Nicotine now comes in many more forms than cigarettes and cigars: e-cigs, vape mods, Juul pods and nicotine salt liquids all sit alongside them. Vape juice, nic salts and Juul pods print a nicotine figure on the pack. Cigarette packs do not make the number nearly as clear, which makes the products hard to compare. This guide explains what the figures on each product mean and how to work out the total in a bottle. We have also written about what nic salt e-liquids are. Whatever the format, nicotine is addictive, and these products are for adults only.
Reading a vape juice label
E-liquid bottles state a nicotine level, commonly 0mg, 3mg or 6mg. The 0mg case needs no explanation. The others confuse people, because the figure is not the amount in the whole bottle. It is the amount in each milliliter, so the bottle size matters, whether that is 60mL, 100mL or 120mL.
The sum is simple: multiply the strength by the bottle’s capacity.
- Example: a 100mL bottle marked 3mg holds 3mg x 100mL, which comes to 300mg of nicotine in total.
Nicotine per puff
Two common follow-up questions are how much nicotine a single puff delivers and how many puffs match one cigarette. Neither has a precise answer. The result shifts with how long you draw, the device in your hand and the wattage it runs at.
As a rough illustration, a Logic style device can get around 100 hits out of one milliliter. A sub-ohm tank burns through far more liquid per puff to make bigger clouds and stronger flavor, so the same milliliter lasts for noticeably fewer hits.
If your device has a puff counter, you can estimate an average. Stick with one e-liquid from the first fill until the bottle runs dry, note the puff count, and set it against the total nicotine the bottle held. That only works if you never switch juices partway. Anyone who changes flavor each time the tank empties will find the bookkeeping more trouble than it is worth.
Nic salt bottles
Nic salt e-juice is usually sold in smaller 30mL bottles at a much higher strength per milliliter, such as 35mg or 50mg. The same multiplication applies: 35mg x 30mL gives 1050mg of nicotine in the bottle. So a small salt bottle can hold several times the nicotine of a large bottle of regular juice, which is also called freebase nicotine. Salts are described as less volatile and more chemically stable than freebase liquid, and as needing a higher temperature to vaporize.
Cigarettes for comparison
The nicotine in a cigarette is hard to pin down, if it can be pinned down at all, because every brand is different. Some research found one brand with over 20mg per cigarette and another with only 8mg. A working average is about 12-14mg each. Multiplying that by the number smoked in a day gives a general idea of the daily total in the tobacco. Cigarettes also contain tar and carcinogens, which this article does not cover.
Summary
Label figures on e-liquid are per milliliter, so strength times bottle size gives the total. Per-puff amounts depend on the device and the way it is used and can only be estimated. Cigarette figures vary by brand. If something here looks wrong or is hard to follow, tell us in the comments, and you can reach ejuice.deals by phone or email with questions about the nicotine levels listed on our products.