Roll-your-own vs factory-made: the 2026 cost comparison
For years the budget move for Australian smokers was obvious: buy a pouch and roll your own. Duty was charged per kilogram with a generous notional weight, and the gap between a roll-your-own cigarette and a factory-made one was wide enough to be worth the fiddling.
That gap has closed. Since 1 September 2026 the roll-your-own adjustment that began in 2023 is complete, and the duty on loose tobacco is now aligned with the duty on sticks. Here is the arithmetic.
Duty per cigarette: now the same by design
The ATO taxes factory-made cigarettes at $1.55274 per stick. Loose and roll-your-own tobacco is taxed at $2,587.90 per kilogram, and the “equivalisation weight” — the notional grams-per-stick used to convert weight into an equivalent number of cigarettes — is now 0.6 grams, down from 0.7 grams in stages since 2023.
Run the numbers on a 30 gram pouch:
| Product | Notional sticks | Excise duty | Duty per smoke |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pack of 20 factory-made | 20 | $31.05 | $1.553 |
| 30 g pouch (roll-your-own) | 50 | $77.64 | $1.553 |
| 50 g pouch (roll-your-own) | 83 | $129.40 | $1.553 |
Not a coincidence — that is the point of the reform. A smaller equivalisation weight means more notional sticks are counted out of each kilogram, so per-kilogram duty rises until it matches the per-stick rate on cigarettes. The old structural discount on roll-your-own has been removed.
What still differs at the till
Roll-your-own has not become pointless. What it retains is batch size flexibility:
- You buy by weight, not by pack. A pouch lets you measure out what you smoke instead of opening a 20-pack, so spending tracks consumption more closely.
- Contents still cost extra. Papers and filters are separate purchases, and they are not free — factor them in when comparing.
- Storage differs. Loose tobacco dries out; an opened pouch needs to be kept sealed.
What it no longer offers is a materially cheaper cigarette. If a pouch is being sold as the budget loophole, the maths has moved on.
The price test that matters
Duty is the floor under every lawful price, and it is now easy to spot a listing that ignores it:
| If a seller offers… | Duty it must already contain |
|---|---|
| A carton (200 sticks) | ~$310 |
| A 30 g pouch | ~$78 |
| A 50 g pouch | ~$129 |
Add GST and the retailer’s margin and the honest minimum sits well above those figures. A $30 pouch or a $150 carton is not a bargain — it is a product that skipped the excise. Australian law penalises manufacturing, selling, buying and possessing illicit tobacco, with penalties into the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars and imprisonment of up to five years for buying or selling, and ten for manufacturing. The full breakdown is in our 2026 excise article.
And you cannot grow your way out of it
Growing tobacco in Australia requires an excise licence, and no one currently holds one for commercial or personal growing. Importing loose-leaf tobacco requires an ABF permit and cannot be done through the mail at all — the rules are set out in our delivery and carrier guide.
The short version
Duty on a roll-your-own cigarette now equals duty on a factory-made one, to the cent. Buy on the experience you prefer and the price you can verify — and treat any pouch priced below roughly $78 for 30 g as a compliance question rather than a discount.
This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rates change every March and September — check the ATO’s tobacco excise pages for current figures.