Calculating Your Vape Juice Needs: How Much Does E-Liquid Cost?
If you are looking to make the switch from smoking to vaping, or perhaps looking to move away from disposable vapes like Elf Bar or Lost Mary to refillable kits, understanding the costs involved can be a vital factor in your decision making.
In this blog we will explore one of the most important steps in understanding how much vaping costs – calculating your vape juice needs.
Table of Contents
- How Much Does E-LiQuid Cost?
- E-Liquid Cost Vs Smoking
- E-Liquid Cost Vs Disposable Vapes
- Choosing E-Liquid Wisely Can Reduce The Cost of Vaping
- How To Choose The Best E-Liquid Nicotine Strength
- Should You Vape Freebase or Nic Salt E-Liquid?
- The Impact Of Vape Kits On E-Liquid Cost
- Conclusion: Vaping With 10ml E-Liquids Is Cheaper Than Disposable Vapes or Smoking.
How Much Does E-Liquid Cost?
The average e-liquid can cost less than £1 all the way up to over £5 for 10ml. As with any consumable products, different brands charge different prices for their e-liquids, and your decision to try one or another can make a big difference in working out how much vaping costs overall.
If for example you decide to opt for nic salt vape juice, 10ml brands like Elfliq by Elf Bar, Lost Mary, or Elux Legends will cost you more per bottle, at circa 3.99 for 10ml of vape juice. You might be a disposable vaper wanting to find a like-for-like product to the single-use vape of your choice, in which case these brands are ideal but will cost you more for the privilege.
Finding cost-effective alternatives like our own £2 Bar Salts range, which replicates all the same flavours as these ranges but with even better quality control for far less, will save you money and still deliver the satisfaction you are after.
Freebase vape juice can also be found at a range of prices, but you might struggle to beat the quality and value offered by our own £1 range which features a massive selection of flavours and strengths to help you find one that will suit your journey and save you quite a bit of money in the process.
You should note that perceptions of quality based on price are not always accurate in the vaping world, and while big name brands tend to charge a premium, you can find cheaper vape juice from stores like our own that offer the same flavours for less, with far greater quality overall which you can learn about in our blog about cheap vape deals.
E-Liquid Cost Vs Smoking
To establish an example calculation for your vape juice needs as a smoker looking to quit, we will assume you have chosen the best nicotine strength for your needs based on the table above, and that you have paired it with a suitable 50-50 style device running a coil rated at 1.0ohm or above like the OXVA Xlim Pro using a Xlim V2 1.2ohm pod.
With this kind of setup you can expect a 10ml bottle of e-liquid to last you anywhere from 2 to 5 days depending on your vaping frequency – factoring in that nic salts are designed to satisfy for longer and so are typically consumed less quickly. The chart below will demonstrate the highest and lowest expected monthly cost of vaping vs the cost of smoking:
| E-Liquid Type | Bottles Per Week* | Bottles Per Month* | Monthly E-Liquid Cost vs Smoking** |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freebase | 2-4 | 8-16 | £8 - £16 vs £240 - £420 |
| Nic Salt | 2-3 | 8-12 | £16 - £24 vs £240 - £420 |
*Ranging from lighter-heavier use according to previous smoking intensity
**Cost based on using LiQuid £1 freebase vape juice or £2 Bar Salts nic salt vape juice vs UK average for 20 cigarettes (£15)
E-Liquid Cost Vs Disposable Vapes
Working out how much vape juice you will need and how much it will cost as a disposable vaper looking to switch to 10ml bottled e-liquid is a little easier to establish, with all legal examples of single-use vapes containing 2ml of nic salt vape juice per device.
Considering the lowest likely price of a single use vape is £5, that equates to an e-juice cost per millilitre of £2.50 vs only 20 pence per millilitre if opting for our 10ml Bar Salts range. Even when factoring in the initial one-time cost of buying a refillable vape kit, and the long-term coil/pod replacement cost, the savings of switching to 10ml bottled e-liquid makes it a much more budget-friendly option.
The chart below outlines the potential needs of and cost to a vaper based matching their previous disposable vape consumption rate, from less frequent to the very common one-per-day rate:
| Disposable vapes used per week | 10ml bottled Nic Salts needed per week to match consumption* | Equivalent e-liquid in 10ml Nic Salts per month | Disposable vape cost vs 10ml Nic Salt e-liquid cost per month** |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 4 | £20 vs £8 |
| 3 | 1 | 4 | £60 vs £8 |
| 5 | 1 | 4 | £100 vs £8 |
| 7 | 2 | 8 | £140 vs £16 |
*Consumption rate based on use with an appropriate device for nic salts such as the Vaporesso Xros Pro.
**Assuming the lowest average cost of a disposable vape (£5) and choosing LiQuid £2 Bar Salts vape juice.
Choosing E-Liquid Wisely Can Reduce The Cost of Vaping
The first step in calculating your vape juice needs and expense is working out which e-liquid type you want to use. We have lots of helpful guidance on this process in our blog – How To Vape Properly but we will outline the basics below.
How To Choose The Best E-Liquid Nicotine Strength
Whether you are a smoker or disposable vaper, choosing the right 10ml e-liquid strength is vital in not only ensuring your cravings are satisfied but also in how much e-liquid you are likely to consume.
Freebase e-liquids like those in our original £1 range typically come in a range of nicotine strengths from 0mg up to 18mg. Nic salt vape juice like our £2 Bar Salts range is typically available in 10mg or 20mg, with some options available in 5mg too.
Deciding which of these strengths is appropriate for your own journey should be based on how many cigarettes you have previously smoked. In the case of disposable vapers, it should be based on how strong your vape bar of choice used to be. Although many disposable vapes are only available in the maximum legal strength permitted in the UK – 20mg, making the decision a little easier to work out.
The blow chart is a good approximate guide to help you decide:
| Type of Smoker/Vaper | Lighter Smoker | Mid-Level Smoker | Heavy Smoker | Disposable Vaper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of cigarettes/bars per day | 1-10 cigarettes per day | 10-15 cigarettes per day | 15-20+cigarettes per day | 1+ single use vape bar per day |
| Ideal Starting Nicotine Strength When Vaping | 3mg-6mg freebase | 12mg-18mg freebase | 18mg freebase 10mg-20mg Nic Salt | 20mg Nic Salt |
There are of course exceptions to the above, such as disposable vapers who have been stuck on 20mg because there are no other options available but feel it is more than they need – in which case trying out 10mg nic salt vape juice is a great option.
As a smoker, do not feel trapped by one nicotine strength because you feel it should be enough, experimentation is important, and you may need to move up or down strengths at first to find the one that delivers the nicotine you need without needing to vape more frequently than you are comfortable with.
Should You Vape Freebase or Nic Salt E-Liquid?
The decision to vape freebase or nic salt e-liquid is down to your personal preferences and can be influenced by a number of factors. Ultimately though the one you choose could influence your vape juice needs and how much vaping might cost you in the long-run.
Below are some examples of preferences that might guide you towards one or the other.
You should consider choosing freebase vape juice if:
- You enjoyed the throat-hit from smoking and want vaping to offer the same experience.
- You are looking for a milder flavour experience rather than sweeter and more punchy profiles.
- You are looking for a slightly wider range of nicotine strengths to experiment with as a new vaper to find your ideal level.
You should consider choosing nic salt vape juice if:
- You have strong cravings to satisfy but don’t like the idea of a throat hit
You are looking for a faster-acting or longer-lasting nicotine hit.
- You are looking for a bold favour experience from your vape.
- You have already tried freebase vape juice and found it helped cravings, but the throat hit was too much and made you cough.
- You can learn more about the differences between the two in our blog: The Ultimate Guide To Nic salt Vape Juice.
The Impact Of Vape Kits On E-Liquid Cost
Not only are vape kits the biggest upfront cost of vaping, knowing the basics of different types of vape kit is important in calculating how much vaping could cost you, as well as how much e-liquid you are likely to need each week. You can explore more about the cost of switching to refillable vape kits/pods and tanks in our blog: Vaping On A Budget, but we will outline the key principals for understanding e-liquid consumption below.
The two biggest factors in how quickly you will get through e-liquids in different devices are your chosen power level and your coil rating.
The higher the power setting you choose, given most often in watts, the quicker the device will use up the e-liquid you put inside, and vice versa. If your coil is rated at 0.9 ohm or below it is considered ‘sub-ohm’ and typically these coils use up vape juice much faster than those intended for 50-50 style vape juice rated at 1.0ohm or above.
Both options offer different experiences from more to less vapour and even flavour delivery, so it’s up to you which you choose, however be aware that your decision could influence how much e-liquid you might require to sustain you over a given period of time, and therefore impact how much vaping costs you long-term.
Conclusion: Vaping With 10ml E-Liquids Is Cheaper Than Disposable Vapes or Smoking.
You should now have the information you need to calculate your own potential e-liquid needs and know how much it could really cost you. Whether you are switching from smoking or disposable vapes, the cost savings are potentially huge, leaving plenty of room in a monthly budget for purchasing even the most expensive kits on offer. Although the majority that will serve your needs when starting out with refillable kits and 10ml e-liquids are only circa £20 or less.
While the information in this blog serves as a guide only, you can apply the fundamentals to your own journey and quickly establish how much e-liquid you will be consuming each month – you can use this to track and manage that consumption if you wish to reduce the amount of nicotine you consume for example, or simply use it to help better manage your monthly expenses.
There will always be occasions where you consume more or less e-liquid in a given time frame but as a general rule, vaping with 10ml bottled e-liquids is almost always cheaper and safer than smoking cigarettes or repeatedly buying disposable vapes.
