PG vs VG Vape Juice: What They Are and How to Pick a Ratio
Posted by Courtney McElligott on Jul 28th 2026
New to vaping and squinting at a number like 70/30 on a bottle? That figure is the balance of PG to VG, the two liquids that make up most of what's in the bottle. Get it right and the juice tastes the way you hoped and feeds your coil properly. Get it wrong and you end up with thin clouds, a harsh draw, or a dry hit on a brand-new coil.
Here's what the two ingredients do, how to read the ratio, and which one to buy for the device you already own.
What PG and VG Actually Are
Propylene glycol (PG) looks like water: colorless, odorless, and thin. That thinness is the whole story once it reaches a wick. PG shows up well outside vaping too, in shampoo, ice cream, and the fluid that fog and haze machines run on. Research going back to the 1940s put it to work in atmospheric and inhalant applications, including air handling in theaters and restaurants.
Vegetable glycerin (VG) is made by breaking down plant oils, usually palm, coconut, or soybean. It's a carbohydrate, it's noticeably thicker than PG, and on its own it carries a mild sweetness. Both bases are clear, so sweetness is the easiest way to tell them apart by taste. We use USP-grade VG across our catalog rather than food-grade.
Where Else You'll Find VG
VG also stands in for alcohol in many extracts, and it turns up in plenty of everyday items:
- Sugar substitutes
- Beauty products: makeup, mousse, shampoo, bubble bath, aftershave, deodorant
- Baked goods, where it holds moisture
- Pet food and soap
- Gel-based creams, gel-capsule pills, rubs, and jellies
- Eye and ear drops, toothpaste, and other dental products
Glycerin is classified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for use as a food additive, and it meets the Food Chemicals Codex specifications. That classification is about its long history in food, not a statement about vapor products.
How to Read the Ratio
The two numbers are percentages, and the order matters. PG comes first, VG second. So 70/30 is 70% PG and 30% VG, while 30/70 is the reverse. Some bottles spell it out as 70/30 VG/PG to avoid the confusion, and max-VG bottles skip the numbers entirely.
Flavor concentrate and nicotine make up the rest of the bottle, which is why a label reading 70% VG rarely measures out at exactly 70.
What Each Base Does
Both liquids carry flavor and nicotine. They pull in opposite directions on everything else.
PG: Throat Hit and Flavor Definition
A PG-heavy juice gives a sharper sensation at the back of the throat on the inhale, and it does that without raising the nicotine strength. Plenty of adult vapers specifically want that.
PG has no taste of its own, so it carries a recipe cleanly and gives the mixer more room to build one. Bold tobacco blends and strong coffee notes come through best at a higher PG ratio. The trade-off is vapor: PG doesn't make big clouds.
VG: Smoothness and Clouds
VG is what produces thick, dense vapor and a softer inhale with a fuller feel in the mouth. It's the base behind sweeter profiles, which is why most high-VG bottles lean fruit and dessert rather than tobacco.
Flavor clarity is what you give up. VG carries flavor a little less sharply, so a high-VG juice can read slightly muted next to the same recipe at 50/50. Running more power pushes more vapor, but stay inside the wattage range printed on your coil. Past it you get dry hits and a cooked wick.
Common Ratios at a Glance
| Ratio | What you get | Typical device |
|---|---|---|
| 70/30 PG or higher | Sharpest throat hit, most concentrated flavor, minimal vapor | Low-wattage mouth-to-lung devices |
| 60/40 PG/VG | Firm throat hit and strong flavor with a reasonable amount of vapor, not too sweet | An easy all-around starting point |
| 50/50 | Even throat hit and flavor, modest clouds, thin enough to wick easily | Pod systems and MTL tanks; suits nicotine salts |
| 70/30 VG | Big, dense clouds, smooth inhale, sweeter profile, softer throat hit | Sub-ohm tanks and direct-lung setups |
| Max VG (80%+) | The most vapor and the mildest draw, with the softest flavor | High-power sub-ohm builds |
Match the Ratio to Your Device
Before taste enters the picture, your hardware narrows the choice for you. Thin PG-forward juice wicks through small ports without complaint. Thick VG-forward juice needs wide channels to keep the coil fed, and it will starve a coil that wasn't built for it.
A rough guide by coil resistance: 0.7 ohm and up wants 50/50, and anything below about 0.6 ohm is built for high VG. Put a max-VG bottle in a pod and you'll get a burnt taste inside a day, then blame the flavor.
If you're starting out, 60/40 is the least fussy first pick. Noticeable throat hit, plenty of flavor, a decent amount of vapor, and it isn't sweet enough to tire you out. From there it's preference. Chasing flavor and a firm hit? Move toward 80/20 PG. Want bigger clouds? Work down through 30/70 toward max VG as you dial in your taste.
The Ratios We Mix
Our standard e-juice line is a 50/50 PG/VG blend, which is why it runs in nearly anything a customer already owns. The Premium Prestige Collection is mixed at 60% VG and 40% PG for a smoother draw and a thicker cloud.
We lean on that VG sweetness on purpose in the Craft Collection. A flavor like Revolution picks it up, and the higher VG throws the plumes to go with it.
Mixing Your Own
Ratio matters more once you're mixing your own juice, because you're choosing it rather than reading it off a label. Three things trip up new mixers.
Most flavor concentrates are suspended in PG, so every drop of flavoring drags your finished VG percentage down. Aim for 70% VG with a 15% flavor load and you'll land closer to 60.
High-VG mixes also take longer to steep, and that gap widens with layered multi-flavor recipes. A single-flavor mix on a higher PG ratio is sometimes ready the same day.
And if a thick mix won't feed the wick, nudge the ratio down a few points rather than fighting it. Dark, heavy flavorings make gloopy juice worse.
Find Your Ratio
The only way to settle this is to vape a few and compare. Two bottles of the same flavor at different ratios teaches more than any chart. Browse our e-liquid guide if you also want to sort out nicotine strength, or contact us and we'll point you at bottles that fit your device.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a number like 70/30 on a vape juice bottle mean?
It's the PG-to-VG ratio. The first number is the percentage of propylene glycol, the second is vegetable glycerin, so 70/30 is 70% PG and 30% VG. Some labels reverse it and write 70/30 VG/PG, so check which base is listed first. The balance sets throat hit, flavor clarity, and cloud size.
What is the difference between PG and VG?
PG is thin, has no taste of its own, carries flavor sharply, and gives a firmer throat hit. VG is thick, mildly sweet, and produces bigger, smoother vapor with slightly softer flavor. Nearly every e-liquid blends the two.
Which PG/VG ratio gives the biggest clouds?
Higher VG. A 70/30 VG blend gives dense clouds and a smooth inhale, and max VG at 80% or more pushes vapor further still. Both need a sub-ohm coil with wide wicking channels and enough power to vaporize the thicker liquid.
What ratio should I use in a pod system?
Stick with 50/50. Pods and mouth-to-lung coils have small wicking ports that can't keep up with thick high-VG juice, which causes dry hits and shortens coil life. As a rule of thumb, coils around 0.7 ohm and up suit 50/50, while coils below 0.6 ohm are built for high VG.
Why does my high-VG juice taste muted?
VG carries flavor a little less sharply than PG, so the same recipe reads softer at 70/30 VG than at 50/50. Slow wicking can add to it, since a coil that isn't fully saturated tastes flat before it tastes burnt. Try a slightly higher-PG ratio, stay inside your coil's wattage range, and give the wick a few seconds between puffs.
What PG/VG ratios does Central Vapors use?
Our standard e-juice line is 50/50 PG/VG, and the Premium Prestige Collection is 60% VG and 40% PG. We mix with USP-grade VG across the catalog.
These products are intended only for adults 21+. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. This article is general product information and is not a smoking-cessation claim.