Vitola
Toro cigar size, and why it's the default
A toro is 6 inches long with a 50 ring gauge, about 152 by 19.8 mm, though anything from 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 inches and 46 to 59 ring gets sold under the name.
Walk into a US cigar shop and the toro is what sells
The toro is the top-selling cigar size in American shops, by a wide margin. In Cigar Aficionado's retailer survey published in January 2026, 66.2% of shops named the toro their top seller. The robusto came second at 16.9%. Thicker grandes, the gordo crowd, were third at 10.8%.
It wasn't always so. In the magazine's 2020 survey the toro passed the robusto, 51.7% to 24.1%. The robusto had topped the previous year's survey and, by the magazine's reckoning, about 25 years of them. Five years on, the gap is huge.
Read those numbers for what they are: shop owners naming their top seller, not a count of cigars sold. Still, the message is plain. If a line comes in one size, it's probably a toro.
Toro dimensions you'll see printed on boxes
Six by fifty is the reference toro, and makers move both numbers a little without changing the name. The survey's own definition spans 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 inches and 46 to 59 ring, and it lumps corona gordas in with toros.
| Length x ring | Metric (mm) | Est. smoke time* | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 1/2 x 54 | 140 x 21.4 | ~58 min | Short end of the band |
| 5 5/8 x 46 | 143 x 18.3 | ~53 min | Corona gorda, the Cuban Coronas Gordas size |
| 6 x 50 | 152 x 19.8 | ~60 min | The reference toro |
| 6 x 52 | 152 x 20.6 | ~62 min | A touch fatter |
| 6 x 54 | 152 x 21.4 | ~64 min | Common on modern boxes |
| 6 1/2 x 52 | 165 x 20.6 | ~67 min | Long end of the band |
| 6 x 60 | 152 x 23.8 | ~69 min | Outside the band: a gordo or grande |
*Smoke time is our model, not a measurement: about 10 minutes per inch at a 50 ring and a relaxed pace, scaled by width. Real cigars and real smokers vary.
Notice how little the time moves. Going from a 50 to a 54 ring at the same length adds only a few minutes on our estimate. Length drives the clock far more than width does.
What does toro mean on a cigar?
Toro is Spanish for bull, and on a band it simply names the size. The Cuban factory-name list on Wikipedia pins the corona and the Churchill to exact sizes, but it has no toro entry at all. No fixed reference, so the numbers drift from box to box.
That looseness cuts both ways. You get choice. You also get a 6 x 54 and a 6 x 50 sold under the same word, and they feel different in the hand. Check the band or the box for the real figures, and convert any ring to millimeters with the ring gauge converter.
Plan an hour for a 6 x 50
Our estimator puts a 6 x 50 toro at about 60 minutes at a relaxed pace, with a realistic window of roughly 15% either side. Not a coffee break. A proper sit.
Short on time? A robusto trims about an inch and roughly ten minutes. Got the whole evening? A Churchill adds another inch. Run your own pace through the smoke time calculator.
Why makers lean on the toro
A toro gives a blender a long, wide cigar that shows off a blend without demanding a two-hour sit. The extra inch over a robusto leaves room for the flavor to shift from the first third to the last.
There's a practical side too. When two thirds of shops say one size moves fastest, a new line that ships in that size has an easy first order. Comparing two toros side by side? The cigar size chart draws them in proportion so you can see what 4 extra ring points look like.
Toro size questions
How long is a toro cigar?
Six inches is the usual answer. Cigar Aficionado counts anything from 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 inches with a 46 to 59 ring as a toro.
Why is it called a toro?
Toro is Spanish for bull. On a band it names the size and nothing else: it says nothing about strength.
Is a 6 x 60 cigar a toro?
Usually not. Cigar Aficionado files any straight cigar of 60 ring or more as a grande, and size lists call 6 x 60 a gordo or double toro.
Survey figures and size definitions behind this page
- 2025 Cigar Insider retailer survey of top-selling US cigar sizes (Gregory Mottola, Jan 2026), Cigar Aficionado
- 2020 Cigar Aficionado retailer survey: toros overtake robustos (David Savona), Cigar Aficionado
- Vitola: Cuban factory names, with no toro entry, Wikipedia
- Cigar: common parejo sizes, toro and double toro, Wikipedia