Single piles and pile groups shall be designed for lateral loads due to earth pressure, earthquake or wave force and wind forces. This requires estimation of ultimate loads based on which safe working loads will be assessed and also estimation of pile deflections to ensure that serviceability aspects are accounted for in design. The failure mechanisms and behavior of pile foundations depends on characteristic length (T) of the pile and the various failure mechanisms were discussed. In the present study, lateral load behavior of single piles in cohesionless soils is attempted, for a range of subgrade moduli representing various soil types viz., loose sand, medium sand and dense sand. Both dry and submerged conditions are considered. The analysis is carried out considering free headed pile and floating tip at the base. The influence of soil type, effect of pile length and pile radius on the pile response is observed and the results are presented. Also deflection and moment coefficients are evaluated for a typical pile for various soil types and their results are presented. The modulus of subgrade reaction approach using finite difference technique is used and the same is coded into MATLAB for the above analysis. The results are also validated with available benchmark problems in literature.