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Nicotine Pouch Calculator

Pouches a day times the strength on the tin is the nicotine you put in your mouth. Studies that weighed used pouches found 22% to 62% of it leaves the pouch, and more the longer each one stays in. Eight 6 mg pouches held for 30 minutes each: 48 mg in, roughly 18 to 21 mg out, about 12 to 14 cigarettes' worth.

An open tin of pouches seen from above, with the day drawn as a ring around it

 

Tap a pouch to set how many you use a day. Drag the orange marker round the ring to set how long each one stays in.

Your day in numbers

—mg

Nicotine in your pouches a day, by the strength on the tin

— mg
Taken out of the pouches, a day, estimated
≈ —
Cigarettes' worth, roughly
—
A day with a pouch in

 

A rough comparison, not a reading. Absorbed nicotine differs by product and by person: what leaves a pouch is not all taken into the blood, pouches release it more slowly than a cigarette, and the strength on a tin is not always what is inside it.

Your pouches

The number on your own tin wins. The buttons show the strengths each maker lists.

The studies measured 10, 20, 30 and 60 minutes.

What the tins cost

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A week
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A year
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Tins a week
Print a pouch quit plan with these numbers Build the full quit plan

A one-page plan counted in pouches and tins, with your numbers already in it.

How the pouch figures are worked out

Three multiplications and one lookup. Nicotine in the pouches is pouches a day × the strength on the tin. Hours with a pouch in is pouches a day × minutes per pouch ÷ 60. Money is pouches a day ÷ pouches per tin × the price of a tin, times 7 for a week and 365 for a year.

The lookup is the share of the nicotine that leaves the pouch, and it is measured, not ours: the studies weighed pouches before and after use. The page takes the band for the measured use time nearest yours. 22% to 28% at 10 minutes and 37% to 44% at 30 minutes come from Azzopardi and colleagues (2025, 11 mg and 20 mg pouches). 24% to 52% at 20 minutes comes from Mallock-Ohnesorg and colleagues (2024, three brands), and the 2025 study's 30% and 36% at 20 minutes sit inside it. 50% to 62% at 60 minutes comes from Lunell and colleagues (2020, 3 mg to 8 mg) and Azzopardi and colleagues (2022, 4 mg). Under 15 minutes reads the 10-minute band, 15 to 24 the 20-minute band, 25 to 44 the 30-minute band, and 45 or more the 60-minute band: a use time between two measured ones gets the nearer band, never an invented curve. The percentages are rounded to whole numbers. The 2024 study was independent; the others were run by pouch makers.

The cigarette comparison divides the nicotine taken out by 1.5 mg, the top of the 1 to 1.5 mg a smoker takes in per cigarette in Benowitz, Hukkanen and Jacob's review. It is the same divisor the vape calculator here uses, and the one that gives the smaller count. The comparison is rough twice over: nicotine that leaves a pouch is not all nicotine that reaches the blood, and the strength on the tin is not always what is in the pouch (a pouch sold as 6 mg measured 4.8 mg in the 2024 study).

The brand buttons fill in strengths read off each maker's own site on 28 September 2026 (ZYN and VELO in the UK, on! in the US) and, for ZYN in the US, the two strengths the FDA's marketing order names. Ranges change; the number on your own tin wins.

None of this is a measurement of you, and none of it is medical advice.

Where this comes from

  1. 1. A randomized crossover clinical study to assess the effect of oral nicotine pouches used for different durations on plasma nicotine pharmacokinetics — nicotine extracted after 10, 20 and 30 minutes Azzopardi et al., Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 2025 (PubMed Central; BAT-funded)
  2. 2. Small pouches, but high nicotine doses — nicotine delivery and acute effects after use of tobacco-free nicotine pouches Mallock-Ohnesorg et al., German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment and LMU Munich, Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2024 (PubMed Central)
  3. 3. Pharmacokinetic comparison of a novel non-tobacco-based nicotine pouch (ZYN) with conventional, tobacco-based Swedish snus and American moist snuff Lunell et al., Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2020 (PubMed; Swedish Match co-author)
  4. 4. A randomised study to assess the nicotine pharmacokinetics of an oral nicotine pouch and two nicotine replacement therapy products Azzopardi et al., Scientific Reports, 2022 (PubMed Central; BAT-funded)
  5. 5. Nicotine pharmacokinetics and subjective responses after using nicotine pouches with different nicotine levels compared to combustible cigarettes and moist smokeless tobacco Liu et al., Psychopharmacology, 2022 (PubMed Central; Altria-funded)
  6. 6. Nicotine chemistry, metabolism, kinetics and biomarkers — systemic dose from cigarette smoking, 1 to 1.5 mg per cigarette Benowitz, Hukkanen & Jacob, Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, 2009 (PubMed Central)
  7. 7. FDA authorizes marketing of 20 ZYN nicotine pouch products — 3 mg and 6 mg, and "there is no safe tobacco product" US Food and Drug Administration, 16 January 2025
  8. 8. ZYN UK range by strength: 1.5, 3, 6, 9, 11, 13.5 and 16.5 mg ZYN (Philip Morris International), read 28 September 2026
  9. 9. VELO UK pouches: 4, 6, 8, 10, 14 and 17 mg across the range VELO (BAT), read 28 September 2026
  10. 10. on! nicotine strength: 2, 4, 6 and 8 mg; on! PLUS 6, 9 and 12 mg on! (Altria), read 28 September 2026

Nothing on this page is medically reviewed and nothing above measures anything about you — it explains a calculation. Where a number here is our own judgement rather than a published figure, the note says so and cites nothing; where the health bodies disagree, it carries the disagreement. Method last checked 28 September 2026.

Reading the Numbers

What the number on the tin means

The milligrams on a tin are per pouch, and they are the nicotine the pouch was made with. They are not what you take in. Some of it stays in the pouch when you throw it away, and how much stays depends mostly on how long it was in your mouth.

Strengths now run far past the old 3 mg and 6 mg. A German survey of 44 brands measured up to 47.5 mg in a single pouch. A higher number on the lid does not always mean a higher share taken out: in the same German group's study, the 20 mg pouch gave up a smaller share than the 6 mg one.

Why the minutes matter

Nicotine leaves a pouch slowly. In the study that timed it, the share taken out rose at every step from 10 to 20 to 30 minutes, and studies that left pouches in for an hour measured the most of all. That is why the calculator asks how long each one stays in, and why the ring around the tin grows with it.

The minutes also add up to something plain: the hours of every day with a pouch in. For many people that number is the surprise, more than the milligrams.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much nicotine is in a nicotine pouch?
The figure printed on the tin, per pouch, and it varies a great deal. The US Food and Drug Administration's marketing order for ZYN covers 3 mg and 6 mg pouches; ZYN's UK range runs from 1.5 mg to 16.5 mg and VELO's UK range reaches 17 mg. Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment measured 44 brands and found from 1.79 mg to 47.5 mg in a pouch. The label is not always what is inside: in one of its studies a pouch sold as 6 mg held 4.8 mg.

How much nicotine do you actually get from a pouch?
Less than the label says, and more the longer it stays in. Studies that weighed pouches before and after use found 22% to 28% of the nicotine gone after 10 minutes, about 30% to 36% after 20 and 37% to 44% after 30 in one study of 11 mg and 20 mg pouches, and 50% to 62% after an hour in studies of 3 mg to 8 mg pouches. An independent German study found 24% to 52% after 20 minutes across three brands. Most of the others were run by pouch makers.

How many cigarettes is one nicotine pouch?
Roughly one and a half to two and a half, for a 6 mg pouch held for 30 minutes. At 37% to 44% taken out, it gives up about 2.2 to 2.6 mg, and a smoker takes in about 1 to 1.5 mg from each cigarette on the figures in Benowitz, Hukkanen and Jacob's review. This calculator divides by 1.5, so its count is the lower one. Read it as rough: nicotine that leaves a pouch is not all nicotine that reaches the blood, and a pouch releases it more slowly. In one study blood levels peaked after about 32 to 34 minutes for pouches and 8.5 minutes for cigarettes.

Are nicotine pouches safe?
The FDA answered that in the order that let ZYN be sold in the United States: the order "does not mean these tobacco products are safe", and "there is no safe tobacco product." Pouches carry nicotine, which is what dependence runs on, and in the independent German study every pouch tested caused mouth irritation.

How much do nicotine pouches cost a year?
Pouches a day, divided by the pouches in a tin, times what a tin costs, times 365. Eight a day from 20-pouch tins at $6 a tin is 0.4 of a tin a day: $16.80 a week and $876 a year. The calculator runs the same sum on your own numbers and currency.

How do I quit nicotine pouches?
Pick a date and decide ahead of it whether you will stop outright or cut down first; the Cochrane review of 51 trials found neither route ends with more people quit than the other. The quit plan here works in pouches and tins and prints a one-page plan, a wallet card and a calendar file, and the button under this calculator fills it in with your numbers. A pharmacist can talk you through nicotine replacement.

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Burnout tracks pouches the same way it tracks smoking

Pick pouches in the app and the count, the money and the milestones follow.

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