Is Vaping Still Cheaper Than Smoking After VPD?

Is vaping still cheaper than smoking? This is a question that's popped up a lot since VPD hit on 1 October. Vaping Products Duty is live, e-liquid is taxed, and if you’re a smoker thinking about switching, you’re probably doing a bit of pondering yourself.

The short answer is yes, vaping is still a lot cheaper than smoking, and the gap hasn’t closed. If anything, it’s got wider, because tobacco duty went up on the very same day. We’ll show you exactly how much, at 5, 10, 15 and 20 cigarettes a day.

What changed on 1 October for smokers and vapers

Two things happened on the same day. First, Vaping Products Duty arrived. According to HMRC, it’s a flat £2.20 per 10ml of liquid, with 20% VAT on top of the duty, so roughly £2.64 extra per 10ml. We’ve gone through how that works in our guide to what VPD actually is.

Second, tobacco duty went up as well. HMRC’s rates from 1 October are £394.09 per 1,000 cigarettes plus 16.5% of the retail price (up from £353.50 per 1,000 in November 2025), and £574.30 per kg for hand-rolling tobacco (up from £503.80). The government’s policy paper says the rise includes the usual annual uprating plus an extra £2.20 per 100 cigarettes and £2.20 per 50g of other tobacco.

The Treasury’s stated aim is to keep vaping cheaper than smoking, and we covered the reasoning in why the UK government introduced a vape tax.

What smoking actually costs now

Pack prices are the slippery bit, because there’s no up to date official average. The ONS stopped publishing its series, and the last figure it gave was £16.60 in January 2025, as noted by Ecigone. So we’ve used two real shelf prices instead.

• Premium: Tesco lists Marlboro Gold at £19.93 for 20, up from £16.80 a year ago according to Trolley’s price comparison
• Budget: Lambert & Butler Blue is listed at £15.20 to £16.40 online depending on the supermarket, and we’ve used the higher figure of £16.40 to be fair to the smoker

These are supermarket prices checked on 19 October 2026. Some of the listings carry no date, and shop prices vary by brand and region, so treat them as a realistic range rather than a promise.

Yearly figures assume a 365 day year, and a day’s cost is the number of cigarettes divided by 20, multiplied by the pack price.

The e-liquid equivalent

There’s no official conversion between cigarettes and millilitres of e-liquid, because it depends on your device, your nicotine strength and how you vape. What we’ve done is use some sensible, round assumptions so the maths is easy to follow and easy to adjust.

These are illustrative, not a recommendation. Plenty of people use more or less, and the NHS is clear that vaping more often than you used to smoke is normal, so don’t read these as a target.

We’ve priced the liquid using Red Label, in two ways. The first is our current price, held under Price Lock. The second is our estimate with flat duty applied, which is simply today’s price plus the £2.64 per 10ml VPD would add. That is not a Totally Wicked price, it’s the worst case we can calculate.

And here’s what that works out to, per year.

The “current price” columns show what you’d pay while Price Lock holds, which we’re planning to do right through until March 2027 (while stocks last). The “VPD estimate” columns are what we think the same liquid would cost with the full duty added on top, whenever that day comes.

Side by side, per year

Here’s the bit most people are really after. This takes the smoking cost and subtracts the vaping cost.

Even in the least flattering comparison, a 20 a day smoker moving to vaping at the full estimated duty price would spend under a fifth of what they spend on cigarettes. That’s before you factor in anything else.

A couple of things we haven’t counted, so you’re not surprised. Hardware costs money, whether it’s a refillable pod kit or replacement coils, and we’ve left those out because they vary so much. And the NHS notes vaping works out at around a third of the cost of smoking once you’ve bought the kit, which is a more cautious figure than ours, because it includes that initial hardware spend and ongoing cost. Both numbers tell the same story, though.

Why the duty hits each differently

VPD is a fixed amount per ml. At our assumed 4ml a day, a 20 a day equivalent vaper would pay roughly £1.06 a day in duty and VAT on the duty, which is around £385 a year. That’s our own calculation from HMRC’s published rate, not a Totally Wicked price.

Tobacco duty is partly a fixed amount and partly tied to the shelf price. HMRC’s estimate, as reported by What’s Changing UK, is that the October rise adds around £1.21 to the duty on a pack of 20. That’s an estimate, not a promise about shop prices, but if you smoke 20 a day, that alone would come to roughly £440 more a year in extra duty. In other words, the smoker’s duty rise on its own is larger than the vaper’s entire new tax bill, before either of them has bought anything.

We’ve also covered why cheaper bottles feel the duty more in terms of percentage in our piece on how much e-liquid prices will rise. The headline there isn’t that vaping got dearer, it’s that tobacco got dearer faster.

What about rolling tobacco

If you roll your own, the pattern is the same, only the pouch is bigger. The HMRC rate for hand-rolling tobacco rose from £503.80 to £574.30 per kg, and HMRC’s estimate, again as reported by What’s Changing UK, is an extra £2.54 in duty on a 30g pouch.

On shelf prices, Tesco lists a 30g pouch of Lambert & Butler Blue at £24.90, which works out at £830 per kg. We haven’t built a roll-up table because how many roll-ups you get from a pouch depends on how you roll, and we’d rather not guess. But if a pouch lasts you a week, you’re looking at over £1,200 a year before you even get to the papers and filters.

Keeping the cost down

Wherever you land on those tables, there are a few simple ways to keep your vaping spend sensible.

• Buy the strength you actually need. Getting this right means you’re not vaping more than necessary to feel satisfied, and an adviser can help
• Look after your coils and pods. We’ve put together practical tips on making your e-liquid last longer, and none of them involve vaping less
• Mix & Match. Our bulk pricing brings the per bottle cost down, which is why we’ve shown both columns above

And a reminder on Price Lock. We’re committed to keeping our prices as low as possible, for as long as possible. We’ve stocked up on e-liquid, prefilled pods and kits made before the tax applies, so we can hold today’s prices right through until March 2027 (while stocks last). No sudden jump, no need to panic buy. We’ll let you know if anything changes sooner. Otherwise, there’s nothing you need to do differently.

However, if you can afford to stock up a little before we have to tax stamp stock by law, this is the most cost-effective solution.

Final Word

Vaping is still cheaper than smoking after VPD, and by a wide margin. The duty is an added cost nobody really wants to pay, but tobacco duty rose on the same day and from a much higher starting point. Even if you add the full estimated duty to our current prices, a smoker of any amount would spend a fraction of their cigarette budget on liquid.

Our prices are holding for now, so there’s no need to rush. If you’re thinking about switching, you can do it at a pace that suits you. However, if you can afford to stock up a little before 1 April 2027, this is the most cost-effective solution.

FAQ

Sources

Totally Wicked product pricing, correct as of 19 October 2026: Red Label E-liquid

HMRC: Introduction of Vaping Products Duty from 1 October 2026

HMRC: Tobacco Products Duty rates

GOV.UK: Changes to tobacco duty rates from 26 November 2025 and 1 October 2026

What’s Changing UK: Tobacco duty October 2026 (reporting HMRC’s duty estimates)

Trolley: Marlboro cigarette prices at Tesco, October 2025 vs October 2026

Trolley: Lambert & Butler prices by supermarket

Tesco: Lambert & Butler Blue Rolling Tobacco 30g

Ecigone: Is vaping cheaper than smoking? (for the last ONS pack price figure)

NHS Better Health: Vaping myths and the facts

NHS Better Health: Vaping to quit smoking