 to $22,200 a year at September 2025 prices, and the duty alone is more than $11,300. Applying the ABS tobacco index rise of 7.8% to the supervalue and premium prices gives roughly $15,600 to $23,900 a year at June 2026 prices, which is an estimate rather than an observed shop price. If you roll your own, the same survey puts a 30-gram pouch at $90.53 to $115.50 depending on the segment, so work out your own figure from your last receipt. Our worldwide comparison, the true cost of smoking per year by country, shows where Australia sits.

Free help: Quitline and the money you keep

The Quitline number is 13 7848. Quit describes it as confidential and free support with a quit plan tailored to you, and its site has a cost calculator. See Quit for details. Ask your GP or pharmacist about nicotine replacement and prescription options, including which ones are subsidized for you, rather than relying on a headline price.

We cover the local pathway in how to quit smoking in Australia with Quitline and NRT, and the app angle in quit smoking apps in Australia and the savings they track. For how well different approaches work, see quit smoking success rates by method. If you want the US view of the same question, see how much a carton of cigarettes costs by state.

An app can make the saving visible. iQuit’s money dashboard supports multiple currencies, so you can track what you have not spent in Australian dollars and set a savings goal. It also logs cravings with triggers and intensity. It is free on Google Play and the App Store and works alongside, not instead of, Quitline or your doctor.

Methodology, dates and limits

• Duty rates: Australian Border Force Customs Notices 2026/07 and 2026/32. These give the excise-equivalent customs duty. The Australian Taxation Office excise page blocked automated access on three different URLs, so we did not use it directly.
• Retail prices: Tobacco in Australia section 13.3, last updated December 2025, using September 2025 listing prices from one national tobacconist chain. They are not a survey of every outlet and they predate the March and September 2026 duty steps.
• 2026 estimate: Australian Bureau of Statistics Consumer Price Index, Tobacco item, index numbers (original series, Australia): 96.66 in the September 2025 quarter and 104.23 in the June 2026 quarter. We scaled the September 2025 prices by 104.23 divided by 96.66. The index covers all tobacco products, so this is an approximation and not a shelf price. We found no retailer listing with a verifiable date and primary source.
• Tax share: Tobacco in Australia section 13.6, last updated August 2026, which used the March 2025 duty. The shares would be somewhat different at the 2026 rate.
• Calculations: duty on a pack of 20 is 20 times the per-stick rate; yearly figures are 365 packs or 7,300 sticks. All are shown rounded to the cent.

The 2026 in the title refers to the 2026 duty rates. We label every price with its date.

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