Standard Drinks Calculator
A can of beer, a glass of wine and a shot of spirits all "one drink"? Only loosely — the precise definition is grams of pure ethanol per "standard drink", and every country picks its own number: US 14 g, UK 8 g (a "unit"), Australia / Hong Kong / WHO 10 g, Japan 20 g, Canada 13.6 g. Enter your drink's volume (mL) and alcohol-by-volume (ABV %) and this tool computes grams of pure ethanol (density 0.78924 g/mL) then converts to standard drinks for 9 jurisdictions — so you can compare your intake against WHO ≤ 14 drinks/week, NHS ≤ 14 units/week, the American Cancer Society's ≤ 1 drink/day (women) and other low-risk thresholds.
Enter a valid volume (1–10000 mL) and ABV (0–100%).
Pure alcohol
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Calculation
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Standard-drink count by region
Pure alcohol = volume × ABV × 0.78924 (ethanol density in g/mL); WHO low-risk guidance is ≤ 14 drinks/week at 10 g/drink.
Formula
pure alcohol (g) = volume (mL) × ABV (%) × 0.78924 ; standard drinks = pure alcohol ⁄ jurisdiction definition (US 14 g, UK 8 g, AU/HK/WHO 10 g, JP 20 g, CA 13.6 g)
- · References: US NIAAA "What is a standard drink?" (2024); NHS UK "Alcohol units"; Australian NHMRC Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol (2020); HK Department of Health, Alcohol-Related Harm (2024); Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare "Healthy Japan 21" (20 g standard); CCSA Canada's Guidance on Alcohol and Health (2023, revised to 13.6 g); WHO Global Alcohol Action Plan 2022–2030.
- · Ethanol density 0.78924 g/mL (NIST WebBook, 20 °C) — about 21% lighter than water, so 100 mL of pure alcohol is only 78.9 g.
- · Worked example: a US 12 oz / 355 mL can of 5% beer → 355 × 0.05 × 0.78924 ≈ 14.0 g → exactly 1 US drink; the same beer is 1.75 UK units and 0.7 of a Japanese drink.
- · Low-risk weekly limits: (1) WHO 10 g definition — ≤ 14 drinks for adults; (2) UK NHS 8 g units — ≤ 14 units male and female; (3) US NIAAA 14 g — ≤ 14 for men, ≤ 7 for women; (4) Canada (2023) tightened — ≤ 2 drinks is "low risk", ≤ 6 "moderate", > 6 "high risk"; (5) Japan 20 g — ≤ 7 drinks for men, ≤ 5 for women.
- · Binge thresholds (single occasion): (a) US NIAAA — 5 drinks (70 g) for men, 4 drinks (56 g) for women within 2 hours; (b) UK NHS — 8 units (64 g) men, 6 units (48 g) women; (c) HK has no explicit binge threshold but advises ≤ 4 standard drinks (40 g) per session.
- · Pregnancy: WHO, US CDC and NHS all advise zero alcohol throughout pregnancy — ethanol crosses the placenta and can cause Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). While breastfeeding, allow 2–3 hours per drink before nursing.
- · Limitation: this tool reports pure-alcohol intake, not BAC (blood alcohol concentration). BAC also depends on body weight, sex, age, liver function, food in stomach and drinking pace — see a separate BAC calculator.
Frequently asked
Why does every country define a "standard drink" differently?
Each country's public-health agency picked the number independently, roughly matching the most common local pour. US NIAAA 14 g lines up with 12 oz beer / 5 oz wine / 1.5 oz spirits; the UK NHS 8 g "unit" lines up with half a pint of 3.5% beer (284 mL) — small numbers make the weekly "14 units" guideline easier to track; Japan 20 g reflects one traditional 180 mL sake serving at 15% (~21 g); Australia / WHO 10 g is the round number that 1980s alcohol epidemiology converged on. As a result a single 750 mL bottle of 13.5% wine is 7.2 US drinks, 12.6 UK units, 10.1 AU/HK drinks and 5.0 Japanese drinks — cross-country studies must convert to a common unit. Note Canada's 2023 revision: CCSA cut "low risk" from 2 drinks/day (~27 g) to ≤ 2 drinks/week after evidence that breast-cancer risk rises from the first drink — so even compliance with older limits is not "safe".
The ABV is not printed on the label — what do I do?
A few fallbacks: (1) use a typical ABV — most beer 4–6% (lager 4.5–5.2%; IPA 6–7.5%; imperial stout 8–12%); wine 11.5–14.5% (red median 13.5%, white 12%, Champagne 12%, port 20%); whisky / vodka / brandy 40% (80 proof, the US legal floor); Chinese baijiu 38–56%; sake 14–17%. (2) Check the producer's site or Untappd / Vivino. (3) US alcohol labelling law (27 CFR §4.36) requires the ABV on anything stronger than 7% — under 7% beer is exempt, which is why low-strength beer labels often omit it; the EU mandates it across the board (Reg. 1169/2011); UK requires it on > 200 mL serves from 2011. (4) Restaurant pours: a North American wine pour is typically 5 oz (148 mL), UK 175 mL, HK / JP not standardised — many bars now print standard-drink counts on the menu. When in doubt, round up rather than down.
How many drinks per week is "safe"?
The word "safe" is increasingly avoided — the 2018 Lancet Global Burden of Disease analysis concluded the safe level of alcohol is zero (any amount carries some risk). In practice each country still publishes "low-risk" thresholds: (1) WHO 10 g — ≤ 14 drinks/week for adults; (2) Canada 2023 — ≤ 2 drinks/week is "low risk" (lifetime early-death risk under 0.01%); (3) US NIAAA — men ≤ 14 drinks/week and ≤ 4/day; women ≤ 7/week and ≤ 3/day; (4) UK NHS — ≤ 14 units/week spread over ≥ 3 days; (5) Australian NHMRC 2020 — ≤ 10 drinks/week and ≤ 4 per single occasion. Three universal rules: (a) never exceed the daily cap; (b) include at least 2 alcohol-free days/week (the liver needs the break); (c) do not "save up" weekly limits for one binge — concentrated drinking damages the cardiovascular system and liver more than even distribution. If you have chronic conditions (hypertension, diabetes, liver disease, depression) or are pregnant or breastfeeding, zero is the only answer.
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