Hello and welcome, Dakota.
I think your question has been shared by many a new vaper. The inverse of it is, "how much am I supposed to vape?", or "what does it take to stay off cigarettes?".
The answers are subjective. We all are different. I'll give you my experience, which was reported by other newbies in this forum. I used to smoke "lite" cigarettes. Based on that, my friends who clued me into vaping advised me to start at 18 mg/ml liquid. During about six weeks of dual use, smoking and vaping, I think it actually was good advice because I learned to love vaping. I liked it so much more than smoking, I decided to take the leap and try to quit cigarettes. The Saturday morning after Thanksgiving 2012, I had my last cigarette with morning coffee. I vaped my brains out all day, and I won't say it wasn't rough, with the angel on one shoulder saying "keep going", and the demon on the other shoulder saying "you can have a cigarette, go ahead, nobody is forcing you to stop". I just kept vaping my brains out and ignored the demon. When I woke up the next morning, I knew I was a nonsmoker.
Then I started to feel wired all the time, waking up in the middle of the night, so I dropped my nic from 18 to 12, where I have stayed since then, comfortable and satisfied. I've never counted my hits, but when I'm awake, I'm vaping.
Some vapers who successfully quit cigarettes will decide to keep on dropping their nic, to stop all addiction, period. I recommend against that. I've known people who tried that, and went back to cigarettes because they couldn't fight the craving. Just keep in mind that staying off cigarettes is everything, not changing your whole life, not getting more heroic or more fit or more beautiful. Just stay off cigarettes by vaping your secure level of nic. You can become more fit, more beautiful, more heroic, in other ways, but keeping a secure level of nic will keep you off cigarettes.
I wish you the best of luck, and a nonsmoking future.
