How to check if std::map contains a key without doing insert?

Use my_map.count( key ); it can only return 0 or 1, which is essentially the Boolean result you want.

Alternately my_map.find( key ) != my_map.end() works too.

Potatoswatter's answer is all right, but I prefer to use find or lower_bound instead. lower_bound is especially useful because the iterator returned can subsequently be used for a hinted insertion, should you wish to insert something with the same key.

map<K, V>::iterator iter(my_map.lower_bound(key));
if (iter == my_map.end() || key < iter->first) {    // not found
    // ...
    my_map.insert(iter, make_pair(key, value));     // hinted insertion
} else {
    // ... use iter->second here
}

Your desideratum,map.contains(key), is scheduled for the draft standard C++2a. In 2017 it was implemented by gcc 9.2. It's also in the current clang.