Stated strength and delivered nicotine remain two different numbers
The figure on a pouch tin describes content. What reaches the user is a separate quantity, and the category continues to present the first as though it were the second.
The number on the front of a pouch tin is a content figure. It states how much nicotine is in a pouch, usually in milligrams, sometimes expressed per pouch and sometimes per gram.
It is not a statement of how much nicotine reaches the person using it. Those are separate quantities, and the gap between them is neither small nor constant.
Why they differ
Nicotine release from a pouch depends on the formulation, the moisture content, the pH of the material, how long the pouch is kept in place, and the individual. Two pouches carrying the same stated milligram figure can release quite different amounts over the same period. The content figure is a property of the product; delivery is a property of the product and its use together.
None of that is contentious. It is simply not reflected in how the category labels itself.
The comparability problem
Two conventions are in circulation, which compounds matters.
Some brands state milligrams per pouch. Others state milligrams per gram of pouch material, which produces a different figure for the same product depending on pouch weight. A tin stating a high number under one convention can contain less nicotine per pouch than a tin stating a lower number under the other.
Where a brand does not state which convention it is using — and many do not — the number is not comparable to anything.
What we do with the figures
For the record this site keeps, our practice is: report the number exactly as the brand prints it, state which convention the brand says it is using, and note where it does not say. We do not convert between conventions, because doing so requires a pouch weight that is often unpublished, and we do not estimate delivered nicotine, because we cannot measure it.
That makes our tables less tidy than the marketing. It also makes them accurate, which is the point of keeping a record rather than a chart.
The practical read
Treat strength figures as within-brand indicators. Within one brand’s range, a higher number means more nicotine content, reliably. Across brands, the number is a comparison only if both are using the same convention and both say so.
Nicotine pouches contain nicotine, which is an addictive chemical. Nothing here describes any pouch as safe or as a cessation product, and this site is for adults who already use nicotine.