How Long Does Nicotine Stay In Your System For Drug Testing?

Nicotine can stay in your system from three days to several months, depending on how much you smoke, how long you’ve smoked, and what type of test is administered.
Generally, employers and other testing agencies use a urinalysis test to determine the levels of nicotine, if any, in a person. If you’re only an occasional smoker, and when you light up it’s just a cigarette or two – the typical social smoker – then the nicotine will generally be clear of your system in three to four days.
For people who smoke steadily, or who have a long history of smoking, it’s going to take longer to clear the nicotine from your system. One week to two weeks is a good ballpark figure, but for those with a long history of heavy smoking, you may be looking at twenty days or longer.
These results are based on testing by urinalysis. Blood testing can detect much smaller amounts, so the timeframes lengthen quite a bit. After nicotine enters your blood system, your body converts it, or metabolizes it, into a substance called cotinine. This is actually the substance the blood test measures. Your body, of course, does not clear blood through your system via the liver as fast as urine passes through your system. That’s why blood tests can detect substances for longer periods of time than can urine tests.
A third test, a hair test, can analyze substances retained in a person’s hair. This test is expensive and is rarely administered, but can detect substances months or even years after a person has stopped using.
How soon a person has to stop using nicotine before a drug test will vary, but for the average person undergoing a urinalysis, twenty days is a good estimate, unless you’re a heavy smoker with a long history of smoking. Blood and hair tests take longer, of course, so it might be a good idea to find out what type of testing will be done so you can give yourself the best odds of passing.

Trace nicotine can stay in your system for 20 or more days, but usually if the employer is testing using urinalysis, then your system is likely to show clear of nicotine in two to three days if
you are an occasional user,  or when you use, you use a small amount , or your history of using tobacco is less than six months.

Your system is likely to show clear of nicotine in three to five days if you use once or twice a week, or when you use, you use a moderate to large amount , or your history of using tobacco is more than six months but less than a year.  If you use most days of the week, or when you use, you use a moderate to large amount , or your history of using tobacco is greater than one year, then your system is liely to show clear of nicotine in five to ten days.

If the employer uses a hair test, the amount of time for your hair to show clear increases, but most employers don't use that method because it's pretty expensive.

You can help flush nicotine more quickly from your system by drinking lots of citrus beverages, high in Vitamin C during the first several days along with moderate amounts of water; the vitamin C speeds up the metabolism of nictoine by your body, and of course the fluids will help with the excretion of that metabolized nicotine through your urine.  I hope this helps.  Good luck!

I dont know but I am about to find out.  I quit back in april but I have had one or two a week since then.    Not this week though I am getting life insurance and they are testing me.

3 days

I need to go for a nicotine test for the lap band i dont smoke alot but i am a smoker how long til it out my system

I need to know how long it is out i stopped on thursday and me test is wed will i be ok? I have also been taking Vit C and Cranberry pills to flush my system plus lots of water.

48 hours

7 days