An Australian man has been jailed for a year after he was caught smoking a marijuana joint on a beach on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

25-year-old Nicholas James Langan, from Townsville in north Queensland, was arrested on popular Batu Bolong beach in January after he was found smoking the drug with an Indonesian who worked as a driver at a hotel.

A small bag containing 0.86 grams of marijuana was also seized.

Prosecutor Denny Iswanto demanded Langan be jailed for four years, but the court, overseen by chief justice Cening Budiana, gave the Australian one year in jail, on the grounds that he was polite, honest and still young.

"The defendant is proven convincingly and legally guilty of misusing drugs for personal use," the judge told the court as he sentenced Langan.

Langan, through an interpreter, told reporters he "needed time to consider" whether to appeal the verdict.

The Indonesian driver was also sentenced to one year in jail.

With potential for sentence cuts for good behaviour, Langan could be freed and deported to Australia within months.

Indonesia has recently stepped up a campaign against drug use and the tough sentence came almost three months after eight drug convicts, including Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed by firing squad despite international appeals for mercy.

Indonesia has some of the toughest anti-drugs laws in the world.

Jakarta resumed executions in 2013 after a hiatus of several years and president Joko Widodo, who took office in October, has been a vocal supporter of the death penalty for drug traffickers.

ABC/AFP