How Much Can You Save by Switching from Smoking to Vaping?

Cigarettes are expensive. That is not news. But most smokers never actually add it up. They buy a pack here, a pack there, and the cost just becomes background noise. When you do sit down and work out the real number, it tends to be a shock. This post breaks down what smoking actually costs in the UK, what vaping costs instead, and what the gap between those two figures looks like over a month and a year

What Does Smoking Cost in the UK?

A standard pack of 20 cigarettes in the UK costs around £14 to £15 in 2026, depending on the brand. Tobacco duty increases each year, so the price has been going up steadily for a long time and there is no sign of that changing.

Here is what that works out to at different smoking levels:

Figures are based on an average pack price of £14.70. Loose tobacco works out slightly cheaper at the moment, but rolling tobacco prices have climbed sharply too and the gap is narrower than it used to be.

That is also just the pack cost. It does not include lighters, the odd pack bought for someone else, or any of the smaller things that stack up around the habit.

What Does Vaping Actually Cost?

It depends on which setup you go with. There are two main options and each has a different running cost.

Option 1: A Refillable Vape Kit with E-Liquid

This is the cheaper option over time. You buy the device once, then replace the e-liquid and pods as you go. There are no big repeat costs beyond the consumables.

A good starter kit from brands like Vaporesso, Oxva, or Voopoo sits between £20 and £35. Entry-level options start lower, around £6 to £10 for basic pod devices, so there is something for most budgets in the vape kits range.

Once you have the device, the monthly spend breaks down roughly like this:

• Nic salt e-liquids (10ml): £3.99 per bottle. A moderate vaper goes through around 2 to 3 bottles a week, so roughly £8 to £12 weekly.
• Short fill e-liquids (50ml or 100ml): £9.99 to £11.99. Cheaper per ml and better suited to vapers who get through more liquid. A 100ml short fill paired with a nicotine booster shot can last a heavier vaper a couple of weeks.
• Replacement pods pre-filled or refillable pods for most kits run around £5 to £10 for a pack. How long they last depends on how much you vape and what liquid you use.

A rough monthly spend on a refillable setup looks like this:

Compare that to £420 a month for someone smoking 20 a day. Even at the top end of the vaping estimate, the difference is stark.

Option 2: Prefilled Pod Kits

Single-use disposable vapes were banned in the UK from June 2025. The alternative that has taken their place is the prefilled pod kit. These work in a similar way, they come pre-filled with e-liquid and are simple to use, but the device itself is rechargeable, which makes them legal and still very straightforward for anyone new to vaping.

Prefilled pod kits start from £4.99 for smaller options like the Lost Mary BM600 and SKE Crystal 600. Mid-range kits with more puffs, such as the SKE Bar 15K and SKE CL6000, sit at £9.99. Larger options like the Lost Mary Nera 30K come in at £14.99. If you buy in multiples, the 3 for £25 bundle brings the per-unit cost down further.

A SKE CL6000 at £9.99 delivers around 6,000 puffs. For most vapers that lasts four to five days, putting the monthly cost at roughly £50 to £60. It costs more than running a refillable kit with your own e-liquid, but it is still well under what the average smoker spends on cigarettes.

Side-by-Side Savings Comparison

Here is what the numbers look like when you put smoking against vaping.

Even using prefilled pod kits rather than a refillable setup, a 20-a-day smoker saves well over £300 a month. Over a year that is close to £4,000.

Why Vaping Costs Less

With cigarettes, every single one is single use. You buy it, you smoke it, that is it. There is nothing to reuse and no way to reduce that cost per unit over time.

With a refillable vape kit, the device is a one-off purchase. After that, you are paying for e-liquid, which is made up of vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol, flavouring, and nicotine. The production cost of that is a fraction of processed tobacco, and the retail price reflects that. A 10ml bottle of nic salt e-liquid at £3.99 covers roughly the same nicotine use as a pack of cigarettes or more, depending on your vaping pattern. Buying 10 bottles at once through the any-10-for-£30 deal at Fogfathers cuts that down to £3 per bottle.

What About the Upfront Cost?

The device cost puts some people off. But it pays for itself very quickly. A 20-a-day smoker spending £105 a week on cigarettes gets a £25 device cost back in less than two days of not buying cigarettes.

If you are not ready to commit to a refillable kit straight away, a prefilled pod kit is a low-effort way to start. There is no e-liquid to buy separately and the setup is minimal. Options like the SKE CL6000 and Lost Mary BM600 in the prefilled pod range come in nicotine strengths up to 20mg, so finding something close to your usual intake is straightforward.

Choosing the Right Nicotine Strength

One common reason people go back to cigarettes after trying vaping is picking a nicotine strength that is too low. If you smoke 15 to 20 cigarettes a day, a 3mg or 6mg e-liquid is not going to satisfy the craving. You will end up vaping more, spending more, or both.

Here is a rough guide based on smoking level:

• Light smokers (up to 10 a day): 10mg to 12mg nic salts
• Moderate smokers (10 to 20 a day): 12mg to 18mg nic salts
• Heavy smokers (20 or more a day): 18mg to 20mg nic salts

Nic salts are smoother to inhale at higher strengths than freebase nicotine, which is why they suit people making the switch from cigarettes. The nic salt range goes up to 20mg, with brands like Elux, Riot Squad and Bar Juice available at £3.99 per 10ml bottle.

Other Costs That Go Away

Switching from smoking removes more than just the weekly tobacco spend. A few other costs that quietly disappear:

• Lighters: constant small cost that most smokers replace without thinking about.
• Breath mints and gum: a lot of smokers buy these regularly to manage the smell.
• Extra laundry and dry cleaning: smoke clings to clothes and fabric.
• Air fresheners and car deodorisers: again, small individually, but bought more often because of the smell.

None of these are huge on their own. Together, they easily add £20 to £50 a month that most smokers do not mentally connect to their cigarette habit.

Short Fills and Nicotine Boosters: The Cheapest Way to Vape

If you get through a lot of e-liquid, short fills are the most cost-efficient option. A 100ml short fill at £9.99 to £11.99 has no nicotine in it. You add one or two nicotine booster shots at £0.99 each, shake the bottle, and you have 100ml to 120ml of e-liquid for around £10 to £14.

Buying ten 10ml bottles at £3.99 to get the same 100ml costs nearly £40. The short fill route saves roughly £26 on the same volume. For someone going through 100ml a week, that saving on e-liquid alone adds up to well over £1,000 a year.

What You Could Do With the Money

For a 20-a-day smoker switching to a refillable vape kit, the savings build up fast:

• After 1 month: around £360 saved. A short break away, or a decent chunk of something you have been putting off buying.
• After 3 months: around £1,080. A return flight to most European destinations.
• After 6 months: around £2,160.
• After 12 months: £4,000 or more, depending on what you were spending.

Is It Worth Switching Just for the Money?

The financial case is straightforward. Most smokers who switch to vaping cut their spend by 80% to 90%. That is a real number, not an estimate pulled from nowhere. It is what the maths produces when you compare current cigarette prices against realistic vaping costs.

Vaping also removes most of the secondary costs that pile up around smoking. The smell, the staining, the products you buy to cover for those things. These are costs that are easy to ignore until they stop. Once they do, you notice how much they were adding up.

Your First Month Is the Hardest on the Wallet

The first month includes the device cost. After that, you are only paying for e-liquid and pods. The bigger your cigarette spend was, the faster you get that device cost back. For most smokers, the break-even point is within the first week.

If you want to ease in, start with a prefilled pod kit to get a feel for vaping before moving to a refillable setup. If you are ready to go straight in, a starter kit at £20 to £35, a few nic salt bottles, and a pack of spare pods covers you for the whole month for less than a week's worth of cigarettes used to cost.

What the Switch Actually Saves You

A 20-a-day smoker spending £420 a month on cigarettes could realistically bring that down to £40 to £60 a month on vaping. That is over £4,000 back in a year. For a 10-a-day smoker, the annual saving still sits above £2,000.

The first step costs between £5 and £35 depending on which device you pick. That outlay comes back within days. Every month after that, the saving stacks up.