Cigar vs Cigarette: What Is the Difference?

The cigar vs cigarette question comes up often, usually as “which is worse?” The honest answer is that both are harmful, in slightly different ways. A cigar and a cigarette differ in size, tobacco, curing, smoke chemistry and how people smoke them. Those differences shift where the damage lands, but they do not make either one safe. This guide compares the two side by side, then explains how Malaysian law treats them.

Cigar vs cigarette at a glance

Nicotine figures come from the NCI’s Monograph 9 on cigars. Tobacco weights come from the NCI fact sheet.

Composition and size

A cigarette is a thin tube of finely cut tobacco wrapped in paper. Most carry a filter, and many contain added flavours or other ingredients. Each one holds less than a gram of tobacco.

A premium cigar is built differently. It has filler leaves in the centre, a binder leaf holding them together, and a wrapper leaf on the outside. Everything is tobacco. According to the NCI, a large cigar holds between 5 and 20 grams of tobacco. In other words, one large cigar can equal a whole pack of cigarettes.

Between the two sit cigarillos and little cigars. Cigarillos hold about 3 grams of tobacco, and little cigars about 1 gram. Many look and smoke much like cigarettes. Our guide to cigarillos covers them in detail.

Nicotine per stick

Because a cigar holds far more tobacco, it can hold far more nicotine. NCI research found that cigarettes contain about 8 mg of nicotine on average. By contrast, the cigars it tested ranged from about 10 mg to more than 400 mg.

The NCI says a single cigar can potentially provide as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes. The FDA adds that large cigars can deliver up to 10 times the nicotine of a filtered cigarette. Of course, how much you absorb depends on how long you smoke and how you puff. Still, cigars are fully capable of causing nicotine addiction.

Curing and fermentation

Cigarette tobacco is usually a blend of different leaf types, cut into shreds. Cigar tobacco goes through a longer process. First, the leaf is air-cured in barns. Then it is fermented in large piles, often for months, and aged before rolling.

Fermentation develops the rich flavours cigar smokers enjoy. However, it has a cost. The NCI notes that fermentation produces high concentrations of cancer-causing nitrosamines in cigar tobacco.

Smoke chemistry

Cigar smoke and cigarette smoke share the same basic toxic and cancer-causing chemicals. Still, a few things differ.

• More tar per gram. For every gram of tobacco smoked, cigars produce more cancer-causing tar than cigarettes, says the NCI.
• Less complete burning. The leaf wrapper is less porous than cigarette paper, so the tobacco burns less completely. This raises toxin levels.
• Carbon monoxide. The FDA says a large cigar can deliver more than five times the carbon monoxide of a filtered cigarette.
• Absorption in the mouth. Cigar smoke is generally more alkaline, so nicotine passes easily through the lining of the mouth. Cigarette smoke is usually more acidic, so its nicotine is mainly absorbed in the lungs.

Inhalation patterns

This is the biggest practical difference. Cigarette smokers almost always inhale. Most premium cigar smokers do not. Instead, they hold the smoke in the mouth and let it go.

That lowers lung exposure for cigar smokers who truly never inhale. Even so, the NCI points out that all cigar and cigarette smokers, whether or not they inhale, expose their lips, mouth, tongue, throat and larynx to smoke. Cigar smokers also absorb nicotine through the mouth.

There is an important exception. The NCI’s Monograph 9 found that former cigarette smokers who switch to cigars are much more likely to keep inhaling. As a result, they may remain at much higher risk. Our guide on whether you inhale cigars explains more.

Health risks compared

So, in the cigar vs cigarette debate, which is more harmful? The evidence points to different risk patterns, not a safe option.

Sources: NCI, American Cancer Society and FDA, as listed below.

The FDA sums it up: “cigars are not a safe alternative to cigarettes”, and cigar smoke “is at least as toxic as cigarette smoke, if not more.” Similarly, the NCI states that there is no safe level of tobacco use. Our guide to cigar health risks explains each danger in detail.

How Malaysian law treats cigars and cigarettes

Malaysia’s main tobacco law is the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act 2024, known as Act 852. It came into force on 1 October 2024.

The Act defines a “tobacco product” as processed tobacco or any product that contains tobacco designed for human consumption. Both cigars and cigarettes fall under that definition. Together with smoking substances and substitute tobacco products, they make up what the Act calls “smoking products”. Notably, the Act itself never uses the word “cigar”. Instead, the Control of Sale Regulations 2024 define a cigar as “a roll of tobacco wrapped in a tobacco leaf”.

In practice, the same core rules cover both:

• Smoking bans in declared no-smoking areas, such as eating places and many public places.
• An age limit: no sale to anyone under 18.
• A ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
• Online sale is banned under the Control of Sale Regulations.
• Prescribed packaging, including graphic health warnings and the address of the MOH’s quit-smoking site.
• A minimum retail price of RM12 per packet, applying to cigarettes, cigars and heated tobacco products alike.

For more on where you may and may not smoke, read our guide to cigar laws in Malaysia.

The bottom line

A cigar is bigger, slower and made entirely of fermented leaf. A cigarette is small, quick and usually inhaled. Those differences change where the harm falls, but both cause cancer, both are addictive, and both harm the people nearby. If you are thinking about quitting either one, the Ministry of Health’s JomQuit website is the place to start. Our health hub lists every guide on this topic.