As of September 2026 · 109 listings tracked across Amazon, Walmart & eBay
Right now the best value is 0.3¢ per count — Q-tips Cotton Swabs, Original, For Home, First Aid and Beauty, 100% C… (500 ct, $1.39) on Amazon. See it on Amazon →
Prices change fast and stock disappears faster — YMMV.
The pack-size trapThe biggest pack we tracked (2,000 ct) looks like the bulk play, but it runs 0.5¢ per count — the 500 ct pick wins at 0.3¢ per count. Bigger isn't automatically cheaper.
Median across all 109 tracked listings: 1.6¢ per count. The worst deal we saw ran 12¢ per count — same product category, 44.6× the price per unit.
The 12-month picture
Jul 2026low 0.2¢ per count · high 0.3¢ per countSep 2026
Best-value price is up 63.5% since last month — that's the market, not your imagination.
Lowest we've ever tracked: 0.2¢ per count (August 2026).
How we figure this out
Once a month we pull live Cotton Swabs listings from Amazon, Walmart and eBay, read the honest quantity out of each one (cts, in this case — the unit that actually matters), and divide the real price by it. Coupons that change what you'd pay today are applied; "subscribe & save" teasers are not. Then everything gets ranked by cost per count, because a big box with a small number inside is still a small number.
Our Amazon links are plain links — no affiliate tag, no commission.
Amazon doesn't allow affiliate sites to run price alerts, so we chose the alerts. If eBay or Walmart links ever earn us a commission, they'll be labeled (paid link) — and it never changes the price you pay.
Prices checked September 1, 2026. Prices change fast — treat this page as a map, not gospel, and YMMV. For today's numbers, run a live search.