With the provincial vape tax coming into effect OCT 1, 2024 some of our customers are asking if it may be cheaper to go back to cigarettes.
Beyond the obvious answer of – don’t do this for your health, I’ll do some number crunching below. You will find that vaping is still quite a bit less expensive than smoking, even after the tax.
I’ll also provide some smart suggestions to make your vape dollars go further.
Assuming a pack a day smoker, cigarettes in Canada average $16.50 per pack. Premium brands can be well over $20 per pack in some provinces, but let’s just take the average $16.50 for comparison.
This works out to $495 every 30 days, or $5940 a year to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day in Canada.
The average customer vapes approximately 5ml of e-liquid per day. Some as little as 2-3ml, and others as high as 8-10ml, but for this article, let’s stick with the average.
A 120ml e-liquid bottle will cost $70. Since we offer free shipping on all orders over $50, you won’t pay a penny for shipping at Canada Vapes. This equates to 24 days of vaping for $70, or $2.92 a day for vaping. Even if you double or even triple your e-liquid use, it is still much much cheaper to vape than smoking (cough) cigarettes.
Adding the price of new supplies (batteries, kits, coils, etc.) that you may use, our average customer spends about $200 per year on these accessories, or about 0.58c per day.
So by comparison, smoking will cost you $16.50 a day, and vaping just $3.47, about 80% less than smoking!
VAPING IS STILL 79% CHEAPER THEN SMOKING!
Tips to stretch out your vape dollars:
Don’t use disposables as your main vape:
I get it – disposables are easy, quick and consistent. But long term, they will cost you much more than using a kit that you fill up with e-liquid yourself. A disposable vape with about 10ml of e-liquid will run you $20-$25, which is about 4-5x more than buying the e-liquid separately, which costs $5.83 for 10ml.
Vaping with Canada Vapes E-liquid and Kits will always be cheaper than pre-filled pods or disposable vapes – a lot cheaper!
We offer e-liquid in FreeBase, Nic Salts and High VG so no matter what your vaping needs are, we have you covered! We have over 100 unique flavors and many nicotine strength options to take advantage of..
Buy your e-liquid in larger bottles.
Bigger bottles save money – 120ml bottles are about 18% savings vs. 60ml bottles, and they often go on sale, so you can save even more.
Lower your vape wattage for longer lasting e-liquid
Coils and pods with higher wattages reduce how much liquid you will use, and will make your e-liquid last much longer. Consider the Smok Nord 5 pod system, kits or the Caliburn G2 kits that work best with our freebase e-liquid (add links)
Keep your eye out for our monthly promotions!
Make sure you are on our mailing list (add link to mailing list) as we regularly discount our e-liquid through monthly promotions.
Check out the Clearance Section – we often have discounted slower selling e-liquids in our clearance section for up to 50% off!
Refer a friend Canada Vapes for a half price bottle of e-liquid!
Fantastic bunch of information guys.
you may want to change the following: “Coils and pods with higher (wattages) reduce how much liquid you will use,”
Higher wattage uses more juice. Higher (ohm’s) use less juice with lower wattage.
I like your article but non of it takes into account what’s really going to happen. e liquid is going to be HUGE on the Black Market. Like cigarettes that you now can get mailed to you. The reserve will start selling juice tax free. I refuse to let people rape me especially the government. What really angers me is this BS trying to say this tax sucks but still less than smoking. That’s not good enough. They don’t tax energy drinks and they’re so unhealthy. I am going to buy from Province’s without the tax.
The real (edited for language) is that Vape businesses haven’t gotten together and pooled resources and money, while asking for the community to help as much as possible. Then hire a lawyer and take the province and Feds to court. I didn’t know that when something becomes popular the government can just come in and tax it. It seems to go against what the government says they support, Small businesses. All these petitions will do nothing. We are a minority that is a zero when it comes to elections. We need our own “lobby” group working the government the way Monster and Red Bull, the energy drink companies do. I don’t get it. This will cost people their livelihoods. People who have been in the industry for a decade or more or going to have to close shop. The Feds should have shared part of the excise taxes with the provinces. Like they do with the gas tax. They say that they care about kids. Now kids are going to resort to blackmarket juices. They’ll be unregulated and who knows what is actually in it. They’ll do things like dillute or add cheaper fluids. It will be sold by a few guys that make it DIY at home. Just like there were pot dealers in high school. People will start buying and selling unregulated ejuice off the street and online from places like the reserve. The government doesn’t ever think about what the consequences are. I’m NOT going to pay $20 tax on a 60ml bottle. Thats something only a total idiot would do. If the vape industry refuse to fight then they are going to lose people’s business. I know that I’ll be selling bottles on the black market. I hate living in Ontario. We always get the shaft. BC had pot forever before it became legal. This whole thing since the feds stepped in just leaves me shaking my head. The grocery store have products that are far worse for you than vape juice and they don’t tax it. Caffeine is a strong addictive drug. Why doesn’t the government charge an excise tax on cups of coffee. See, it makes no sense. The attack on vaping is the most short sided and antiquated policies both levels of Government have come up with in a long time. Their greed will cost them as they lose millions to the blackmarket. Finally, it seems like maybe they want it on the blackmarket to help organized crime flourish. Make gambling legal, tax vaping to death. Organized crime just has to go to Manitoba and buy a tonne of juice and bring it to Ontario and it will no longer be sold in stores like now. You wrote the facts. I’ve written about how people who stopped smoking for vaping feel about this and what’s going to happen.
PS The stores should charge the excise tax on the total and not each bottle. If you buy 2 60ml bottles you’d have to pay $40 just in tax. That’s unacceptable. Sorry about your business.
Hi, Dan here, from Customer Service!
I understand, and there are many valid points to this. However, I’d like to clarify a few things:
Firstly, Vaping IS still cheaper than smoking. Regardless of the tax. Eventually, we will see every province having excise tax, as well as a federal excise tax. It’s inevitable.
Secondly, vaping companies have taken their issues to the government. There is also a group called Rights4Vapers that is trying to lobby against the tax, as well as the flavour bans. The issue isn’t inactivity, it’s that not enough people are signing up for it.
Third, there is now, and already have been unregulated juice. There always has been a black market. This will continue, it’s called DIY. Unfortunately, unregulated juice will become prevalent yes, but the government also taxes on the materials to make liquid as well.
This is NOT an Ontario problem, this is a Federal problem that has just now been picking up traction with the provinces.
It is unfortunate, but bear in mind that at Canada Vapes, we are not only employees, but we are also Vapers! We are passionate about the industry, that’s why we were chosen to work here. When I say we share your frustration, we really and truly do. I have signed onto Rights4Vapers, and I encourage everyone who reads this to sign on as well. They are forwarding letters to the government, making sure they see that vaping is helping law abiding adults to cease smoking, and doing a good job at it. Unfortunately, yes, some children have started vaping. At the end of the day, however it has helped many people quit smoking, and stay smoke free, and these are the voices that need to be heard as loudly as possible.
We cannot have a lobby group like big tobacco or alcohol, as even the largest of vaping companies have nowhere near the resources as say, Imperial Tobacco. This is why the vapers (all of us!) need to make our voices heard! Writing posts on our forums is nice, if community engagement is your goal. However, if you wish to make your voice heard by politicians, you must go to the politicians! Joining Rights4Vapers is an excellent way to do that!
I won’t be paying the tax that is almost equivalent to the cost of the juice. With a minimum wage job, it’s not affordable so they are just pushing people to buy smokes from the reserve (native status) for 20 bucks a carton and then cost the people more in medical expenses when people get cancer.