DoseCraft
VapeHeatLabTHCA
→ Δ9-THCCannabinoid acid
Decarb Heat turns it into THC. Electric vapes at 410°F converted 97% or more.
The Heat Ladder
Vape Temperature Chart
Every compound in the herb comes off at its own temperature, and the hotter you run it, the faster it goes. Start low and the light terpenes lead. Climb and more of the plant joins in. Stop before the burn line.
Slide the dial to your vape’s setting to see what’s coming off. 54 compounds, every number sourced.
Your temp365°F185°C
26 of 41 coming off. Next up: Linalool at 388°F.
- 230°F
Decarb zone
Raw flower holds its cannabinoids as acids, and heat converts them on the way up. In lab tests on extracts, THCA was nearly gone after 30 minutes at 230°F, 9 minutes at 266°F and 6 minutes at 293°F.[7]
CBDA
→ CBDCannabinoid acid
Decarb Heat turns it into CBD, about half as fast as THCA. Vapes at 410°F converted about 95%.
CBGA
→ CBGCannabinoid acid
Decarb Heat turns it into CBG, about half as fast as THCA.
Sources[7]
CBCA
→ CBCCannabinoid acid
Decarb Heat turns it into CBC. Mostly converted by 284°F in extraction tests.
CBDVA
→ CBDVCannabinoid acid
Decarb Heat turns it into CBDV. Mostly converted by 284°F in extraction tests.
Sources[8]
- 237°F
- 246°F
β-Caryophyllene
246-266°FSesquiterpene · also in black pepper
“woody-spicy, dry, clove-like aroma”
Vape test Comes off fast: in one vape test, roughly 90% left the flower within 20 seconds at 356°F.
- 253°F
- 273°F
β-Sitosterol
273°FPlant sterol
Sources[1]
- 304°F
- 313°F
- 320°F
- 329°F
- 345°F
α-Terpinene
345°FMonoterpene
“refreshing, lemony-citrus aroma”
Sources[27]
- 347°F
β-Ocimene
347-351°FMonoterpene
“warm herbaceous aroma”
α-Phellandrene
347°FMonoterpene
“peppery, woody, herbaceous aroma”
Eucalyptol
349°FMonoterpene · 1,8-cineole · also in eucalyptus
“camphor-like odor”
p-Cymene
351°FMonoterpene
“sweetish aromatic odor”
d-Limonene
351°FMonoterpene · also in citrus
“pleasant lemon-like odor”
Apigenin
352°FFlavonoid
Sources[1]
- 356°F
Cannabinoid vapor zone
Vaporizer research finds cannabinoid vapor forming right around 356-374°F.[2]
- 360°F
- 365°F
- 388°F
- 392°F
β-Farnesene
392°FSesquiterpene · cis isomer
Vape test Measured in vapor at a 392°F setting.
Sources[4]
Fenchol
394°FMonoterpene · also in basil
“camphoraceous aroma”
Phytol
396-399°FDiterpene · also in green tea
“faint floral aroma”
A breakdown product of chlorophyll.
Camphor
399°FMonoterpene · trace in cannabis · also in camphor laurel
“penetrating aromatic odor”
- 408°F
- 410°F
- 423°F
- 428°F
- 446°F
- ~446°F
Burn line
Around 446°F the herb starts to combust, and you're smoking it instead of vaping it. In one vaporizer study, smoke from burning herb carried 111 compounds, PAHs included. The vapor carried the cannabinoids and three others.[2]
- 482°F
Quercetin
482°FFlavonoid
Sources[1]
What heat does to your THC
The hotter you run, the faster everything leaves the herb. Here’s what that looked like for THC in one vaporizer test.
356°F
428°F
Show as a table
| Temperature | Time | THC evaporated |
|---|---|---|
| 356°F | 20 s | 10% |
| 356°F | 40 s | 20% |
| 428°F | 20 s | 34% |
| 428°F | 40 s | 50% |
Also in the plant
These show up in cannabis too. Nobody has pinned down a vape temperature for them yet.
Also in the plant
Geranyl acetate
Monoterpene ester
“odor of lavender”
Shows up in hemp essential oil and some cultivars. No commonly cited vape temperature yet.
Sesquiterpene
A top-10 terpene in 35 of 54 flower samples in one survey. No commonly cited vape temperature yet.
Sources[10]
α-Eudesmol
Sesquiterpene
A top-10 terpene in 26 of 54 flower samples in one survey. No commonly cited vape temperature yet.
Sources[10]
β-Eudesmol
Sesquiterpene
A top-10 terpene in 23 of 54 flower samples in one survey. No commonly cited vape temperature yet.
Sources[10]
Caryophyllene oxide
Sesquiterpenoid · also in lemon balm
“sweet fruity aroma”
The compound drug-sniffing dogs pick up on. No commonly cited vape temperature yet.
CBDV
Cannabinoid
Its acid, CBDVA, sits in the decarb zone. No commonly cited vape temperature yet.
CBE
Cannabinoid · cannabielsoin
PubChem lists it as a metabolite of CBD. No commonly cited vape temperature yet.
Sources[27]
About the numbers
- Where they come from. Most temperatures are the reference figures published by McPartland and Russo (2001). The rest come from PubChem’s chemistry records. Every card links to its sources.
- The sweet spot. Vaporizer research finds cannabinoid vapor forming around 356-374°F, so that’s a good range when THC and CBD are the goal. [2]
- The effects. Each tag is an activity the research lists for that compound. Much of it comes from cell and animal studies, and the tags say so where the source does. It’s a map of what scientists have studied, not medical advice. I’m not a doctor.
- Why the heavy terpenes look low. β-Caryophyllene boils at 493°F at normal pressure, but this chart shows it at 246-266°F, the reduced-pressure figure. That is the number other charts use, and the one that matches how fast it actually leaves the flower in vapor tests. [3][27]
Vape temperature questions
What temperature should I vape at?
Depends on what you want out of it. Vaporizer research finds cannabinoid vapor forming right around 356-374°F, so that range is a solid starting point if THC and CBD are the goal. Go lower and the light terpenes lead, which means more flavor and a clearer head. Go higher and more of the plant comes off faster, which hits harder and tastes worse. Start low, climb, and stop before the burn line.
What temperature does THC vaporize at?
THC is usually cited at 315°F, the reference figure from McPartland and Russo. That is where it starts, not where it stops. It keeps coming off above that, and faster the hotter you run, which is the part most charts leave out.
What temperature does CBD vaporize at?
CBD is cited at 320°F, three degrees above THC. In practice they overlap so much that there is no setting that gives you one and not the other.
Does a higher temperature mean a stronger hit?
More comes off, and it comes off faster. In a Volcano test, 40 seconds at 356°F pulled about 20% of the flower's THC out of the herb. The same 40 seconds at 428°F pulled about 50%. You are not creating more THC by going hotter, you are emptying the bowl quicker.
At what temperature do terpenes burn off?
They do not burn off so much as leave in order. The light monoterpenes go first: camphene around 309°F, alpha-pinene at 313°F, myrcene at 331°F. By the time you are in the 190s the delicate ones are mostly gone and you are into linalool, the heavy terpenes and the back half of the cannabinoids.
Where is the line between vaping and burning?
Around 446°F the herb starts to combust. Past that you are smoking it. In one vaporizer study, smoke from burning herb carried 111 compounds including PAHs, where the vapor carried the cannabinoids and three others. Most dry herb vapes top out below this on purpose.
Why does every vape temperature chart show different numbers?
Because they are quoting different things. Most of the numbers you see, this chart included, are the reference figures from McPartland and Russo or boiling points from PubChem. The heavy terpenes are the messy ones: beta-caryophyllene boils at 256 Celsius at normal pressure, but charts quote it near 119 to 130 Celsius because that is the reduced-pressure figure, and that is the number that matches how fast it actually leaves the flower. Every number on this page links to where it came from so you can check.
Do I need to decarb flower before vaping it?
No. Raw flower holds its cannabinoids as acids, and the heat converts them on the way up. Four electric vaporizers tested at 410°F converted 97% or more of the THCA to THC inside the device. Decarbing matters for edibles, not for a vape.
Keep going
The ladder tells you what comes off and when. These go into the why.
- What low, mid, and high heat actually do walks the three zones and how each one feels.
- Best vaporizer temperature settings for every cannabinoid is the long-form read behind this chart.
- Heat flux explained covers why two vapes set to the same number give you completely different vapor.
- The terpene guides go deeper on each one: smell, effects, and which strains carry it. Every terpene on this ladder links to its own page.
- VapeHeatLab tracks what you actually ran, device by device, if you want to keep notes instead of guessing next time.
Sources
28 references. Every temperature, vapor test and effect tag on this page points to one of them.
Temperatures and vapor
- McPartland JM, Russo EB (2001). Cannabis and cannabis extracts: greater than the sum of their parts? Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics 1(3/4):103-132. Read it
- Gieringer D, St. Laurent J, Goodrich S (2004). Cannabis vaporizer combines efficient delivery of THC with effective suppression of pyrolytic compounds. Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics 4(1):7-27. Read it
- Eyal AM, et al. (2023). Vapor pressure, vaping, and corrections to misconceptions related to medical cannabis' active pharmaceutical ingredients' physical properties and compositions. Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research 8(3):414-425. Read it
- Fischedick J, et al. (2010). Cannabinoid receptor 1 binding activity and quantitative analysis of Cannabis sativa L. smoke and vapor. Chemical & Pharmaceutical Bulletin 58(2):201-207. Read it
- Hazekamp A, et al. (2006). Evaluation of a vaporizing device (Volcano) for the pulmonary administration of tetrahydrocannabinol. Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences 95(6):1308-1317. Read it
- Lanz C, et al. (2016). Medicinal cannabis: in vitro validation of vaporizers for the smoke-free inhalation of cannabis. PLoS One 11(1):e0147286. Read it
Decarboxylation
- Wang M, et al. (2016). Decarboxylation study of acidic cannabinoids: a novel approach using ultra-high-performance supercritical fluid chromatography/photodiode array-mass spectrometry. Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research 1(1):262-271. Read it
- Olejar KJ, Kinney CA (2021). Evaluation of thermo-chemical conversion temperatures of cannabinoid acids in hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) biomass by pressurized liquid extraction. Journal of Cannabis Research 3:40. Read it
Effects research
- Russo EB (2011). Taming THC: potential cannabis synergy and phytocannabinoid-terpenoid entourage effects. British Journal of Pharmacology 163(7):1344-1364. Read it
- Hanuš LO, Hod Y (2020). Terpenes/terpenoids in cannabis: are they important? Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoids 3(1):25-60. Read it
- Liktor-Busa E, et al. (2021). Analgesic potential of terpenes derived from Cannabis sativa. Pharmacological Reviews 73(4):98-126. Read it
- Chacon FT, et al. (2022). Secondary terpenes in Cannabis sativa L.: synthesis and synergy. Biomedicines 10(12). Read it
- Fischedick JT (2017). Identification of terpenoid chemotypes among high (-)-trans-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol-producing Cannabis sativa L. cultivars. Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research 2(1):34-47. Read it
- Iseppi R, et al. (2019). Chemical characterization and evaluation of the antibacterial activity of essential oils from fibre-type Cannabis sativa L. (hemp). Molecules 24(12). Read it
- Juergens UR, et al. (2003). Anti-inflammatory activity of 1.8-cineol (eucalyptol) in bronchial asthma: a double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Respiratory Medicine 97(3):250-256. Read it
- Woo J, et al. (2019). 3-Carene, a phytoncide from pine tree has a sleep-enhancing effect by targeting the GABA(A)-benzodiazepine receptors. Experimental Neurobiology 28(5):593-601. Read it
- Quintans-Júnior L, et al. (2013). Antinociceptive activity and redox profile of the monoterpenes (+)-camphene, p-cymene, and geranyl acetate in experimental models. ISRN Toxicology 2013:459530. Read it
- Hart PH, et al. (2000). Terpinen-4-ol, the main component of the essential oil of Melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree oil), suppresses inflammatory mediator production by activated human monocytes. Inflammation Research 49(11):619-626. Read it
- Brito RG, et al. (2012). Citronellol, a monoterpene alcohol, reduces nociceptive and inflammatory activities in rodents. Journal of Natural Medicines 66(4):637-644. Read it
- Razazan A, et al. (2021). Activation of microbiota sensing, free fatty acid receptor 2 signaling ameliorates amyloid-β induced neurotoxicity by modulating proteolysis-senescence axis. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 13:735933. Read it
- Tagen M, Klumpers LE (2022). Review of delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ8-THC): comparative pharmacology with Δ9-THC. British Journal of Pharmacology 179:3915-3933. Read it
- Abioye A, et al. (2020). Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV): a commentary on potential therapeutic benefit for the management of obesity and diabetes. Journal of Cannabis Research 2. Read it
- Nadal X, et al. (2017). Tetrahydrocannabinolic acid is a potent PPARγ agonist with neuroprotective activity. British Journal of Pharmacology 174:4263-4276. Read it
- Bolognini D, et al. (2013). Cannabidiolic acid prevents vomiting in Suncus murinus and nausea-induced behaviour in rats by enhancing 5-HT1A receptor activation. British Journal of Pharmacology 168:1456-1470. Read it
- Singh SK, et al. (2026). Therapeutic potential of acidic cannabinoids: an update. Journal of Cannabis Research 8:25. Read it
- Hill AJ, et al. (2012). Cannabidivarin is anticonvulsant in mouse and rat. British Journal of Pharmacology 167:1629-1642. Read it