Can I Bring a Vape to Canada? Cigarette and Vape Limits

What the border agency says

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) publishes a page for non-residents. It tells visitors to declare all alcohol, tobacco and vaping products when they enter, to meet the minimum age, and to be prepared to pay duties and taxes on whatever they declare. It also warns that you may need a permit from the provincial or territorial authority for amounts over the limits.

Visitor allowances

Product	Limited quantity for a visitor
Cigarettes	200
Cigars	50
Manufactured tobacco	200 grams (7 ounces)
Tobacco sticks	200
Vaping products	12 containers or fewer, at most 120 mL (liquid) or 120 g (solid)

The minimum age is 18 for tobacco and vaping products, wherever you enter. That is different from alcohol, where the age is 18 or 19 depending on the province, and different again from the age to buy tobacco once you are inside the country (see the legal smoking age by province).

CBSA’s customs memorandum on non-residents, dated 28 April 2026, adds two conditions. The goods must be in your possession when you arrive, so you cannot ship them ahead and claim the allowance. And the agency may limit the quantities for short visits.

Stamps and the “five unit” cap

Look for the marking “duty paid Canada droit acquitté” on packs. Duty-free shops sell products stamped this way. For returning travellers, a special duty rate applies to unstamped cigarettes, manufactured tobacco and tobacco sticks, and unstamped, unpackaged goods are capped at five units of tobacco and five units of vaping products, where one unit is one of the quantities in the table. The memorandum applies the same five-unit limit to non-residents.

What it costs if you go over

Whatever the allowance, amounts above it are charged regular duty and taxes, plus any provincial or territorial levies. Federal excise duty alone on stamped cigarettes is $0.97299 per 5 cigarettes from 1 April 2026, which works out to about $38.92 for 200. Provincial tax and sales tax come on top. The duty-free allowance calculator and our guide to how much tobacco you can bring into Canada walk through the arithmetic.

If you do not declare

CBSA’s declaration guide is written for returning residents, but its enforcement language is blunt. Goods that are not declared or are falsely declared can be seized. Tobacco products and alcohol that are not properly declared are seized permanently. To get other seized goods back, you may have to pay a penalty of 25 to 70 per cent of their value. You have 90 days from the seizure date to appeal. The guide adds that the agency keeps a record of infractions, which can mean closer examinations on later trips.

Declaring costs you a few minutes. Not declaring can cost you the whole carton.

Flights

The allowance says nothing about whether you can use a vape on board. Aircraft rules are a separate matter, covered in vaping on a plane and travelling with vapes. For what you can do once you land, go back to smoking and vaping rules for visitors.