Why are e-liquid bottles only 10ml in the UK?

• Nicotine e-liquid is capped at 10ml per bottle. The limit is set by regulation 36 of the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, which brought the EU Tobacco Products Directive into UK law.
• Strength is capped at 20mg/ml. Nothing stronger can legally be sold in the UK, whether freebase or nic salt.
• Pods and tanks are capped at 2ml. The same regulation limits prefilled pods, cartridges and tanks sold for nicotine liquid.
• Shortfills get around the bottle limit legally. They are sold at 0mg, so the 10ml cap does not apply. You add your own 10ml nic shot at home.
• The limits still apply after Brexit. The regulations are UK law in their own right and remain in force.

Where the 10ml rule comes from

The 10ml limit started life in the EU Tobacco Products Directive, usually shortened to TPD. The UK implemented that directive through the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, often called TRPR. Because TRPR is a UK statutory instrument, it did not disappear when the UK left the EU. It is still the rulebook for nicotine vaping products sold here.

The part that matters for bottle size is regulation 36, Product requirements. It says nicotine-containing liquid can only be placed on the market in a “dedicated refill container in a volume not exceeding 10 millilitres”, or in a “single use cartridge, or a tank, in a volume not exceeding 2 millilitres”. The same regulation says the liquid “must not contain nicotine in excess of 20 milligrams per millilitre”.

Those three numbers, 10ml, 2ml and 20mg/ml, explain almost everything about how UK e-liquid is packaged. Our full guide to UK vape laws covers the rest of the rulebook, including the disposable vape ban that has been in force since 1 June 2025.

The limits side by side

It helps to see the limits side by side. Each applies to products that contain nicotine; 0mg liquids are covered by general product safety law instead of the nicotine notification rules.

Regulation 36 also requires refill containers to be “child-resistant and tamper-evident” and “protected against breakage and leakage”. That is why every 10ml bottle has a push-and-turn cap and a breakable seal, and why nic shots come in the same style of bottle. Before a nicotine product can be sold it also has to be notified to the MHRA, with details of its ingredients and emissions.

Why 10ml? The thinking behind the limit

The regulations themselves do not explain their reasons in plain English, but the logic of a volume and strength cap is straightforward, and it is the same logic that sits behind the child-resistant caps.

For vapers, the practical upshot is simple: you buy nicotine liquid in 10ml units. A typical pod-kit vaper uses about 10ml to 15ml a week, so a bottle lasts three to seven days, and many people buy several bottles at a time. Multipacks such as the Kingston 10ml 50/50 range exist precisely because of the 10ml cap. They are still individual 10ml bottles, just boxed together.

How shortfills and nic shots fit in

A shortfill is a larger bottle of 0mg e-liquid that is deliberately left short of full. Because it contains no nicotine, the 10ml limit does not apply, and it can be sold in 50ml, 100ml or larger sizes. Any bottle over 10ml, whether 50ml, 100ml or larger, is sold at 0mg; there is no legal way to sell it with nicotine already in.

If you want nicotine in a shortfill, you add it yourself with a 10ml nic shot, which is a small bottle of unflavoured nicotine liquid. Add one 18mg shot such as the Nic Nic 18mg 50VG shot to a 50ml shortfill and you get 60ml at about 3mg. Add two to a 100ml bottle and you get 120ml at about 3mg. Other sizes, such as Lucky 7 80ml, follow the same principle; check the label for how much space is left for shots.

Shortfills are mostly high-VG and suit sub-ohm tanks rather than small pods. If you are not sure which way to go, read our comparison of shortfill vs 10ml e-liquid, and our step-by-step guide to mixing nic shots into e-liquid.

Why pods are 2ml and strength stops at 20mg

The 2ml limit in regulation 36 applies to cartridges and tanks, which is why UK pod kits use pods of 2ml or less. It covers prefilled pods and the empty refillable pods you fill yourself. That is why UK versions of tanks hold 2ml, even where the same tank is sold abroad with a bigger glass.

The 20mg/ml cap is the reason UK nic salts top out at 20mg. Strengths above the 20mg limit are illegal to sell here, whatever you see advertised abroad. Bar-style salts such as Bar Juice 5000 Blue Razz Lemonade come in 5mg, 10mg and 20mg, and freebase liquids such as 88Vape Menthol Chill sit in the same 10ml bottle format.

Which strength suits you depends on how much you smoked or vape now, not on the legal maximum. Our nicotine strength guide sets out the usual starting points for freebase and nic salts.

Reading a 10ml bottle before you buy

Because every legal nicotine bottle follows the same rules, the label tells you most of what you need. Four things are worth checking every time.

1. 1
   Strength in mg/ml. Anything from 0mg to 20mg is legal. Match it to your kit and habit rather than picking the strongest on the shelf.
2. 2
   Freebase or nic salt. Nic salts are designed for low-powered pod kits; freebase suits a wider range of kits. The label or product name will say which.
3. 3
   PG/VG ratio. Most 10ml bottles are 50/50, which suits mouth-to-lung pod coils of 0.6 ohm and above. Thicker high-VG 70/30 liquid suits coils below about 0.6 ohm, as found in sub-ohm tanks.
4. 4
   Seal and batch number. The tamper-evident seal should be intact when your order arrives, and the batch number lets the maker trace the bottle if there is ever a problem.

If a seller offers nicotine liquid in a bottle bigger than 10ml, or stronger than 20mg, it is not a legal UK product. Buying from a UK retailer that stocks notified products is the simplest way to avoid that.

Could the 10ml rule change?

The Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026. It gives ministers powers to make new rules on vaping products in future, such as on flavours, packaging and display. It does not itself change the 10ml, 2ml or 20mg/ml limits, and no flavour ban is in force.

Separately, the Vaping Products Duty applies from 1 October 2026 at £2.20 per 10ml, or £2.64 with VAT, on every vaping liquid including 0mg. It is charged per millilitre, so it lands the same way on a 10ml bottle as on a shortfill. Our explainer on how much vape prices will go up goes through each format.

Until the regulations are amended, expect the 10ml bottle to stay the standard unit for nicotine e-liquid in the UK. If you are new to liquids in general, our guide to what e-liquid is explains PG, VG, flavourings and nicotine in plain terms.

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