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How many attempts does it take to quit vaping?
By Nick, founder of SmokeFree AI, who quit after 23 years · Last updated 14 August 2026 · General information, not medical advice
More than one, for most people who get there. Research on quitting consistently finds that repeated attempts are the norm rather than the exception, and that people who have tried before are not less likely to succeed. If you are on attempt four and reading this as evidence against yourself, you have it backwards.
Why the number is higher than anyone expects
The tidy version, where somebody decides to stop and simply never does it again, is the exception. The common version is several goes, each lasting longer than the last, until one of them holds.
Estimates of the average vary a lot between studies, partly because researchers disagree about what counts as an attempt. The consistent finding across all of them is that most successful quitters had earlier attempts behind them.
Previous attempts are not wasted
Each one tells you something specific. Which day you struggled on, which situation did it, whether you went back in a moment of stress or in a good mood with a drink in your hand.
Someone on their third attempt knows their triggers far better than someone on their first, and that knowledge is the difference between hoping and planning.
What tends to change in the attempt that works
People plan for the specific thing that got them last time rather than relying on resolve in general. If it was drinking, they plan the first few nights out. If it was stress at work, they decide in advance what happens instead.
They also tend to stop treating a slip as the end. The attempt that succeeds is often not the one without a wobble, it is the one where the wobble did not become a verdict.
If you have just gone back
Do not wait for a Monday, a birthday or the first of the month. The gap between deciding and starting is where most restarts quietly die.
Take one useful thing from the attempt that just ended and change exactly that. Not everything, one thing, and start again from where you are.
A slip resets a streak, not your history
Every craving you ever surfed stays on the record. The app is built around the fact that most quits include a wobble.
Launching September 1, 2026Common questions
How many times does it take to quit vaping?
Most people who quit for good needed more than one attempt. Estimates of the average vary between studies, but the consistent finding is that earlier attempts are normal and do not make success less likely.
Does failing to quit mean I am addicted?
It means nicotine is doing what nicotine does. Difficulty stopping is a feature of the substance rather than a statement about willpower, which is why the people who succeed usually do it by planning around triggers rather than by trying harder.
Should I wait a while before trying to quit again?
No. The period right after an attempt ends is when your triggers are clearest and your motivation is closest to hand. Waiting for a neat date to start on is how restarts get postponed indefinitely.
More on this: what to do after a slip · the full quit plan.
Sources: NHS, quit smoking · CDC, e-cigarettes and nicotine. General information, not medical advice.