---
title: "Where can you smoke at O'Hare? Marked areas by terminal"
description: "O'Hare's marked smoking areas are in Terminals 1, 2 and 3, all before security. Terminal 5 has none. Where they sit and what leaving security means."
url: "https://ordairportguide.com/guides/where-can-you-smoke-at-ohare/"
updated: "2026-11-03"
airport: "ORD"
type: "guide"
---

> Independent guide, not the official ORD website. All pages: https://ordairportguide.com/llms.txt

# Where can you smoke at O'Hare?

O'Hare's marked smoking areas are in Terminals 1, 2 and 3, all before security. Terminal 5 has none. Where they sit and what leaving security means.

Updated November 3, 2026

![A pale steel guardrail and yellow-painted kerb at the edge of an O'Hare terminal roadway, with the airport's slender glass-panelled control tower rising behind the low terminal canopy.](https://ordairportguide.com/images/ord/t5-arrivals-curb-v49.webp)

Control tower beyond a terminal roadway edge, O'Hare

In the [marked smoking areas](https://ordairportguide.com/amenities/smoking/), and every one of them is before security. Terminals 1, 2 and 3 have them, and Terminal 5 has none marked. The airport’s pages state no smoking rule beyond those marks, so the marked areas are the only places the airport points you to. If you’re already past a checkpoint, you’ll leave the secure side to smoke and clear security again afterward.

## Which terminals have a marked area

| Terminal | Departures and Check-In level | Baggage claim |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Terminal 1 | 5 | None marked |
| Terminal 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Terminal 3 | 7 | 3 |
| Terminal 5 | None marked | None marked |

Terminal 1 marks nothing at baggage claim, so a smoker who has landed there goes up to the Departures level.

The airport’s terminal map is the only place these areas appear. The airport’s amenities and services pages don’t mention smoking. Nothing there says whether the areas are covered or open air, whether vaping is allowed in them, or what hours they keep.

Terminal 5 marks no area of its own. The [Airport Transit System](https://ordairportguide.com/transport/airport-transit-system/) runs to Terminals 1, 2 and 3, which do, but the airport doesn’t describe a route from the Terminal 5 secure side to those areas.

The airport lists most checkpoints closing between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., with Terminal 5’s checkpoint open 24 hours, and it says those hours can change with day-to-day operations. If you plan to smoke in the evening, look at the [checkpoint hours](https://ordairportguide.com/security/) first, because a closed checkpoint can’t take you back in.

## Sources

- Our pages: [Smoking areas](https://ordairportguide.com/amenities/smoking/), [Security checkpoints](https://ordairportguide.com/security/), [Terminal 1](https://ordairportguide.com/terminals/terminal-1/), [Terminal 2](https://ordairportguide.com/terminals/terminal-2/), [Terminal 3](https://ordairportguide.com/terminals/terminal-3/), [Terminal 5](https://ordairportguide.com/terminals/terminal-5/), [Airport Transit System](https://ordairportguide.com/transport/airport-transit-system/)
- Chicago Department of Aviation: terminal map, Services and Amenities pages, TSA page, Airport Transit System page