How Much Do Vapes Cost in the UK?

Vaping isn’t just better than smoking because of the reduced risk; it’s also better because switching to vaping can help you save an enormous amount of money. With the average price of cigarettes currently at £15.85 per pack, you’re paying a whopping £5,785 per year if you’re a pack-a-day smoker. Vaping doesn’t cost anywhere near that – but how much are vapes, exactly? In this guide, we’ll explain everything that you need to know.

How Much Are Disposable Vapes?

• Yearly cost: £900-1,800
• Recurring costs: New devices
• Best disposable vapes (click to read our reviews): Crystal Bar, Gold Bar, Pod Salt Go 600

A disposable vape typically costs about £5 and lasts up to two days depending on your usage habits. In the UK, regulations allow pre-filled vaping devices to contain no more than 2 ml of vape juice. That rule applies to disposable vapes, cigalikes and pre-filled pod systems. In addition, the maximum allowable strength for an e-liquid containing nicotine is 20 mg/ml. To provide value for money, a disposable vape typically contains the maximum allowable amount of nicotine: 2 ml of e-liquid with a strength of 20 mg/ml.

The fact that disposable vapes contain as much nicotine as is allowed helps to make them more affordable. A disposable vape still costs more over time, though, because you need to replace the entire device when it’s empty. The amount of money that you can expect to spend on disposable vapes per year depends on how many days the devices last for you. If you need to replace your vape every day, you’ll spend quite a lot compared to other types of vapes.

How Much Are Cigalikes?

• Yearly cost: £600-800
• Recurring costs: Refill cartridges
• Best cigalike: V2 Cigs

A cigalike is a cigarette-shaped vaping device that stores its e-liquid in a disposable cartridge and has a small rechargeable battery component. When a cartridge is out of e-liquid, you’ll throw it away and start using a new one. A starter kit for a cigalike costs around £20. This article primarily focuses on recurring costs, though, since a vape starter kit is essentially a one-time expense. You’ll need to replace a rechargeable vaping device about once a year because the battery will eventually stop holding a charge. By that point, though, you’ll probably have wanted to buy something new anyway.

Cigalikes are the least expensive pre-filled vaping devices, with cartridges costing as little as about £1.59 each if you buy them in bulk. If you buy your cartridges in smaller packages, you’ll pay a little more per cartridge. A cartridge generally lasts about a day before it runs out of e-liquid.

How Much Are Pre-Filled Pod Vapes?

• Yearly cost: £900-1,100
• Recurring costs: Refill pods
• Best pre-filled pod vapes: Elf Bar Elfa, Voom Pod Mod

Pre-filled pod vapes are somewhat similar to cigalikes in how they work. You’ll simply charge the battery, drop in a pod and inhale to vape. Pod vapes don’t look like tobacco cigarettes, though – and because of their larger size, you can’t hold one between two fingers as you can with a cigalike. Pod vapes do have a benefit compared to cigalikes, though, in that they may produce bigger vapour clouds. That could be a useful feature for you if your nicotine requirements are higher than most.

A starter kit for a pre-filled pod system usually costs around £10-15. That’s less than what you might pay for a cigalike kit, but you’ll end up paying more in the long run because pre-filled vape pods cost more than cartridges for cigalikes. That’s because pod systems are proprietary. Since they can’t work with third-party pods, manufacturers can charge more for the refills. Pre-filled vape pods typically cost £2-3 each and last about two days.

How Much Are Refillable Pod Vapes?

• Yearly cost: £300-500
• Recurring costs: E-liquid, replacement pods or coils
• Best refillable pod vapes: Vaporesso XROS 4, Innokin Trine

At this point, we’re getting into vaping devices that require a bit more work but can pay great dividends in terms of flexibility and cost savings. A refillable pod vape looks much the same as a pre-filled pod system, but the difference is that you’ll fill your own pods instead of buying pre-filled ones. The benefit, though, is that filling your own vape means that you can use any e-liquid on the market – whatever flavour and nicotine strength you like. You can refill the same pod as many times as you like until you’re no longer happy with the flavour quality.

Refillable pod vapes are usually designed to work best with nicotine salt e-liquid, which costs about £4 and comes in 10 ml bottles. Assuming you use the highest allowable nicotine strength of 20 mg/ml, you can expect a bottle of nicotine salt vape juice to last about 5-10 days. We used a week as the basis for our calculation.

Likewise, you can also expect a refillable vape pod to last about a week before it begins to taste burnt, although it’s important to remember that your choice of e-liquid plays a role here. If you use vape juice that’s heavily sweetened, your pods will begin to taste burnt more quickly. Empty vape pods usually cost about £2.50 each.

For most people, using a small refillable vape and a high-strength e-liquid is the cheapest way to vape. Refillable pod systems are very affordable in the long run.

How Much Are Vape Mods?

• Yearly cost: £800-1,000
• Recurring costs: E-liquid, replacement coils
• Best vape mods: Geekvape Aegis Legend 2, SMOK Morph 3

Vape mods are the most powerful vaping devices on the market. They’re also the most advanced devices and tend to have built-in menu systems offering all kinds of different options and settings. In other words, vape mods are fairly complicated compared to other types of vapes and may not be appropriate for beginners for that reason. The benefit, though, is that vape mods offer enormous cloud production. They’re often preferred by people with very high nicotine requirements.

The drawback of using a device with huge vapour production, though, is that it’ll increase your long-term costs because you’ll use more e-liquid and will need to replace your device’s coil more frequently – especially if you use sweetened vape juice. If you use sweetened e-liquid with a vape mod, your coils will begin to taste burnt after just two or three days. Replacement coils for a high-end mod typically cost around £3-3.50 each and usually last around a week. If you use sweetened e-liquid, though, you can expect your coil life to be much shorter.

Vape mods are usually designed to work with lower-strength freebase vape juice, which costs around $2.50 per 10 ml if you buy in bulk or use shortfill e-liquid. A 60 ml bottle of shortfill e-liquid will cost about £15 and will last about nine days if you manage your nicotine intake carefully.

How to Make Vaping Cost as Little as Possible

Reading this article, you’ve learned that the best vapes in the UK carry a yearly cost ranging from about £300-1,800. No matter what, you can expect to save a lot of money compared to smoking – but you can maximise your savings by making the right choices. We’ve already discussed how your choice of equipment can influence your costs. Next, let’s talk about how using the right vaping habits can help to keep your expenses down.

• If you don’t mind the inconvenience of filling and maintaining your device, you’ll almost always spend less if you use a refillable vape. Over time, bottled e-liquid always costs less than pre-filled cartridges or pods.
• Use unsweetened e-liquid to make your coils or pods last as long as they can. Sweeteners create residue that shortens a coil’s life and can make it taste burnt after just a couple of days.
• Choose an e-liquid with the highest nicotine strength that provides a good experience with your chosen vaping device. You’ll adjust your usage automatically based on the strength of your e-liquid, which means that you’ll use less e-liquid and will spend less in the long run if the strength is higher. Conversely, you’ll use more e-liquid if the strength is lower.
• Don’t vape more often than you would have smoked. Because vaping tastes so much better than smoking and is less likely to cause side effects like throat irritation, some people who switch from smoking to vaping end up using more nicotine than they actually need. If you do that, you’ll spend more than you should. Monitor your nicotine usage closely.
• Use your vaping device until it stops working – even if something newer and shinier comes along. Although we’ve focused on recurring costs in this article, vape kits – while typically very affordable – cost money as well. You’ll stretch your money further if you use your devices as long as you possibly can.