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Alcohol Units Calculator

How many alcohol units did I drink?

How it is calculated

The tool uses the UK unit definition, where one unit is 10 ml of pure alcohol: units = volume × ABV × drinks / 1000, with volume in millilitres and ABV as a percentage number (5 for 5%). It also gives the weight of pure alcohol: grams = volume × drinks × (ABV / 100) × 0.789, using 0.789 g/ml as the density of ethanol.

The volume must be above zero, the ABV zero or more, and the number of drinks at least 1. Results are shown with two decimals. Other countries define a standard drink differently, so the unit count here is not comparable with, for example, a US standard-drink count; the grams figure is the unit-neutral one.

Worked example

Two pints (568 ml each) of 5% beer. Units: 568 × 5 × 2 / 1000 = 5.68. Grams of pure alcohol: 568 × 2 = 1,136 ml of beer, × 0.05 = 56.8 ml of alcohol, × 0.789 = 44.82 g.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Entering the volume in litres or in fluid ounces. The field expects millilitres, so a pint is 568, not 0.568.
  • Typing ABV as a decimal (0.05) instead of a percentage (5), which makes the result a hundred times too small.
  • Entering one glass but counting several drinks in the head. Set the number of drinks field instead.
  • Assuming a bar measure equals one unit. A large glass of wine or a strong beer can be several units.

Sources

About this calculator

This calculator converts a drink's volume and ABV (alcohol by volume percentage), multiplied by how many drinks were had, into standard alcohol units and grams of pure alcohol — the metric that health guidelines (like the UK's weekly unit limits) actually use, since a "drink" varies wildly in strength between a small beer, a glass of wine and a shot of spirits.

It is used by people tracking their drinking against national low-risk drinking guidelines, by anyone trying to compare how much actual alcohol is in different drinks side by side (a pint of strong craft beer versus a standard glass of wine, for instance), and by those keeping a rough log of weekly consumption for health reasons.

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  • Editorial team

    This uses the UK definition, where one unit is 10 ml of pure alcohol, so the number differs from the US standard drink of about 14 g. Enter the serving size in millilitres and the strength as a percentage, and remember that the units come from the whole drink volume. Glass sizes vary a lot: a large wine glass can be 250 ml, almost a third of a bottle. Which serving size do you pour at home? Compare it with the menu size.

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