How to quit vaping
There are two ways to quit vaping: pick a day and stop, or cut down over a few weeks. A Cochrane review of 22 studies found that, for smoking, both work about equally well. If you cut down, what makes it easier is not counting puffs but stretching the vape-free time between sessions a little each week.
Example plan: 20 sessions a day, 16 waking hours, 6 weeks. Yours comes from your own logs.
Cut down or quit cold turkey?
The Cochrane review looked at 22 studies with 9,219 people and found that cutting down to quit smoking works as well as quitting abruptly. There is no study this size for vaping yet.
So the right way is the one that fits you. Ready today? Quit today. Not ready? A cut-down plan walks you to a quit day you can see from the start.
Why gaps instead of puffs?
Puffs are hard to count: if you pick up your vape dozens of times a day, you can't keep track. Logging each session with one tap is easy, and the time between two logs is something you can actually see.
The plan stretches that time a little each week. The number of sessions per day drops on its own.
Example plan: zero in 6 weeks
The chart above is for someone who starts at 20 sessions a day with 16 waking hours. Week 1 is 20 sessions, 48 min apart. Each week drops by the same ratio; by week 5 it's 3 sessions a day, 5 hr 20 min apart. Week 6 is quit day.
The last cut-down week's goal is about 15% of where you started (at least 2 sessions). Plans run 4, 6 or 8 weeks; your numbers come from your own logs.
How the plan moves forward
For the first 3 days you just log; the plan learns your real rhythm. Then each week has a daily goal.
A week moves on when you hit your goal on 5 of 7 days, not when the calendar says so. If it gets hard, the week repeats with no penalty. See a tough week coming (exams, travel, a wedding)? Mark it ahead of time and the plan holds still.
Pass the last week and your quit day arrives.
What if you slip?
A slip is not a restart. Your vape-free days are never erased and the counter doesn't reset. If you like, go back to your last goal for a week, then quit again.
Most quit apps reset the counter at the first slip, and people who see that zero often quit the app, not the vape. That's why Puffgap never does.
Before you start
Know when cravings hit you hardest: when you wake up, with coffee, under stress, around friends or at night. Pick an answer for each one in advance. More in the vape cravings guide; what the first weeks feel like is in the withdrawal guide.
Puffgap builds this plan from your own logs. See how it works →