Use this to work out exactly how much pure alcohol is in any drink, based on its ABV and serving size, then see that amount expressed as US standard drinks and UK alcohol units. It works for beer, wine, spirits, seltzers, anything with an ABV percentage on the label.
Calculate alcohol content
How this calculator works
ABV (alcohol by volume) tells you what percentage of a drink’s total liquid is pure ethanol. Multiply the total volume by the ABV percentage to get the volume of pure alcohol, then multiply that by ethanol’s density, about 0.789 grams per ml, to get the weight. That weight is what standard-drink and unit figures are built from. The calculator does all of that instantly from whatever ABV and serving size you enter.
Popular drinks
Pick a specific drink below for a version of this calculator pre-filled with its typical ABV and can size, so you do not have to look it up yourself.
- Bud Light alcohol content
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- Coors Banquet alcohol content
- Busch alcohol content
- Keystone Light alcohol content
- Miller High Life alcohol content
- Samuel Adams Boston Lager alcohol content
- Rolling Rock alcohol content calculator
- Shiner Bock alcohol content calculator
- Modelo Negra alcohol content calculator
- Icehouse alcohol content calculator
- Natural Ice alcohol content calculator
Frequently asked questions
What is a US standard drink?
The NIAAA defines a US standard drink as 14 grams of pure alcohol, roughly equal to 12 US fl oz (355 ml) of a 5% beer, 5 fl oz (148 ml) of 12% wine, or 1.5 fl oz (44 ml) of 40% spirits.
What is a UK alcohol unit?
A UK unit is defined as 10 ml of pure alcohol, a smaller measure than a US standard drink. That is why the exact same can of beer produces a higher unit count under the UK system than a standard-drink count under the US system.
Does this work for wine and spirits, not just beer?
Yes. The maths is based purely on volume and ABV, not the type of drink, so enter any beverage’s own ABV and serving size and the calculator handles the rest.
ABV percentage alone can be misleading
Two drinks can share an ABV and still contain very different total amounts of alcohol if their serving sizes differ. A tallboy can of a 5% beer contains more pure alcohol than a standard 355 ml can of the same beer, purely because there is more liquid. Working from total pure alcohol content, rather than the percentage alone, is the only way to genuinely compare drinks of different sizes on equal footing.
Alcohol content is not the same as how a drink affects you
This calculator measures the objective alcohol content of a drink, not how it will actually affect any individual. Body weight, food intake, drinking pace and personal tolerance all change how the same amount of alcohol plays out in practice. If you want an estimate of blood alcohol content itself, based on how much you have had, your weight, and time elapsed, use the drunk calculator instead, it is built specifically for that using the Widmark formula.
Frequently asked follow-ups
Why do standard drinks and UK units give different numbers for the same beer?
Because they are built from different base units. The US standard drink is a weight-based figure (14 grams of alcohol), while the UK unit is volume-based (10 ml of alcohol). Since 10 ml of ethanol weighs about 7.9 grams, a UK unit represents a slightly smaller amount of alcohol than a US standard drink, which is why the unit count always comes out higher for the same drink.
Is alcohol content the same thing as calories?
No, though they are related. Alcohol itself contributes about 6.9 kcal per gram, but total calories in a beer also include carbohydrates from unfermented sugars, which this calculator does not cover. For calories specifically, see the beer calories calculator.