Is Vaping Still Cheaper Than Smoking After the Tax?

If you smoke and you've been thinking about switching, the incoming vape tax may have given you pause. It's a fair question to ask: if vaping is being taxed now, is it still worth the change?

On cost, the answer is a clear yes — and by a wider margin than most people assume. Here are the numbers.

Both are being taxed, deliberately

The Vaping Products Duty starts on 1 October 2026 at £2.20 per 10ml. What gets far less coverage is that tobacco duty rises at the same time, by design. The stated intention is to keep a meaningful price gap between smoking and vaping, so that the incentive for smokers to switch isn't eroded.

In other words, the policy is not "make vaping as expensive as smoking". It's "tax vaping, but keep it clearly cheaper".

A 20-a-day smoker

At around £16–£17 for a pack of 20, a 20-a-day habit runs at roughly:

• £115 a week

• £500 a month

• £6,000 a year

And that figure rises again with the October tobacco duty increase.

The same person on a pod kit

A former 20-a-day smoker typically settles on an MTL pod kit running 20mg nic salts, getting through around 10–15ml a week.

Post-duty, at roughly £6.60 for a 10ml bottle:

• Liquid: about £8–£10 a week

• Coils: about £1.50–£3 a week

• Total: roughly £11 a week, or about £570 a year

That's the duty already included. Against £6,000, the switch still saves in the region of £5,400 a year.

Even the expensive way to vape wins

Suppose you don't want a pod kit and stay on a sub-ohm setup getting through 100ml a week. Post-duty that's around £45 a week, or £2,340 a year — the dearest realistic way to vape in the UK.

Still roughly £3,600 a year less than smoking 20 a day.

There isn't a way of vaping that costs more than a comparable smoking habit. The duty narrows the gap; it doesn't close it.

What the duty does change

It's worth being straight about this: vaping is getting more expensive, and if you already vape you will pay more. What the duty changes is the *margin*, not the direction. Where switching once saved you around 90% of your tobacco spend, it now saves somewhat less — but on a 20-a-day habit that's still thousands of pounds a year.

It also makes how you vape matter more than it used to. Because duty is charged per millilitre, a low-millilitre MTL setup is now meaningfully cheaper to run than a high-volume one. We've set that out in the cheapest way to vape after the tax.

If you're thinking of switching

The cost case holds up, and the practical advice hasn't changed. Start with our beginner's guide to switching from smoking, get your nicotine strength right first time, and pick a kit from best beginner vape kits 2026.

If cravings are the sticking point rather than cost, how to beat nicotine cravings and vaping vs patches vs gum are the places to start.

For the broader picture on what October brings, see our key dates guide. And the earlier, pre-duty version of this comparison is still here: is vaping cheaper than smoking?