Quit vaping after quitting smoking, without going back

A different starting point

If you used a vape to stop smoking, you have already done the hardest part. The NHS describes vaping as less harmful than smoking and as one of the most effective tools for quitting smoking, while stressing that it is not completely harmless and that its long-term effects are not yet known. The 2025 Cochrane review by Lindson and colleagues found high-certainty evidence that nicotine e-cigarettes increase quit rates compared with nicotine replacement therapy. The vape did its job. The question now is how to take the next step safely.

The priority does not change

Everything in this guide sits under one rule: do not go back to cigarettes. The NHS points out that you will not get the full benefit from vaping unless you stop smoking cigarettes completely, and the same logic applies when you stop vaping. A plan that ends the vape but reopens the door to smoking is a worse outcome than continuing to vape for a while longer. Keep that ranking in mind at every decision point below.

When the NHS says to stop

NHS Better Health says that if you are vaping to quit smoking, you should aim to eventually stop vaping too, once you have been vaping for a while and feel sure you will not go back to smoking. Its guide on quitting vaping adds a clear condition: you should only quit vaping if you are confident you can do it without smoking cigarettes. There is no official number of months. The signal is your own confidence, judged honestly.

How to judge whether you are ready

A few questions help. When did you last seriously want a cigarette? Do the situations where you used to smoke still pull you towards cigarettes, or only towards the vape? Is a stressful period coming up, such as exams, a move or a difficult month at work? And the most revealing question: if your vape broke tonight and there was no replacement, would you buy cigarettes? If the honest answer is yes, you are not ready yet, and that is useful information rather than a failure.

Why the risk is a cigarette, not just a vape

The NHS warns that you may experience withdrawal symptoms when you quit nicotine vapes, and that this might make you want to reach for a cigarette. Nicotine withdrawal does not care which product delivered the nicotine; the symptoms described for quitting vapes, such as cravings, irritability, low mood and poor sleep, are the same family as those described for quitting tobacco. Old smoking associations can also resurface under pressure. Plan for cigarettes explicitly, not only for the vape.

The first week carries the most risk

In a review of people who tried to quit smoking without treatment, Hughes, Keely and Naud found that most relapse occurred within the first eight days. That research concerned smoking rather than vaping, but it supports a practical conclusion: concentrate your support, your planning and your free time on the first week after you stop vaping. Arrange the week so that you are not alone with your hardest situations, and do not schedule the quit into a week you already know will be difficult.

Option one: step down gradually

The NHS describes cutting down gradually as a way to make quitting vaping easier, because it gives your body time to adjust to lower nicotine levels. You can lower the nicotine strength of your e-liquid over time, lengthen the gaps between vaping sessions, and create vape-free places or times that you slowly expand. It adds that vaping more after a reduction may mean you reduced too quickly. For a former smoker, the advantage is that you keep a lower-risk option to hand throughout.

Option two: switch to nicotine replacement

The NHS also describes stopping in one step and asking a pharmacist or stop smoking adviser about switching to a suitable nicotine replacement product. It notes that switching to another fast-acting nicotine product can ease cravings as you quit, and that some people combine a fast-acting product with a patch for steady coverage. This route removes the vape while still managing withdrawal, and you then reduce the nicotine replacement over time, with advice from the person who recommended it.

What the research on quitting vaping shows

Evidence on stopping vaping is still limited. The 2025 Cochrane living review by Butler and colleagues included fifteen studies, most with some participants who had previously smoked. It found low-certainty evidence that varenicline may help people stop vaping and that text-message programmes may help young people, and very uncertain evidence about effects on smoking. In other words, there is no well-tested protocol for former smokers yet. A stop smoking service can help you tailor a plan in the meantime.

Prepare for the old cigarette triggers

List the moments when you used to smoke before you switched: drinks, breaks at work, after meals, the drive home, certain friends. For each one, write what you will do instead if the urge is for a cigarette. Do not keep cigarettes in the house just in case, and decide now that one cigarette is not an option, because a single cigarette is exactly how many relapses begin. Your plan for cigarettes should be more detailed than your plan for the vape.

Use the help that worked before

If a local service helped you stop smoking, go back to it. The NHS says that expert help from your local Stop Smoking Service gives you the best chance of quitting smoking for good, and its quit-vaping guide recommends getting information from trusted sources such as that service. Advisers see people at this exact stage and can help with nicotine replacement choices. Telling friends and family what you are doing, and what would help, also makes a real difference.

If you slip

Separate two kinds of slip. If you vape again after stopping, it is a setback within a lower-risk option: note what happened and continue. If you smoke a cigarette, the priority is to stop smoking again straight away. The NHS describes vaping as carrying a small fraction of the risk of smoking, so returning to the vape for a while is a far better outcome than returning to cigarettes. A step back to the vape is a legitimate move, not a defeat.

Keep both counts

Track your days without cigarettes and your days without vaping separately. The first is the number you protect above everything; the second is the one you are building now. Seeing a long smoke-free count is also a reminder of what you have already proved you can do, which is useful on a difficult day. If you ever have to choose between the two counts, protect the smoke-free one.

Where PuffOff fits

PuffOff records your days and daily check-ins for mood and cravings, and its SOS tools offer guided breathing and a reminder of your reasons when an urge arrives, whether it points towards the vape or towards a cigarette. The savings estimate and widgets keep progress visible. PuffOff does not decide when you are ready to stop vaping, and it does not replace a stop smoking service, a pharmacist or a doctor, which is where advice about nicotine replacement belongs.

Further reading

• NHS: Using e-cigarettes to stop smoking
• NHS Better Health: Vaping to quit smoking
• NHS Better Health: How to quit vaping
• Lindson et al. (2025), Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
• Butler et al. (2025), Interventions for quitting vaping, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
• Hughes, Keely & Naud (2004), Shape of the relapse curve and long-term abstinence among untreated smokers, Addiction