Nicotine Testing

Nicotine Testing Guide

A source-backed overview of what nicotine tests actually measure: why urine testing relies on cotinine, how cutoffs are chosen, and how long exposure stays detectable.

NICOTINE CLEARS FAST

COTININE RECENT USE

CUTOFFS MATTER

Most nicotine tests are not looking for nicotine. Nicotine clears the body within hours, so urine testing relies on cotinine, a longer-lived metabolite that tracks recent tobacco and nicotine exposure rather than current impairment.

Current Or Very Recent Use

Nicotine itself

Nicotine has a short half-life and is eliminated within hours, so a direct nicotine measurement only reflects very recent use. That short window is why most exposure testing looks downstream at cotinine instead.

Recent Use Or Exposure Monitoring

Cotinine urine metabolite

Cotinine is the major nicotine metabolite and lasts much longer than nicotine, with an average half-life around 16 hours. It can stay detectable for several days, so it is the marker most urine programs actually use.

Open Cotinine calculator

Cutoffs

Cutoffs change the meaning

The cutoff is the line a program or lab uses to decide what gets reported. The same measured concentration can be classified differently under different rules.

Urine cotinine cutoffs commonly span about 10-200 ng/mL depending on the testing purpose.
Lower cutoffs around 10-50 ng/mL are sensitive and can flag light use or passive exposure.
Cutoffs around 100-200 ng/mL are used to separate active smoking from nonsmoking.
Product type, metabolism, specimen timing, and the ordering program's written rule all matter.

References

Benowitz NL, Hukkanen J, Jacob P III (2009). Nicotine chemistry, metabolism, kinetics and biomarkers.
Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology 192:29-60. Review of nicotine metabolism, cotinine as the major biomarker, and the much shorter nicotine half-life.
doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69248-5_2
Jarvis MJ et al. (1988). Elimination of cotinine from body fluids.
American Journal of Public Health 78(6):696-698. Reports average cotinine half-life around 16 h with wide person-to-person spread.
doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.78.6.696
Kim S (2016). Overview of cotinine cutoff values for smoking status classification.
Biochemia Medica 26(3):405-416. Reviews cotinine cutoff ranges; urine cutoffs commonly span about 50-200 ng/mL.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
ARUP Consult. Nicotine Exposure and Metabolites.
Clinical testing reference for nicotine, cotinine, and trans-3'-hydroxycotinine interpretation, including multi-day windows.
arupconsult.com
Testing.com. Nicotine and Cotinine Test.
Patient-facing laboratory reference summarizing that cotinine can usually be detected for several days after tobacco use.
testing.com