PG VG: 50/50 or 70/30, which one wins?

Two bottles of the same flavour, two labels that look like twins, and two vapes that have almost nothing in common. The whole gap sits in two numbers separated by a slash. In practice the PG VG decision comes down to a single duel: 50/50 against 70/30. Rather than define the acronyms one more time, this head to head runs both through the same grid and calls a winner at the end.

PG VG in short: which ratio suits which kit

The 50/50 wins as soon as the hardware runs a coil above 1 ohm: a pod, a spare tank, a compact setup. It feeds a thin wick without complaint, carries flavour without thickening it, and copes with the higher nicotine strengths sold here.

The 70/30 wins on atomisers whose coils drop below 0.5 ohm, with an airy draw and double digit wattage. It produces noticeably more vapour and softens the sensation at the back of the throat.

Everything else is fine tuning. If your kit clearly belongs to one of those two families, the ratio has already been decided for you.

The five criteria that separate two ratios

A head to head is only worth reading if both options go through the same grid. Five criteria cover almost everything the PG VG balance changes inside the bottle and inside the device.

Viscosity governs how the wick is fed. Flavour delivery depends on the share of propylene glycol, which is the better solvent of the two. Vapour volume tracks the share of vegetable glycerine. The sensation at the back of the throat sharpens as propylene glycol climbs.

Coil consumption is the fifth, and it rises with both viscosity and the sweetener load of the recipe. That last point is why two bottles at the same ratio can wear a coil at very different speeds.

The comparison table, criterion by criterion

The values below describe how the two ratios behave relative to each other. They are a way to place a bottle before you buy it, not a laboratory measurement of any brand.

Criterion	50/50	70/30 (VG dominant)
Viscosity	Thin	Thick
Feeding a thin wick	No difficulty	Risk of dry wicking
Flavour delivery	Sharp, defined	Rounder, more wrapped
Vapour volume	Moderate	High
Sensation in the throat	Clean	Softened
Compatible coils	Above 1 ohm	Below 0.5 ohm
Usual nicotine strengths	Up to the 20 mg/ml cap	Low strengths
Most common UK format	10 ml ready to vape	50 ml and 100 ml shortfill

Read the table vertically and a partial verdict already appears: the two ratios are not aimed at the same hardware. Comparing a 50/50 with a 70/30 without naming the device is like comparing two fuels without saying which engine receives them.

What a nic shot does to the ratio on the label

This is the part the British shelf changes completely. Nicotine containing e-liquid is capped at 10 ml bottles and 20 mg/ml here, so anything larger arrives as a nicotine free shortfill with headroom for a nic shot.

The standard arithmetic is well documented by UK retailers: one 10 ml nic shot at 18 mg dropped into a 50 ml shortfill gives 60 ml at roughly 3 mg. Two shots into a 100 ml shortfill give 120 ml at the same strength.

What almost no listing mentions is that the shot has its own ratio, and it rewrites yours. Take a 50 ml shortfill sold as 70/30 and add one 50/50 shot. The final 60 ml holds about 20 ml of propylene glycol against 40 ml of glycerine, so the liquid in the tank is nearer 33/67 than 70/30.

The gap looks trivial and it is not. It explains why the same recipe feels drier and more defined once shot than it does in a ready mixed 10 ml. A 50/50 shortfill topped with a 50/50 shot, on the other hand, stays exactly where it started. That is a rarely argued point in favour of balanced bases, and one reason 50/50 shortfills have grown their own shelf here.

The PG VG option this duel leaves out

The PG VG duel ignores a third family that genuinely exists: liquids built without propylene glycol at all. In the United Kingdom that mostly means 100 percent VG shortfills, sold with PG free flavourings, which several British retailers list as a category of their own.

Continental brands go one step further with propanediol, marketed as Végétol, a maize derived solvent used in place of propylene glycol. It is common on French shelves and rare on British ones, so treat it as a curiosity you may have to import rather than a mainstream option here.

Both routes make the same point. A ratio is not a law of physics, only a formulation convention, and a bottle can sit outside the two headline numbers without being exotic. Fruit recipes tolerate that shift better than desserts, as our comparison of dragon fruit e-liquid shows on a profile that is naturally light.

The verdict by vaper profile

The table separates on technical criteria, the verdict separates on use. The three profiles below cover the great majority of real buying situations in Britain.

Compact kit, pod or discreet tank: the 50/50 without hesitation. It feeds the wick, carries the strengths available up to the 20 mg/ml cap, and works with every flavour family, including the heaviest desserts.

Sub-ohm atomiser at high wattage: the 70/30, or thicker still. Below that the liquid runs through the wick too fast and the vapour stays thin for the energy spent.

Vaper who alternates two devices: the 50/50 remains the safest compromise. It works everywhere at the cost of excelling nowhere, and it is the only ratio that spares you two separate stocks of bottles.

Frequently asked questions

Does 60/40 really exist or is it a marketing line?

It exists and it is very common on British 10 ml bottles, where several ranges use it as their house standard. A 60/40 behaves like a slightly softened 50/50 without changing hardware category.

Can I thicken a bottle that feels too thin?

Yes, by adding pure vegetable glycerine bought separately. The operation dilutes the flavourings in proportion, so a corrected bottle loses in intensity what it gains in density.

Does the ratio change the price per millilitre?

Rarely in any direct way. The gap between two ratios in one range comes mostly from format and packaging rather than the cost of the two components, which sit close together.

Why do some listings print the ratio the other way round?

Because no standard fixes the order. A 30/70 at one shop can be the same product as a 70/30 at another. The reliable marker is the explicit mention of which component the number belongs to.

Does a very thick liquid kill a coil faster?

It wears one faster when the wick was not designed for it, because the cotton dries between puffs. On an atomiser built for it, viscosity alone causes no particular problem.

What to check before you order a bottle

The PG VG choice is settled by the hardware before it is settled by taste. Look at the ohm value of your coil, take the ratio that matches it, and only switch camps when you switch devices.

Keep in mind that the ratio printed on a shortfill is mechanically wrong by several points once the shot goes in, and that a balanced base is the only one that survives the operation unchanged. On that criterion alone, the PG VG duel leans towards 50/50. The same reasoning decides how a heavy dessert behaves in a tank, which our head to head on caramel e-liquid works through in detail, and how a menthol range shifts between formats, covered in our piece on Heisenberg e-liquid.

Editorial content for adult readers only. Vaping products usually contain nicotine, a substance that causes addiction. Not for sale to under-18s in the United Kingdom. This article is not a buying recommendation.