This online Standard Drinks Calculator is designed to estimate how many standard drinks are in a given amount of alcoholic beverages. To calculate the number of standard drinks just fill in the appropriate fields of the calculator and click the ‘Calculate’ button. You can choose measurement units for the volume of alcoholic beverages. Using the beverage drop-down menu, you can choose the beverage type. In case the alcohol percentage popping up automatically differs from the one of the beverage drunk you can correct it manually. In case more then one beverage was drunk you can click the “+” symbol on the right hand side to get additional fields. You can also click the “–” symbol to delete the redundant lines.
What Is a Standard Drink ?
A standard drink (or ‘unit of alcohol’ in the UK) is the unit of measurement for how much alcohol a person consumes. Every standard size drink always contains the same amount of pure alcohol (ethyl alcohol or ethanol). Counting standard drinks is a more reliable measure of alcohol consumption as bottles, cans or glasses of alcoholic beverages may contain different concentrations of alcohol. Standard drink is useful for standardizing measurement of drinking levels and providing public health information.
Different countries have different national standard drinks. There is no single standard, but a standard drink of 10g alcohol have been adopted by most countries. In the following table we present standard drink values in different countries used in our online calculator.
To find out how many standard drinks are there in a given amount of alcoholic beverage we must calculate first the amount of pure alcohol in it. To establish the amount of pure alcohol and hence the number of standard drinks in a beverage requires knowledge of both the volume of alcohol in the beverage container, its alcohol by volume percentage and alcohol volumetric mass density (789.24 g/L at 20 °C). The easiest way is to use the standard drinks calculator to convert your drinks into standard serving sizes.
Moderate alcohol consumption
Excessive alcohol consumption can be detrimental to the health of the drinker. These risks include short-term risks, such as injury, violence and accidental death, and long-term risks such as cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, brain damage, high blood pressure, memory loss and sexual dysfunction. The risk of these harms increases with the amount of alcohol drunk.
To reduce the risk of alcohol-related harms, it is recommended that adults of legal drinking age can choose not to drink at all, or to drink in moderation by limiting intake to 2 drinks or less in a day for men or 1 drink or less in a day for women.
Related calculators
Check out our other health calculators such as Blood Alcohol Level Calculator or Smoking Pack Year Calculator.
Disclaimer. Please remember that this calculator is intended for informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or healthcare provider. Please consult your doctor for advice about your specific medical condition.