How Much Has Vape Juice Gone Up? The 2026 Price Rise Explained

Updated 12 October 2026. Every rate, date and quote below is checked against HMRC guidance and the Finance Act 2026.

Vape juice went up in price on 1 October 2026. Since that day, every 10ml of e-liquid made in or imported into the UK carries Vaping Products Duty of £2.20, and VAT on top takes the increase to £2.64 per 10ml. Nicotine strength makes no difference, and it applies to 0mg liquid too.

It is the first time e-liquid has carried its own excise duty in this country. Here is what it means for the bottles, shortfills and pods you buy, why it happened, and what the rules now say about 0mg, mixing at home and bringing liquid in from abroad.

How much has vape juice gone up in price?

The rule is the same for everything: £2.64 per 10ml once VAT is added. Only the volume in the bottle matters, so a 100ml shortfill takes the biggest rise because it holds ten lots of 10ml.

What you buy	Duty and VAT added	If the full duty is passed on
10ml bottle (any strength)	£2.64	A £3.49 bottle becomes about £6.13
2ml prefilled pod	£0.53	About 53p on every pod
100ml shortfill	£26.40	A £14.99 bottle becomes about £41.39

Those examples assume the whole duty reaches the shelf price. HMRC says the duty is paid by manufacturers and importers, and it is their commercial decision how much of it is passed on, so real prices vary. Hardware is not taxed: HMRC says the duty is charged on the liquid, not the device, so kits, coils, empty pods and tanks are unaffected.

To see what the duty adds to the bottles you buy, our vape tax calculator works it out for any size and strength.

When do vape prices go up?

The duty started on 1 October 2026, but shelf prices move gradually. Shops can sell products made or imported before that date without the duty until 31 March 2027, so prices step up as that older liquid sells through. From 1 April 2027 everything on sale must be duty-paid and carry a duty stamp. Our vape tax timeline sets out every date in order.

Why are vape prices going up?

The first reason is revenue. The government's own costings, certified by the Office for Budget Responsibility, put the duty at about £135m in 2026 to 2027, £400m in 2027 to 2028 and £530m by 2029 to 2030.

The second is the price gap with smoking. Tobacco duty rose on the same day by a one-off £2.20 per 100 cigarettes and £2.20 per 50g of other tobacco, which HMRC describes as "equivalent to the amount set for VPD", on top of the usual yearly increase. The government's stated aim is to make vaping less affordable for people who don't smoke while keeping a financial reason for smokers to switch, which is why vaping stays cheaper than smoking after the duty.

The rate also changed along the way. The 2024 consultation proposed three tiers by nicotine strength, from £1 to £3 per 10ml. The final law uses one flat rate of £2.20 per 10ml for all vaping liquid. Shane, who owns Ecigone, has written his opinion on the tax after more than a decade in the trade.

Does the vape tax apply to 0mg e-liquid?

Yes. HMRC says the duty applies "whether the liquids contain nicotine or not", so a 0mg 100ml shortfill carries the same £22 of duty, or £26.40 with VAT, as a nicotine one. Buying 0mg will not avoid it.

What happens to shortfills and longfills?

They stay legal. What changes is the price, because the duty is on the finished millilitres. A 100ml shortfill carries £26.40 of duty and VAT, and adding two 10ml nic shots means duty on 120ml in total.

Longfills are taxed the same way, so a longfill made up to 60ml carries duty on 60ml.

The format that comes out cheapest is nic salt in a low-power pod kit, because you use far less liquid. Duty per millilitre weighs heaviest on high-volume vaping. Large 12ml prefilled kits sit at the expensive end too, which our Lost Mary Nera review looks at with the duty included.

Can you still mix your own vape juice at home?

Yes, as long as everything you mix has already had the duty paid. HMRC's guidance says it is against the law to make vaping products in places it has not approved, and that "this includes the mixing of non-duty paid liquids to produce a liquid to be used in a vape, even if not produced for commercial sale". The next line says it "will not include the mixing of multiple duty-paid liquids, for example a duty-paid 'shortfill' (nicotine-free liquid) and duty-paid 'nicotine-shot'."

What you are doing	Since 1 October 2026
Mixing a shortfill and a nic shot bought from a UK shop	Legal. HMRC names this exact example as allowed
Mixing PG, VG, flavourings and nicotine that were all sold as duty-paid vaping products	Legal. You are mixing duty-paid liquids
Mixing with PG or VG bought for another use, such as pharmacy grade	Not allowed without HMRC approval. It counts as making a vaping product, even for your own use
Mixing with base liquids on which UK duty has not been paid	Not allowed, even for your own use

The point most people miss is the PG and VG. HMRC's manual says substances made from components such as PG, VG and flavourings are within scope, and that mixing a non-duty-paid substance with a duty-paid one still counts as manufacturing. So every part of a home mix, base liquids included, needs to have been sold as a duty-paid vaping product.

The 50ml allowance and vape juice you already own

There is no legal way to avoid the duty on liquid you buy now, but two rules are worth knowing.

Bringing vape juice into the UK

Travellers arriving in Great Britain can bring up to 50ml of vaping liquid for their own use without paying duty and tax. Anything above that has to be declared, and duty is paid on the full amount, not just the extra. The limit is set in the Vaping Products (Production, Duty Stamps and Commencement) Regulations 2026. Northern Ireland has different rules.

Liquid you bought before 1 October

The duty falls on the producer or importer, not on you, and the Finance Act 2026 only charges liquid made before 1 October if it is later stamped. Nobody will send you a bill for what is in your cupboard.

From 1 April 2027, though, section 130 of the Act makes it an offence to "possess, transport or display" an unstamped vaping product, as well as to sell one, and it applies "irrespective of when they were produced or imported". Whether that was meant to reach a vaper's own supply rather than illegal warehouse supplies is not something we can settle, so the safe approach is to buy what you will actually use.

The biggest lever most vapers have is using less liquid. We measured almost 18,000 of our own customers: the typical vaper uses 5.7 to 10.3ml a day, prefilled pod users 3 to 5ml and sub-ohm tank vapers 16 to 30ml. In duty and VAT that is the difference between about £25 a month and £130 to £240.

Our guide to the cheapest ways to vape costs every format per millilitre.

The one nicotine format the duty does not touch is pouches, which our nicotine pouches guide explains.

Will vape juice need a duty stamp?

Yes. Products made or imported since 1 October 2026 carry a duty stamp on the outer packaging. Until 31 December 2026 these can be transitional stamps with physical security features only, and from 1 January 2027 new products need digital stamps with a scannable code. From 1 April 2027 every vape on sale must carry one. Our duty stamps guide explains how to check a stamp.

What we are doing about it

We bought ahead of the duty, so we have pre-duty prices on some lines until 31 March 2027 or until they sell out, and we will be clear about what changes and when. Browse all our e-liquid, from nic salts to shortfills.

Duty rates and dates reflect HMRC guidance and the Finance Act 2026 as of 12 October 2026. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.