How Much Nicotine Is in a Vape?

If you’ve read about vaping, or if you’ve ever wanted to learn more about it, here are the main features of vaping: It’s the most satisfying and enjoyable smoke-free alternative to cigarettes. It’s estimated that 80 million former smokers worldwide now vape. However, if you want to know more about what you’re taking in, it’s natural to seek out more information about vaping before switching to vaping. In particular, you may want to know how nicotine levels in vapes compare to cigarettes. We’ll answer that question next.

So, how much nicotine is in a bottle of e-liquid or a disposable vape? How does the nicotine content compare to cigarettes? First, we’ll take a deep dive into what nicotine concentration in vape products actually means.

What does the nicotine concentration of e-liquid represent?

Here are two examples.

• A 10 mL bottle of e-liquid with a nicotine concentration of 20 mg/mL has a total nicotine content of 200 mg.

• A 2 mL disposable e-liquid with a nicotine concentration of 20 mg/mL has a total nicotine content of 40 mg.

Now that you have a general idea of ​​how to determine the nicotine content in a vape or a bottle of e-liquid, it’s time to get the answers to the questions you came here with. How much nicotine is in a vape compared to a cigarette? And how many cigarettes are in a vape?

How many cigarettes are in one vape, based on nicotine content?

To compare the nicotine content of vapes and cigarettes, it’s helpful to know how much nicotine is in one cigarette. According to a study published in 2020, the nicotine content of a cigarette is generally between 0.1 mg and 3.0 mg, depending on whether it is a low-nicotine cigarette or a high-nicotine cigarette. For the sake of comparison, we’ll just take the middle value and assume that a regular cigarette has 1.5 mg of nicotine. If each cigarette has 1.5 mg of nicotine, then a pack of 20 cigarettes will produce about 30 mg of nicotine. This is the nicotine content determined by an automatic smoking machine, which is lower than the amount of nicotine contained in unsmoked tobacco. Inevitably, some nicotine is lost during the smoking process.

So, how does it compare to vapes? Let’s take the VECEE MAZE as an example. This is a pod system device, and its e-liquid is stored in a pre-filled pod. Each pod contains 10 ml of vape liquid with a nicotine concentration of 50 mg/ml, so one pod contains 500 mg of nicotine in total. Therefore, if you smoke a pack of average-yield cigarettes per day, you can expect each vape pod to last about five days or more.

What if you use a refillable vape kit and buy vape liquid by the bottle? You can determine approximately how many cigarettes are in a bottle of vape liquid by performing the same calculation. A 10 ml bottle of vape liquid with a nicotine concentration of 20 mg/ml contains 200 mg of nicotine, which is equivalent to about 5-7 packs of cigarettes.

How many cigarettes are in one vape, calculated by the number of puffs?

Another way to compare the nicotine content in vapes and cigarettes is to look at the number of puffs of various devices. On the packaging of each disposable vape, you’ll see a number indicating the approximate number of puffs the device can take before it runs out of liquid. For example, the VECEE NORA can take up to 600 puffs, while the VECEE VC CYBER can take up to 8,000 puffs. The liquid content and nicotine concentration of disposable vapes you can buy may vary depending on where you live.

So, how many cigarettes are in a vape if you count them by puffs? Smokers typically take about 10-15 puffs before putting out a cigarette, so we conservatively estimate that 15 puffs of a vape is about the same as one cigarette. If that’s the case, a disposable vape that can take 600 puffs is equivalent to about two packs of cigarettes. A disposable vape that can take 8,000 puffs is equivalent to up to three packs of cigarettes.

Of course, the number of puffs from a disposable vape won’t be exactly the same as the number stated on the box, as the number of puffs you can take from a disposable vape before running out of liquid depends on how you vape. In reality, a large-capacity disposable vape doesn’t really draw the equivalent of two packs of cigarettes, but this comparison highlights how affordable disposable vapes are compared to tobacco cigarettes. You can check out more about “How Long Do Disposable Vapes Last“

Your body doesn’t absorb all the nicotine you smoke

Are you already a vaper? If so, you may have compared the numbers mentioned in this article to your own nicotine usage – and you may have discovered that a single vape or bottle of e-liquid doesn’t, in practice, last as long as the timeframes we describe in this article. If so, there’s probably nothing to worry about, as nicotine is never 100% bioavailable. Some nicotine escapes your body when you exhale, and some is metabolized before entering your bloodstream.

Cigarettes are specifically designed to make nicotine as bioavailable as possible. They contain chemicals not found in e-liquids, such as pH adjusters and buffers. E-liquids, on the other hand, contain only pharmaceutical-grade nicotine that has not been chemically adjusted in any way, except for the addition of mild acids to salt nicotine e-liquids. In other words, the nicotine in e-liquids may not be as bioavailable as the nicotine in cigarettes. So when you switch to vaping, you may be taking in slightly more nicotine.

Are you concerned that you may be using more nicotine than you actually need? We’ll end this article by exploring this topic.

Are you getting the right amount of nicotine?

If you feel like you’re vaping almost all the time and never really put the device down, you may be searching for information about nicotine levels in vapes because you’re concerned that you may be taking in more nicotine than you actually need. In that case, we have good news for you. If you don’t feel like you’re taking in too much nicotine, then you’re probably not. Research shows that people who use nicotine naturally adjust their usage to meet their personal needs. In other words, when you don’t need nicotine, you stop using the device – and this behavior is often automatic.

If you’re still concerned that you may be taking in more nicotine than you need, though, we’ve provided some concrete data in this article that we hope will help answer your question. Based on the nicotine content of vapes and cigarettes, and how many puffs you might take before putting a cigarette out, you now have a better idea of ​​how vapes and cigarettes compare in terms of nicotine delivery. You can use this information to determine if you’re taking in roughly the same amount of nicotine as you would have if you were still a smoker.

After reading this article, have you concluded that you’re taking in much more nicotine now than you were when you were smoking? If so, there’s no need to panic, as reducing your nicotine intake is easy as long as you do it gradually. Using a vape makes this process particularly easy, as you can choose the nicotine strength of your vape liquid – and since many vape devices have puff counters built into them, you can reduce your nicotine intake by one puff per day if you wish. In fact, you can even use a vape to help you quit nicotine if that’s your ultimate goal.