How Much Tobacco Can You Bring Into Canada?

The rules for tobacco at the border come from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). They are written for travellers on personal trips, not for goods brought in for sale. This page summarizes the allowance, what changes it, and what you owe above it. Check the CBSA pages before you travel, because rules and rates change.

The duty-free allowance

Travellers who meet the conditions can bring in the following without paying duty or taxes:

Product	Limit
Cigarettes	200
Cigars	50
Manufactured tobacco	200 grams (7 ounces)
Tobacco sticks	200

The conditions are:

• You are 18 or older. The CBSA says you must be 18 to bring tobacco or vaping products in under your personal exemption.
• You have been away long enough. For returning residents the CBSA ties the exemption to an absence of 48 hours or more. The tobacco must be with you when you enter the country.
• The products are stamped. Cigarettes, manufactured tobacco and tobacco sticks claimed duty-free must carry the stamp “duty paid Canada droit acquitté”. Duty-free shops sell products marked this way.

Unstamped tobacco

Products without the stamp are not covered by the same exemption. A special duty rate applies to unstamped cigarettes, manufactured tobacco and tobacco sticks. Unstamped imports are also capped: the CBSA says the limit is currently five units of tobacco and five units of vaping products, where one unit is the quantity in the table above, such as 200 cigarettes.

What you pay above the limit

Whatever goes beyond your exemption is charged regular duty and taxes, plus any provincial or territorial levies that apply. The CBSA’s pages do not list the provincial amounts, which vary by where you enter. As a reference point, federal excise duty alone is $38.92 per carton of 200 cigarettes from 1 April 2026, and provincial tobacco tax runs from about $37 to $69 per carton among the rates we could confirm. Those are the domestic tax rates. The CBSA calculation at the border is separate, and we cannot reproduce it from the pages we read.

One related rule: the 7% beneficial duty rate that applies to some goods you bring back does not apply to tobacco.

Declaring at the border

Have your tobacco ready for inspection when you arrive; the CBSA says that speeds up clearance. Report the value of your goods in Canadian funds. If you are unsure whether something is above your allowance, declare it.

Rates on this page change. For the tax rates you would meet at home, see tobacco tax rates in Canada. To see how your cigarettes, cigars and loose tobacco add up against the allowance, use the tobacco allowance calculator. Vapes travel under their own rules; see travelling with vapes and the vape tax page.