How Much Does Vaping Actually Cost Per Month in the UK? We Measured 23,438 Live Prices
Short answer: on median UK prices, a 2ml-a-day habit costs about £27.60 a month refilling from a bottle (coils included), against about £79.80 a month on prefilled refill pods. From 1 October 2026 the Vaping Products Duty pushes those to roughly £43.44 and £95.64. That is a gap of about £52 a month, or £626 a year, for the same amount of vaping.
Every UK vape site will tell you refilling is cheaper. Almost none of them show their working, and the numbers that do get quoted — “six times cheaper”, “25p per ml” — tend to come from a single cherry-picked multibuy deal.
So we measured it. This page is the arithmetic, with the method stated, so you can check it against your own habit rather than take our word for it.
How we measured it
We took a scrape of ten UK vape retailers on 3 August 2026, kept only listings marked in stock with a price, and ended up with 23,438 priced listings. We used medians, not averages, so that a handful of very cheap or very expensive listings cannot pull the figure around.
| Format | Listings measured | Median listed price | Middle half of the market |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10ml nic salt bottle | 7,143 | £3.45 | £2.59 – £3.99 |
| Replacement / refill pods | 5,453 | £5.99 | £4.95 – £6.99 |
| Refillable pod kit (the device) | 2,502 | £9.95 | £7.99 – £12.99 |
| Coils (per coil) | 327 | £2.20 | — |
Those are market medians on one dated snapshot, not any single shop's prices, and prices move. This sits alongside our UK Vape Price Index, which measured a different thing entirely — how far the price of the same product varies from shop to shop. This page measures how far cost varies from format to format.
The number that actually matters: cost per millilitre
Comparing a £3.45 bottle with a £5.99 pod pack tells you nothing, because they do not contain the same amount of liquid. Normalise to millilitres and the picture changes completely.
| Format | Basis | Cost per ml |
|---|---|---|
| Bottled nic salt | 4,194 listings with the volume stated | £0.35 |
| Prefilled refill pods | 286 listings with a stated pack size, at the UK 2ml-per-pod limit | £1.33 |
That is a multiple of 3.8×. Not the “six times” figure that circulates — we could not reproduce that from live market data, and we would rather publish the smaller honest number than the bigger convenient one.
We use millilitres rather than puff counts deliberately. Puff counts are manufacturer claims measured to no common standard, and we have said as much in our guide to spotting an illegal vape. Millilitres are a physical quantity printed on the box — and, importantly, the new duty is charged per ml, not per puff.
What it costs per month, at your usage
Find the row that matches roughly what you get through. The refillable column includes a coil allowance of three coils a month at the measured median; prefilled pods need no separate coil because the coil sits inside the pod.
| Your use | Per month | Refillable now | Refillable from Oct | Prefilled pods now | Prefilled pods from Oct | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light — 1ml/day | 30ml | £17.10 | £25.02 | £39.90 | £47.82 | £22.80/mo |
| Moderate — 2ml/day | 60ml | £27.60 | £43.44 | £79.80 | £95.64 | £52.20/mo |
| Regular — 3ml/day | 90ml | £38.10 | £61.86 | £119.70 | £143.46 | £81.60/mo |
| Heavy — 4ml/day | 120ml | £48.60 | £80.28 | £159.60 | £191.28 | £111.00/mo |
| Very heavy — 6ml/day | 180ml | £69.60 | £117.12 | £239.40 | £286.92 | £169.80/mo |
Add the device itself once — a median of £9.95 for a refillable pod kit — and at moderate use the switch has paid for itself inside the first month.
If you have no idea which row you are, that is the single most useful thing to work out. How much liquid you get through in a week drives your monthly cost far harder than which brand you pick. Our nicotine strength guide is the place to start, because strength and consumption move together.
The bit almost everyone gets wrong about the duty
From 1 October 2026 the Vaping Products Duty adds a flat £2.20 per 10ml — £0.22 per ml — to vaping liquid, with VAT then charged on top of the duty-inclusive price. At the till that is about £0.264 per ml on everything with liquid in it.
Because it is flat per ml, it lands as a much bigger percentage on the cheap format:
| Format | Per ml now | Per ml from Oct | Rise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bottled nic salt | £0.35 | £0.61 | +75% |
| Prefilled refill pods | £1.33 | £1.59 | +20% |
| Gap between them | £0.98 | £0.98 | unchanged |
Read that bottom row twice. A flat per-ml charge adds the same number of pence to both formats, so the gap in pounds is exactly the same before and after. The percentages make it look as though refilling is the format being punished. In money, refilling saves you precisely as much on 2 October as it did on 30 September — everything simply costs more.
And one correction worth making plainly. Several UK vape sites are currently saying that refillable products are exempt from the duty. They are not. The duty is charged on vaping liquid, whatever container it arrives in, including nicotine-free liquid. What escapes it is the hardware — devices, batteries and coils. If you want the detail on how that is policed, we have written up the duty stamps scheme and the duty itself separately.
What we did not measure
Being straight about the limits of this:
- Multibuy deals. We measured single-unit listed prices. Three-for-two style offers on bottles are common and would push the refillable figure further down, not up — so the gap above is, if anything, conservative.
- Coil life. Three coils a month is a reasonable middle assumption, not a law. Heavy sweet-flavour users burn through more; light users fewer. Our guide on when to change a coil and on why a vape tastes burnt covers what actually drives that.
- One dated snapshot. 3 August 2026. Prices move, and they will move a lot around 1 October.
- Convenience has value. This page prices liquid. It does not price the thirty seconds it takes to refill a pod, and for plenty of people that trade is worth paying for. That is a real preference, not a mistake.
So what should you actually buy?
Three honest routes, depending on which of those things you care about most.
If cost is the priority: refillable kit plus bottled nic salt
This is the cheapest way to vape in the UK, before and after the duty, and it is not close. A kit such as the Vaporesso XROS 6, Uwell Caliburn G5, OXVA NeXlim 2 or Aspire Minican 3 Pro, refilled from the nic salt range. If you have never refilled a pod, our beginner refill guide walks through it, and the VG/PG guide explains which liquid suits a small pod kit.
If convenience is the priority: keep the kit, buy refill pods
You are paying roughly 3.8 times more per ml, and you should know that — but you are buying back the refilling. The Lost Mary NERA 30K refill pods and Hayati Pro Ultra 25K pods are the two biggest refill ranges we stock, and our pod compatibility guide tells you what fits what before you order the wrong thing.
If you are switching from cigarettes: start with the kit, not the cost
Get the nicotine right first and optimise the running cost afterwards — a cheap setup you abandon costs more than an expensive one you stick with. Our guide for former smokers and the nic salts vs freebase explainer are the right starting points, and the vaping vs smoking cost comparison puts these numbers next to a cigarette habit.
The bottom line
Bottled nic salt costs £0.35 per ml across the UK market; prefilled refill pods cost £1.33. The October duty adds the same £0.264 per ml to both, so it raises everyone's bill without changing which format is cheaper. At a moderate 2ml-a-day habit, refilling keeps roughly £52 a month in your pocket after the duty lands — and the device that makes that possible costs about a fifth of one month's saving.
Sources and method
- Price data: own scrape of ten UK vape retailers, 3 August 2026; 23,438 in-stock priced listings; medians reported.
- Duty rate and start date: GOV.UK — Vaping Products Duty guidance (£2.20 per 10ml, from 1 October 2026, applies to nicotine-free liquid too).
- 2ml prefilled pod limit: UK tobacco and related products regulations.
- VAT treatment: standard 20% charged on the duty-inclusive price.
Last checked 9 August 2026. All prices are market medians from a dated third-party snapshot and are used to compare formats, not to quote what anything sells for today. This is general information, not financial advice.
Frequently asked questions
How much does vaping cost per month in the UK?
On our measured medians, a 2ml-a-day habit costs about £27.60 a month refilling from bottled nic salt (including coils), against about £79.80 a month on prefilled refill pods. From 1 October 2026 those become roughly £43.44 and £95.64 once the Vaping Products Duty is added. Figures are market medians from a 3 August 2026 scrape, not any one shop's prices.
Which is cheapest to run monthly — prefilled pods or a refillable kit?
A refillable kit, by a wide margin. Across 10 UK retailers the median bottled nic salt works out at £0.35 per ml, against £1.33 per ml for prefilled replacement pods — about 3.8 times more. Even after adding coil costs to the refillable side, the refillable route stays substantially cheaper at every usage level we modelled.
Does the October 2026 vape duty cancel out the saving from refillables?
No, and this is the part most coverage gets wrong. The duty is a flat charge per ml, so it adds the same amount to both formats. In percentage terms bottled liquid rises more (about 75% against about 20% for pods), but in pounds the gap between the two formats is identical before and after — about £0.98 per ml either way.
Are refillable vape products exempt from the Vaping Products Duty?
No. Several UK sites currently state this and it is incorrect. The duty applies to vaping liquids at a flat rate of £2.20 per 10ml, whatever the format and whatever the nicotine strength, including nicotine-free liquid. What is not charged the duty is the hardware itself — devices, batteries and coils.
How much e-liquid does an average vaper use per day?
It varies enormously, which is why we modelled a range rather than a single figure. Light use sits around 1ml a day, moderate use around 2 to 3ml, and heavy use 4ml or more. Work out roughly what you get through in a week and divide by seven — that number matters far more to your monthly cost than which brand you buy.
Why not just compare puff counts instead of millilitres?
Because puff counts are manufacturer claims and are not measured to a common standard, while millilitres are a physical quantity printed on the packaging. The duty is also charged per ml, not per puff, so millilitres are the only unit that makes the tax comparable across formats.
Do coils change the answer?
They narrow the gap but do not close it. We added a coil allowance to the refillable side at the measured median of about £2.20 per coil, assumed three a month. Prefilled pods need no separate coil because the coil is inside the pod. Even so, the refillable route stayed cheaper by roughly £52 a month at 2ml a day on post-duty figures.
How were these numbers calculated?
From a scrape of ten UK vape retailers taken on 3 August 2026, filtered to listings marked in stock, giving 23,438 priced listings. We used medians rather than averages so that a few extreme listings cannot distort the result, and derived per-ml figures only where the volume was stated on the listing or could be taken from a stated pack size at the UK 2ml-per-pod limit.