A free quit planner for your patients

Why a planner for pouch users

Many patients who use nicotine pouches or snus are not ready to stop on the day you raise it. Some have tried to stop at once and been back to a can within the week. For them, "cut down" is vague advice: cut down to what, and by when? The planner turns it into a number for each day and a date for the last one.

We make an iPhone app for quitting pouches, and the planner uses the same maths. We offer it free because a patient who leaves with a plan is more likely to act on your advice, whether or not they ever download anything from us.

What the planner does

1. It asks five questions: pouches a day, strength in milligrams, minutes from waking to the first pouch, years of use and past quit attempts.
2. It gives a rough dependence score modelled on the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence and adapted for pouches. It is a guide for the plan, not a diagnosis.
3. It sizes the taper to the habit: never shorter than 14 days or longer than 42, with the biggest cuts early.
4. It shows each day's allowance as a chart and a table the patient can print or keep on their phone, ending on a quit date they can see from day one.

You can read how the plan is worked out on the planner page.

What we say about tapering, and what we do not

Most guidelines advise quitting abruptly, and the best trial supports that. In 697 smokers in English primary care, 49% of those who stopped at once were abstinent at four weeks, against 39% of those who cut down first over two weeks. The gap held at six months, even among people who had said they preferred to cut down.^[2] We have found no trial of tapering for nicotine pouches.

So the planner never says a taper is the better route. Every plan ends on a fixed date, and the planner page says plainly that stopping at once does at least as well. It is for the patient who will not stop today but will commit to a date.

What the evidence says about quit support for smokeless tobacco

A 2025 Cochrane review of 43 trials with 20,346 people who used smokeless tobacco found:^[1]

• Counselling raised quit rates compared with minimal support (risk ratio 1.76, moderate certainty).
• Brief advice raised them compared with no support (risk ratio 1.24, moderate certainty).
• Varenicline raised them compared with placebo (risk ratio 1.35, moderate certainty).
• Nicotine replacement may help (risk ratio 1.18, low certainty). Bupropion did not show a benefit.

Most of those trials were in North America, and none was specific to modern nicotine pouches, but it is the best summary there is for oral nicotine. For apps, a Cochrane review in smokers found very low-certainty evidence and no clear benefit yet, while automated text-message programmes had moderate-certainty evidence of helping.^[3] We would rather you knew that before you recommend anything digital, ours included.

The QR code

Scanning it opens pouchwiseapp.com/tools/taper-plan, the free planner. It does not open the App Store or ask for anything. Download the QR code as an SVG for a poster, a card or your own patient leaflet. It stays sharp at any size.

The patient sheet

One page to print and hand over. Use your browser's print button, or the one below; only the sheet prints.

Print the patient sheet

Your plan to stop nicotine pouches

Make your plan: scan the code or go to pouchwiseapp.com/tools/taper-plan. It is free, needs no sign-up and keeps what you type on your phone.

1. Pick a quit date and write it here: ____________________
2. Stopping at once works at least as well as cutting down. If you are ready, start today. If not, follow the planner's daily number down to your date.
3. Count every pouch. If you go over one day, carry on with the next day's number. Do not start again from the top.
4. Expect withdrawal to be strongest in the first week, especially the first three days. On average it lasts three to four weeks.^[4]
5. When a craving hits: move, keep your mouth busy with sugar-free gum, breathe slowly and deeply, and remind yourself it will pass.^[4]
6. Ask for help. Talking to an adviser makes quitting more likely.^[1] In the US, free quit coaching is on 1-800-QUIT-NOW.^[5] In the UK, ask your GP or your local stop smoking service.^[4] Your pharmacist can tell you about nicotine replacement.

Sources for every point are listed at pouchwiseapp.com/for-clinics. General information, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, have a heart condition or take regular medication, talk to your doctor or pharmacist before you change how much nicotine you use.

Other ways to share it

• On your website: link to /tools/taper-plan from your page on nicotine or gum health.
• In a message after the visit: send the link with the patient's quit date.
• For Nordic patients: the planner is also in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish.

If you spot something wrong on this page or in the planner, email support@pouchwiseapp.com. How we research explains how we check our sources.