Vape Tax: E-Liquid Taxed Harder Than Cigarettes and Petrol

Vape juice is about to be taxed harder than cigarettes and petrol: 77% of the price of a £1 bottle will be tax, against about 75% of an average pack of 20 and 47% of a litre of petrol. Before 1 October 2026, it was 17%.

Bar chart of tax as a share of the shelf price. £1 e-liquid with duty: 77%. 20 cigarettes, average pack: 75%. £2 e-liquid: 64%. £3.99 e-liquid: 50%. Litre of petrol: 47%. £4.99 e-liquid: 46%. Any e-liquid before 1 October 2026: 17%.

Many shops haven’t raised prices yet. These are the figures once older stock sells through, and shops pass the new duty on in full.

How Much of a Bottle’s Price Will Be Tax?

The Vaping Products Duty is a flat £2.20 on every 10ml of liquid, regardless of the bottle’s price. VAT is charged on top of the duty, so a bottle goes up by £2.64.

10ml bottle today	With duty	Of which tax	Tax share
£1	£3.64	£2.81	77.1%
£2	£4.64	£2.97	64.1%
£3.99	£6.63	£3.31	49.8%
£4.99	£7.63	£3.47	45.5%

Is Vape Juice Really Taxed Harder Than Cigarettes?

As a share of the price, yes. Any bottle that costs about £1.15 or less today ends up with a bigger tax share than an average pack of cigarettes.

In pounds, cigarettes still carry far more. A £1 bottle with duty carries £2.81 of tax. A pack of 20 at about £19 carries about £14.20. The Treasury treats 10ml of liquid as roughly equal to 100 cigarettes, and those five packs carry about £71. For what that means week to week, see how much vaping really costs.

On 1 October the government also added a one-off £2.20 per 100 cigarettes to tobacco duty, on top of the usual annual rise, “to maintain the financial incentive for current tobacco smokers to switch to vaping”. The health charity ASH says that should mean “it is always cheaper to vape than to smoke”.

And More Than Petrol?

Yes. Any 10ml e-liquid that costs under about £4.50 today ends up with a bigger tax share than petrol at 172.8p a litre. That line moves with the pump price: at 150p a litre it would be about £3.60.

Why Does the Cheapest Vape Juice Take the Biggest Hit?

The duty is charged per millilitre, not as a percentage. The same £2.64 lands on every 10ml bottle, whether it costs £1 or £4.99. The first more than triples in price. The second goes up by about half.

Nicotine makes no difference: a nicotine-free liquid pays the same duty as a 20mg nic salt.

Size does. A 2ml prefilled pod carries 44p of duty because it holds a fifth of the liquid. Per millilitre the duty is the same.

A MIST 10ml e-liquid bottle with £2.20 in coins in front of it, next to a 2ml prefilled pod with 44p in coins: the duty on each, before VAT. — The duty alone, before VAT: £2.20 on a 10ml bottle, 44p on a 2ml pod.

Why Hasn’t My Vape Juice Gone Up Yet?

The duty only applies to liquid made in or imported into the UK from 1 October 2026. Shops can sell older stock until 31 March 2027, so prices change one product at a time as stock is replaced. From 1 April 2027, every vaping product on sale must carry a duty stamp.

Shops can also choose to absorb some of the duty. That lowers the price but raises the tax share, because the £2.20 is fixed.

Who Pays It, and What Happens Next?

About 5.4 million people aged 16 and over in Great Britain vape, more than the 4.8 million who smoke, according to the Office for National Statistics. ASH’s 2026 survey found six in ten adult vapers are ex-smokers.

The Office for Budget Responsibility expects the duty to raise £0.2 billion this financial year and £0.7 billion a year by 2031-32. The Budget’s forecast assumes the rate first rises with inflation in autumn 2027. No new rate has been set.

The government says the duty is there “to reduce the affordability and appeal of vaping, especially to young people and non-smokers”. In the same announcement, health minister Karin Smyth said vaping “is less harmful than smoking and can help adult smokers to quit”, but “children and non-smokers should never vape”. If you’re weighing up the switch, see how vaping compares with smoking and the best vapes for quitting smoking.

For the rules themselves, read how the UK vape tax works and what it covers.

How We Worked It Out

Price with duty = (today’s price ÷ 1.2 + £2.20) × 1.2. Tax is the £2.20 duty plus the VAT in the new price. That assumes the shop keeps the same amount per bottle as before.

The bottle prices are published examples, not market averages. The cigarette price is an estimate, because the official ONS average has no figures after January 2025. The petrol price is the UK average for the week of 2 November 2026.