Vape Duty — in plain terms
The Vape Duty starts 1 October 2026.
It adds around £2.64 per 10ml of e-liquid — but our prices won't change on the day. You can keep buying your usual e-liquids at today's prices, before and after 1 October, while our pre-duty stock lasts. We'll give you notice before that changes.
Where this comes from
The Vaping Products Duty (VPD) is a new tax introduced by the UK Government and administered by HMRC. It was announced at the 2024 Budget and applies across the whole of the UK from 1 October 2026.
It's a flat, government-set charge. The same £2.64 per 10ml (£2.20 + VAT) is added to every e-liquid sold anywhere in the UK.
It is the single biggest change the UK vaping industry has faced to date, affecting every retailer and customer alike. None of it is a price rise we've chosen — the duty is collected on the Government's behalf.
The Government's stated aims are to discourage young people and non-smokers from taking up vaping, to keep a clear price gap between vaping and smoking, and to raise revenue — around £445 million a year by the end of the decade. It was legislated in the Finance Act 2026 and is separate to the Tobacco and Vapes Act which became law in April 2026.
The Government has said the rate is set so that vaping remains considerably cheaper than smoking, and that preserving that gap is a deliberate part of the design.
How the duty affects prices across the market
Because the duty is charged per millilitre, the increase depends far more on how much e-liquid a product holds than on what it costs today. These are typical UK market examples — not our own confirmed prices — to show the shape of the change. The cheapest e-liquids are hit hardest of all.
Illustrative figures for widely-available market products. Duty calculated at £2.64 per 10ml on the e-liquid each product contains.
Why the cheapest e-liquids will have the biggest price increases
A £1 bottle isn't cheap because it's efficient — it's cheap because the e-liquid inside it is. When a flat £2.64 lands on top, a £1 bottle can more than triple in price, while a considered, better-made e-liquid changes by a far smaller share. The duty quietly rewards quality over throwaway pricing.
Where JAC stands on price
We've long rewarded bulk buying with strong multibuy discounts on e-liquid, and keeping that a core part of how we price stays a priority as we rebuild things around the new duty.
The duty itself is fixed and can't be discounted, but we're still designing our pricing around it — likely absorbing some of the cost ourselves and introducing new volume discounts to help. We don't yet know the final figures, and we won't pretend otherwise. We'll publish them here, and email customers, before any price changes.
One thing we can say now: for JAC customers the change isn't tied to 1 October. Our pre-duty stock is sold at pre-duty prices for as long as it lasts, so the date that matters is when that stock runs low — and we'll tell you before it does. Our aim is simple: to soften the blow as much as we honestly can.
What's changing, and what isn't
All e-liquid — including nicotine-free, nic salts, nicotine shots and flavour concentrates — carries the new duty from 1 October 2026: a flat £2.64 per 10ml, on top of the retailer's price.
Devices, coils, refillable (empty) pods and accessories. The duty doesn't touch them — their prices are unaffected.
What this means for you
There isn't one 'right' way to respond to this, and it isn't ours to decide for you. Speaking with customers, three honest responses come up most:
Buying a little ahead
Pre-duty stock stays at today's prices whether you buy it before or after 1 October, and we'll keep selling ours until it runs out. Some customers are choosing to keep a bit more on hand than usual. If you do, buy what you'll realistically get through — e-liquid has a shelf life, and there's no need to rush.
Knowing what moves your duty bill
Because the duty is per millilitre, it follows how much liquid you use. We studied 1,366 of our own customers to find out what actually sets that — and it isn't flavour, ratio or coil. Here's what we found, or read the full study.
Vaping a little less
Some people naturally taper their use over time regardless of price, and a change like this can be a natural moment to ease off.
What actually changes how much e-liquid you use
It's tempting to say one type of e-liquid is simply more efficient than another — plenty of vape stores make that claim. We looked into it properly, across 1,366 of our customers and 25,906 orders in two matched six-month periods. The honest answer: PG:VG ratio makes no measurable difference on its own, and neither does coil resistance.
The one thing that reliably does is nicotine strength. Customers on lower strengths get through more liquid — but far less than proportionally. Halving from 12mg to 6mg meant about a third more liquid, not twice as much.
Because the duty is charged per millilitre, that is also what moves your duty bill. At typical use, this is roughly what a year's duty looks like at each strength:
Median customer in each strength group, 10ml bottles, duty at £2.20 per 10ml before VAT. Individual use varies widely — roughly half of customers sit within a few bottles either side of these figures.
The uncomfortable part
Because the duty is charged on liquid rather than nicotine, it lands hardest on the customers using the least nicotine. People on lower strengths get through more e-liquid, and every extra millilitre carries duty. So a typical 6mg customer takes in less than half the nicotine of a typical 18mg customer, but uses roughly 75% more liquid and pays roughly 75% more duty: three times as much per milligram of nicotine. That's how the duty is designed; no retailer can change it, and we'd rather show you the numbers than pretend it isn't there.
What it doesn't mean
It isn't a reason to choose your strength for tax reasons. The gap is real but smaller than the arithmetic suggests: because people don't double their volume when they halve their strength, going from 12mg to 6mg adds around £80 a year in duty, not the £230 you'd expect. The right strength is the one that works for you — and whatever you choose, the flavour, ratio and coil you use won't move the bill.
Device wattage plausibly matters too — more power vaporises more liquid per puff — but our data can't separate that from everything else, so we won't put a number on it. If you'd like to experiment, ARX 1 Pro lets you lower the wattage within a safe range for your pod. Read the full study →
Best-before dates and shelf life
Best-before dates on e-liquid usually run from about one year to 18 months from production. That date is a quality guide rather than a hard cut-off: stored sensibly — at normal room temperature and out of direct sunlight — most e-liquid is still perfectly good to use for a good while beyond it. That's worth keeping in mind if you decide to buy a little ahead, though it's still wise to buy only what you'll realistically get through.
Questions & answers
Yes. The Vape Duty applies to all e-liquid regardless of nicotine strength, so nicotine-free e-liquids are treated exactly the same as any other.
£2.20 per 10ml, set by the Government. VAT is then applied on top, bringing it to £2.64 per 10ml. It's a flat rate — the same amount on every e-liquid of that size, whatever its price and wherever it's sold.
All of them. The Government treats anything intended to be vaped as an e-liquid, so the duty applies equally to premixed e-liquids, nic salts, nicotine shots, flavour concentrates, prefilled pods and plain e-liquid bases. It's charged purely on volume, at £2.64 per 10ml, regardless of the type or what it contains.
Best-before dates on e-liquid usually run from about one year to 18 months from production. That date is a quality guide rather than a hard cut-off: stored sensibly — at normal room temperature and out of direct sunlight — most e-liquid is still perfectly fine to use for a good while beyond it. If you do buy a little ahead, that's worth knowing, though it's still wise to buy only what you'll realistically get through.
No. Devices, coils, refillable (empty) pods and accessories aren't within scope of the duty, so their prices are unaffected. Prefilled pods are different — they contain e-liquid, so they carry the duty like any other e-liquid.
Because the duty is charged per millilitre, not per product. A 2ml prefilled pod carries only a little duty; a 50ml e-liquid carries far more. An e-liquid's price increase depends on how much e-liquid it holds, not on what it costs today.
Less than you might think. Our study of 1,366 customers found that people on lower strengths do use more liquid, but nowhere near proportionally — halving from 12mg to 6mg meant about a third more liquid, not double. In duty terms that's roughly £80 a year extra at typical use, not £230. See the figures above, or read the full study.
Our big volume discounts will still apply to the product itself; we're currently redesigning these to navigate through the vape duty change. The duty, though, is a fixed government charge per millilitre and this part of the price can't be discounted — it's added on top of whatever price you pay.
The duty takes effect on 1 October 2026, when newly made or imported e-liquid must carry a duty stamp. Retailers can sell through pre-duty stock at pre-duty prices until 31 March 2027; from 1 April 2027 everything on sale must be duty-paid. For JAC customers, the price change comes when our pre-duty stock runs low, not on 1 October — and we'll give notice first.
Yes. We'll keep selling our pre-duty stock at today's prices after 1 October, for as long as it lasts, and we'll tell you before that changes. There's no cliff on 1 October for JAC customers, so there's no need to rush. If you'd rather keep a little more on hand than usual, that's fine — just buy what you'll realistically get through.
No. The duty is collected on behalf of the Government — none of it comes to us. It isn't a price rise we've chosen.
The Government says so — the rate was set deliberately to keep a clear price gap between vaping and smoking, and that gap is one of the duty's stated design aims.
Our communications so far
updated as the duty approaches
A message from our CEO on the coming duty and what it means for pricing.
Read the message from our CEO →Full guidance, market price comparison and FAQ published, as promised in our first update.
A note on timing — stock, pricing and shelf life as October approaches.
Read the update →A data-backed study into what affects e-liquid consumption.
Read the study →The section on what changes e-liquid use now reflects our study findings, and we've clarified that for JAC customers the price change follows our pre-duty stock, not the 1 October date.