How The Proposed Vape Tax Could Affect Adult Vapers
How the UK Vape
Tax Could Affect
Adult Vapers
Six worked examples covering light, moderate plus heavy UK adult vapers. What the 2026 duty adds to your weekly and annual spend plus four realistic ways to reduce the hit without going back to smoking.
The 2026 UK vape tax will hit adult vapers differently depending on how much they vape plus which format they use. A light nic salt user pays around £2.64 extra per week. A moderate user pays around £5.28 extra. A heavy daily vaper on nic salts pays around £13.20 extra. Shortfill users see a big per bottle rise but often less per week because each bottle lasts longer. Longfill users feel the least impact because only the concentrate is duty-paid. The duty starts on 1 October 2026.
Three figures that show the
duty hit across user types
The headline number is the same for everyone. The weekly and annual impact is not. How often you open a new bottle is the biggest variable.
Light user weekly rise
Extra cost per week for an adult vaper getting through one 10ml nic salt bottle a week after the 2026 duty lands.
Moderate user weekly rise
Typical weekly increase for an adult vaper using two 10ml bottles per week. Annualised that is around £275.
Heavy user weekly rise
Biggest absolute weekly impact. A five-bottle nic salt habit annualises to around £690 of extra spend.
Six adult vaper profiles and what the 2026 duty means for each
Everyone reading this page wants to know one thing. How much worse off will I actually be? The honest answer depends on how often you refill plus which format you use. Here are six profiles that cover most UK adult vapers. Pick the one closest to you.
Profile 1: light nic salt user
One 10ml bottle per week at around £3.99. Typical for an adult ex-smoker who sits well below former cigarette consumption. After the duty lands a bottle of around £6.63. Weekly increase is £2.64. Annual increase is £138.
Profile 2: moderate nic salt user
Two 10ml bottles per week. Typical for someone with a previous 10 a day cigarette habit. Weekly increase is £5.28. Annual increase is £275.
Profile 3: heavy daily nic salt user
Five 10ml bottles per week. Common among ex-smokers who previously had a 20 a day habit. Weekly increase is £13.20. Annual increase is £687. This is the group the Treasury consultation paid most attention to because it is the profile most at risk of switching format or reducing consumption.
Profile 4: 100ml shortfill user
One 100ml shortfill bottle every two weeks at around £14.99. Typical for sub-ohm vapers. Each bottle carries around £26 of duty plus VAT on duty so the post-duty bottle price rises to around £37. Weekly increase is £13. Annual increase is £676.
Note the shortfill headline per bottle is alarming but the per ml cost is still lower than a 10ml nic salt even after duty. Moving from nic salt to shortfill is a common route to reducing the duty impact.
Profile 5: longfill concentrate user
One 20ml concentrate every two weeks at around £11.99. The concentrate carries around £4.40 of duty plus VAT on duty. Weekly increase is £2.60. Annual increase is £136. This is the lowest impact profile in the market because only the concentrate is duty-paid. The VG plus nic shot the user adds at home does not carry the same duty load.
Profile 6: mixed format user
Two 10ml nic salts per week for on the go plus one 100ml shortfill per month for home. A common pattern for vapers who want convenience plus value. Weekly increase sits around £11.78. Annual increase sits around £613.
How to reduce the 2026
vape tax hit on your wallet
Switch from nic salt to shortfill
Per ml cost is lower even after duty. Best suited to sub-ohm devices. Saves around 30% annually at heavy consumption levels.
Move to longfill
Only the concentrate is duty-paid. VG plus nic shot added at home. Delivers the lowest effective duty per finished ml of any format.
Stock up before 1 October 2026
Pre-duty stock held by retailers can be sold at old prices during the transition window. Expect bulk offers from September 2026.
Reduce total consumption
Lowering nicotine strength does not cut duty which is flat per ml. It can cut cravings and therefore total ml vaped which does cut spend.
Current annual spend vs
post-duty annual spend
What a full year of vaping costs an adult at each consumption level today versus what the same consumption looks like after 1 October 2026.
Current annual spend
- ✓Light user around £207 a year on e-liquid alone.
- ✓Moderate user around £415 a year.
- ✓Heavy nic salt user around £1,040 a year.
- ✓Shortfill user around £390 a year on liquid.
- ✓Longfill user around £310 a year on concentrate.
- ✓Coils plus hardware add roughly £80 to £150 a year extra.
Post-duty annual spend
- ✗Light user around £345 a year. Annual rise of £138.
- ✗Moderate user around £690 a year. Annual rise of £275.
- ✗Heavy nic salt user around £1,727 a year. Annual rise of £687.
- ✗Shortfill user around £1,066 a year on liquid.
- ✗Longfill user around £446 a year. Smallest rise of any format.
- ✗All figures still well under the annual cost of a 20 a day smoking habit.
The personal spend impact is one slice of the wider UK vape tax story. For the complete picture on why the duty is being introduced, how rates are set plus how it stacks up against tobacco duty visit our full vaping FAQs hub. Every tax-related question in one place.
Back to the Vaping FAQs hub
This article sits inside our complete FAQs knowledge base. Head back to the hub for the full index covering MHRA rules, TPD, the 2025 disposable ban, the 2026 vape tax plus retailer compliance.
More on the UK vape tax
This page answers the personal wallet question. The bigger picture questions most adult vapers ask next are about relapse risk plus retail pricing. If you are worried about being pushed back to cigarettes our deep dive on could the vape tax push people back to smoking walks through the evidence from Italy and Germany. For the detail on retail price pass through our guide to how much the vape tax could increase prices unpacks the duty plus VAT maths. For the political and public health rationale behind the duty our piece on why the UK government is introducing a vape tax sets out the Treasury case in full.