How Much Tax Is in a Pack of Cigarettes in Ontario?
Key takeaways
Ontario's provincial tobacco tax is 18.475 cents per cigarette, which is $3.70 on a pack of 20 and $36.95 on a carton of 200. Federal excise duty adds about $38.92 per carton, so government tobacco taxes come to roughly $75.87 per carton before sales tax. That is the lowest provincial tax among the rates we could confirm.
Ontario sets its tobacco tax per cigarette, not as a percentage of the price. The rate is 18.475 cents per cigarette, and the Ministry of Finance publishes the matching totals: $3.70 on a pack of 20, $4.62 on a pack of 25 and $36.95 on a carton of 200. The same rate applies to each gram of cut tobacco.
What the government takes per carton
| Item | Per pack of 20 | Per carton of 200 |
|---|---|---|
| Ontario tobacco tax | $3.70 | $36.95 |
| Federal excise duty (from 1 April 2026) | $3.89 | $38.92 |
| Combined, before sales tax | $7.59 | $75.87 |
The federal figure comes from the Canada Revenue Agency’s rate of $0.97299 per 5 cigarettes, multiplied by 40 for a carton and by 4 for a pack. The pack column is our arithmetic, rounded to the cent.
Whatever a store charges, at least about $75.87 of a carton’s price in Ontario is tobacco tax. The rest is the manufacturer’s price, the wholesale and retail margin and any sales tax. We do not publish a typical shelf price: the only retail figures we found came from sellers or media, and we leave those out.
How Ontario compares
Among the provinces whose rates we could confirm from official pages, Ontario’s carton tax is the lowest. British Columbia charges $65.00 per carton, Alberta $60.00. The gap with Alberta is $23.05 per carton in provincial tax alone, and the federal duty is the same in both. The full ranking is on the cheapest province for cigarettes page, and the provincial tax rate table shows every rate with its effective date. For the neighbouring province, see Quebec.
How the rate got here
The Ministry’s open dataset lists every change since 1981. A few of them: 11.725 cents in January 2005, 13.975 cents in May 2014, 15.475 cents in February 2016, 16.475 cents in April 2017 and the present 18.475 cents on 29 March 2018. Over those thirteen years the provincial tax per carton went from $23.45 to $36.95. The longer story is on the price history page.
Federal excise has moved more recently. It rose on 1 April 2025 and again on 1 April 2026, as the duty is adjusted every April, so the Ontario total has crept up each year even though Ontario’s own rate has not changed since 2018.
What this page does not cover
Sales tax is left out because the Ontario rate page says nothing about it, and we will not guess how it is applied to tobacco. Vaping products have their own duty; see vape tax in Canada. To see what a daily habit adds up to at your own price, use the cost of smoking calculator.
Figures are estimates for planning. Actual prices and taxes vary by seller and date. Read the full disclaimer.
Frequently asked questions
How much is a carton of cigarettes in Ontario?
We do not publish a shelf price, because no official series of retail cigarette prices was available to us. What we can state is the tax: $36.95 of Ontario tobacco tax and about $38.92 of federal excise per carton of 200, before any sales tax or the manufacturer's price.
When did Ontario last raise its tobacco tax?
On 29 March 2018, when the rate went from 16.475 to 18.475 cents per cigarette. The province's data catalogue shows no change since.
Does the tax figure include HST?
No. The figures here are tobacco taxes only. The Ontario rate page does not mention HST, so we have not added it.
Sources
- Tobacco tax rates (Ontario data catalogue) — Ontario Ministry of Finance. Accessed October 27, 2026.
- Tobacco tax rates, 1981 to 2018 (CSV) — Ontario Ministry of Finance. Accessed October 27, 2026.
- Excise duty rates — Canada Revenue Agency. Accessed October 27, 2026.
- Alberta: tax and levy rates — Government of Alberta. Accessed October 27, 2026.
- British Columbia: tobacco tax — Government of British Columbia. Accessed October 27, 2026.