Free food maths tool
Alcohol Calorie Calculator
Pick a drink, or type its ABV and carbohydrate, enter the size and how many, and get the calories, the grams of alcohol and the US standard drinks. The strengths filled in for each drink are starting points you can change.
Worked example
One 355 ml beer, regular at 5% ABV holds 14 g of alcohol, which is 98 kcal at 7 kcal a gram, plus 50 kcal of carbohydrate: 148 kcal, or 1 US standard drinks.
Calculate the calories in your drink
The result below starts from the example's numbers. Change any field and it updates as you type.
Track this target every day
Use the number above as your daily goal in CalorTracker, then log meals by photo, voice or text and see where your day stands against it. Free to start, no card needed to explore.
Results are estimates from published formulas, not medical advice. Your own body can sit above or below them.
Where the formulas come from, and how we check them: how we calculate.
How the calories in a drink are worked out
A drink gets its calories from two places: the alcohol and whatever carbohydrate is left in it. The calculator finds the grams of pure alcohol, then adds the two:
- Alcohol (g) = volume (ml) × ABV ÷ 100 × 0.789 g/ml, the density of ethanol.
- Alcohol calories = grams of alcohol × 7 kcal per gram.
- Carbohydrate calories = volume ÷ 100 × carbohydrate per 100 ml × 4 kcal per gram.
The 7 kilocalories per gram of alcohol is the Atwater general factor that the USDA uses for its food energy values (USDA Agriculture Handbook No. 74). The carbohydrate per 100 ml of each preset drink is the USDA FoodData Central value for that drink per 100 g, treating 100 ml as weighing about 100 g, which USDA's own household measures for these drinks support to within a few percent. For a worked check: 14 g of alcohol in a 12 fl oz beer at 5% is 98 kcal, and its carbohydrate adds 50 kcal, so 148 kcal, against the USDA's 43 kcal per 100 g for regular beer.
Where the strength of each drink comes from
USDA lists the alcohol of a drink by weight. The ABV filled in for each preset is that figure converted to volume and rounded: regular beer 5%, light beer 4%, red wine 13.5%, white wine 13%, 80 proof spirits 40%, a margarita 10%. Real drinks differ, often a lot, so the bottle or can is a better source than any preset. A craft beer at 8% has far more alcohol than the preset, and a sweet liqueur far more carbohydrate; type both for those.
US standard drinks
The US Dietary Guidelines define a standard drink as one that contains 14 g of pure alcohol, which is 12 fl oz of 5% beer, 5 fl oz of 12% wine or 1.5 fl oz of 40% spirits. The tile shows how many of those your drinks add up to. Other countries count a drink differently, so this is not a measure of UK units or of any other country's.
What this does not do
It adds nothing for mixers, syrups, juice or garnish: add their carbohydrate in the field or use the recipe calculator. It says nothing about how much alcohol is right for you, which depends on your health, medication and circumstances. If you are worried about your drinking, talk to a doctor.
Calories in common drinks
The calculator's own answer for one serving of each drink at the strength shown, and beside it the USDA value for the same kind of drink per 100 g, so you can see the two agree within a few calories.
| Drink | Serving | ABV | Alcohol (g) | Calories | USDA kcal per 100 g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beer, regular | 12 fl oz | 5% | 14 | 148 | 43 |
| Beer, light | 12 fl oz | 4% | 11.2 | 102 | 29 |
| Wine, red | 5 fl oz | 13.5% | 15.8 | 126 | 85 |
| Wine, white | 5 fl oz | 13% | 15.2 | 122 | 82 |
| Spirits (80 proof) | 1.5 fl oz | 40% | 13.9 | 97 | 231 |
| Margarita | 1 drink (225 g in USDA's data) | 10% | 17.8 | 269 | 122 |