How Old Do You Have to Be to Vape?

Legal Age to Vape: 21 in Every State

The legal age to vape is 21 in every state, because federal law bars any store from selling a vape to anyone younger. FDA says the rule covers cigarettes, cigars, hookah tobacco, smokeless tobacco, liquid nicotine and every kind of e-cigarette and e-liquid, and nicotine made in a lab counts the same as nicotine from tobacco.

The federal law is aimed at sellers: it makes it unlawful for a retailer to sell a tobacco product to anyone under 21. State laws add their own rules on top, such as Colorado's fine for anyone who gives a vape to a person under 21.

What Is Tobacco 21?

Tobacco 21 is the federal law that raised the minimum age to buy any tobacco or nicotine product from 18 to 21. Congress put it in a spending law, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (Public Law 116-94), which was signed on December 20, 2019 and took effect that day. It amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to make it unlawful for any retailer to sell a tobacco product to a person under 21.

FDA rewrote its own rules to match in an August 2024 final rule. Since September 30, 2024, stores must check a photo ID that shows a date of birth for anyone under 30, up from anyone under 27 before.

Can You Buy a Vape at 18?

You can't buy a vape at 18 anywhere in the United States, and the same goes for 19 and 20. Since December 20, 2019, a store that sells a vape to a buyer under 21 breaks federal law, whatever an older state statute says. That holds for gas stations, grocery stores and vape shops alike, and our guide to which stores sell vapes shows who stocks them.

It holds online too. FDA enforces the age against both brick and mortar and online retailers, and its undercover compliance checks send an underage buyer in with an inspector.

What States Can You Buy a Vape at 18?

There are no states where you can buy a vape at 18, because the federal age of 21 applies in all of them. More than 40 states have also written 21 into their own laws, according to the CDC's count of state laws through September 2024, and the federal age applies in the rest anyway.

A few state laws still carve out young service members. Texas lists an exception for buyers 18 and older with a military ID, and Pennsylvania's age law exempts service members and honorably discharged veterans. Neither changes the federal rule, so stores in those states still can't sell to anyone under 21. Flavor and product rules, which do differ by state, are on our vape bans by state page.

Can You Buy a Vape at 18 in the Military?

You can't buy a vape at 18 in the military, on base or off. FDA says the federal age has no exemptions, and the CDC's summary of the law spells out that active duty members and veterans aged 18 to 20 are not exempt.

The Defense Department went the same way. Since August 1, 2020, it has not sold tobacco products, e-cigarettes and e-liquids included, to anyone under 21 on its installations in the US and its territories, service members included. A 2021 proposal by Senator Tom Cotton to let younger troops buy on base again failed in committee, Military Times reported.

Do Vape Shops Check ID?

Vape shops have to check ID for anyone under 30: an FDA rule requires a photo ID with a date of birth before any vape sale to a customer under 30. Colorado sets the line at 50. Its shops must ask for a government photo ID from anyone who appears to be under 50 and post a sign at least 3 by 6 inches saying so.

Those checks get tested. FDA runs undercover buy inspections in which the inspector and the underage buyer don't identify themselves, and it posts the results in a public database that anyone, parents included, can search by store name, city or ZIP code. FDA also offers stores an FDA Age Calculator phone app.

Age to Buy a Vape Online

The age to buy a vape online is 21 too, and the checks are stricter than at a counter. Under the federal PACT Act, an online seller has to verify the buyer's age through a commercial database at checkout, then ship by a method that checks a photo ID and gets an adult's signature at the door. Vapes can't go through the US mail, under a Postal Service rule in force since October 21, 2021, with narrow exceptions.

Colorado is stricter still. It bans shipping vapes to consumers, so the only legal delivery comes from a licensed Colorado shop with a state delivery permit, whose own employee, 21 or older, checks your photo ID.

Legal Age to Buy a Vape in Colorado

The legal age to buy a vape in Colorado is 21, under a state law in force since July 14, 2020 (HB20-1001). Shops must card anyone who appears to be under 50, a stricter test than the federal under-30 rule. Employees who are 18 to 20 may handle vapes at work, but no one under 18 may sell them. Our Colorado vape laws page covers the state's taxes, flavor bans and delivery rules.

Colorado also reaches past stores. Anyone who gives, sells or offers a vape to a person under 21 commits a civil infraction with a $200 fine. Our Colorado vape shop directory lists 605 vape and smoke shops in 43 cities, and every one of them works under these rules.

What Happens to Stores That Sell to Anyone Under 21

What happens to stores that sell to anyone under 21 starts with an FDA warning letter and climbs from there. For repeat violations at the same location, FDA can seek civil money penalties, and it says it intends to seek the maximum. The current maximums are:

• First violation: a warning letter, no fine.
• Second within 12 months: $365.
• Third within 24 months: $727.
• Fourth within 24 months: $2,920.
• Fifth within 36 months: $7,300.
• Sixth within 48 months: $14,602.

Five or more repeat violations within 36 months can bring a no-tobacco-sale order, which bars that location from selling any tobacco product. Under FDA guidance, a first order runs up to 30 days, a second up to six months, and a third is permanent. One caution: in June 2026 a federal appeals court threw out an FDA fine because a Texas vape shop got no jury trial. That case was about unauthorized vapes, not an underage sale, and the Justice Department says it is looking at other ways for FDA to pursue fines.

States add their own penalties. In Colorado, state fines for an underage sale start at $250 to $500 for a first violation and reach $1,000 to $15,000, plus a stop on tobacco sales of up to three years, for a fourth within 24 months (C.R.S. 44-7-106). A shop that already had a written policy, told staff the law, required photo ID checks and disciplined violations can use that as a defense once every 24 months per location. Denver adds city fines of $1,000 to $5,000 with license suspensions, and since 2024, HB24-1356 lets the attorney general or a district attorney sue over vape sales to minors as a deceptive trade practice.

Vaping Age FAQ

This vaping age FAQ answers what adults, parents and shop staff ask most, and our 21+ policy explains how to report a shop that sells to minors.