What does nicotine strength in mg/mL mean?
Nicotine strength in mg/mL is a concentration: the number of milligrams of nicotine dissolved in every millilitre of e-liquid, not a total amount and not a figure that changes with the size of the container. A label reading 20 mg/mL means every millilitre of that liquid carries 20 milligrams of nicotine, whether the container holds 1 mL or 100 mL.
That particular number is also the one Canada sets as a limit. Federal regulation SOR-2021-123 caps nicotine concentration in a vaping substance sold in Canada at 20 mg/mL, which is why the figure keeps turning up on labels — it is not just a common strength, it is the ceiling.
How do mg/mL and percentage relate?
Percentage is the same kind of measurement, concentration, written a different way. A percentage figure is grams of nicotine per 100 mL of liquid, and converting that into milligrams per millilitre (1 g is 1,000 mg, and 100 mL is a hundred times 1 mL) gives a fixed relationship: 1% equals 10 mg/mL.
So reading a label in the other unit is one calculation, not a lookup: divide a mg/mL figure by 10 to get the percentage, or multiply a percentage by 10 to get mg/mL. The table below applies that arithmetic to a few round figures, ending at the federal cap.
| mg/mL | Equivalent percentage |
|---|---|
| 3 mg/mL | 0.3% |
| 6 mg/mL | 0.6% |
| 12 mg/mL | 1.2% |
| 20 mg/mL | 2% |
What is Canada’s legal cap on nicotine strength?
The federal cap is 20 mg/mL — 2% by the conversion above — and it applies to a vaping substance sold in Canada however it is packaged: bottled e-liquid for refillable hardware, prefilled pods, and disposables alike.
It is a federal figure, so it does not vary from province to province the way some other rules in this cluster do. The provincial dataset behind this site’s vape tax pages records sales tax, flavour rules, minimum age and container-capacity limits for each province, and none of those records carries a separate, stricter nicotine-concentration figure — the 20 mg/mL ceiling is the one that applies everywhere in Canada.
Does a bigger bottle or pod mean a stronger vape?
No. Concentration and volume are two different numbers that only combine when you multiply them. A 5 mL disposable at 20 mg/mL and a 60 mL bottle at 20 mg/mL are the identical strength — the bottle simply holds more of it.
Multiplying concentration by volume gives the total nicotine in a container, which is a different figure from the strength itself: the 5 mL disposable carries 5 × 20 = 100mg of nicotine in total, and the 60 mL bottle at the same strength carries 60 × 20 = 1200 mg. Two listings in e-liquid can share a label strength while holding very different total amounts of nicotine, simply because they hold different volumes of liquid.
Does nicotine strength change how much duty you pay?
No. Federal vaping duty is calculated from a container’s volume — $1.12 per 2 mL or fraction of it for the first 10 mL, then $1.12 per 10 mL or fraction of it after that — and nicotine concentration is not a variable anywhere in that formula. A 20 mg/mL bottle and a nicotine-free bottle of the same size attract exactly the same duty.
The duty is also charged per immediate container rather than per order, which is a separate point of confusion covered in vape tax in Canada, explained.
Is a strength cap the same as a container-size cap?
No, and the two get confused often enough to be worth separating clearly. The 20 mg/mL figure is a concentration cap, and it is federal. Some provinces separately cap how much liquid a container may physically hold — a capacity rule, not a strength rule — so a product can sit exactly at the legal concentration cap and still face a smaller maximum bottle size in one province than another.
| Province | Max pre-filled tank/pod | Max refill bottle |
|---|---|---|
| British Columbia | 2 mL | 30 mL |
| Quebec | 2 mL | 30 mL |
Both provinces above still apply the same 20 mg/mL federal ceiling on top of their own capacity rule — a smaller legal bottle where a capacity cap applies is not evidence of a different strength limit there. For the fuller set of provincial rules — minimum age, flavour restrictions and which provinces charge extra vaping duty — see what the law says about buying vapes online in Canada.
Every figure worked through above is arithmetic anyone can check, not a live quote from a store. For current prices at the strengths retailers actually stock, see vape prices or the price index. This guide explains what the numbers on a label mean; it does not tell you which strength to pick. E-liquid is also formulated as nicotine salt or freebase — two chemical forms of nicotine, not two different strengths — covered in nicotine salt and freebase e-liquid: what the labels mean.