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Alcohol Units Calculator

This alcohol units calculator counts UK units or standard drinks in any drink or week.

%
0.5%30%60%
11428
UK units2.3in 1 drink of 568 mL at 4% ABV
2.3 units
Within 14 unitsOver 14 units

The bar is the UK weekly scale from the UK Chief Medical Officers. Each block is one drink of 568 mL at 4% ABV (2.27 units); the filled blocks are your 1, ending at 2.3, in the "Within 14 units" zone.

Pure alcohol (weight)17.9 g
Pure alcohol (volume)22.7 mL
Drinks like this in 14 units6.2
Share of 14 units a week16%

If that is your whole week, 2.3 units is within the 14 units the UK Chief Medical Officers advise not to go over regularly. 6.2 drinks like this reach 14. Spread drinking over three or more days, with some days off.

Common drinks

Common drinks in UK units

DrinkUnitsGrams
Pint of 4% bitter2.317.9 g
Pint of 5.2% lager3.023.3 g
12 fl oz beer, 5%1.814.0 g
16 fl oz IPA, 7%3.326.1 g
175 mL glass of wine, 13%2.317.9 g
750 mL bottle of wine, 13.5%10.179.9 g
25 mL single of 40% spirit1.07.9 g
1.5 fl oz shot of 40% spirit1.814.0 g

The same in other measures

UK units
2.27
US standard drinks
1.28
Canadian standard drinks
1.33
Australian standard drinks
1.79
NZ standard drinks
1.79

One unit is 7.89 g of pure alcohol. The same glass counts as a different number of drinks in each country.

Your week

One row per kind of drink: size in mL, strength in % ABV and how many. Paste three columns from a spreadsheet or a drink diary. The total is counted in UK units.

Drinks this weekPaste rows from a spreadsheet
#Size (mL)ABV (%)How many
1
2
3
17.9 units
Within 14 unitsOver 14 units

Your week comes to 17.9 units (141.3 g of alcohol) from 3 rows, in the "Over 14 units" zone of the UK scale. Each colored block is one row, in table order.

Each row

#UnitsShareDrink
19.151%4 × 568 mL, 4%
26.838%3 × 175 mL, 13%
32.011%2 × 25 mL, 40%

Weekly guidelines

  • UK14 units or fewerUK Chief Medical Officers' Low Risk Drinking Guidelines (2016)
  • USHeavy: 8+ (women), 15+ (men)NIAAA, Drinking Levels Defined
  • Canada2 or fewer is low riskCanadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, Canada's Guidance on Alcohol and Health (2023)
  • Australia10 or fewer, 4 a dayNHMRC, Australian Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol (2020)
  • New Zealand10 (women), 15 (men)Health New Zealand, Drinking responsibly

Each country counts in its own measure, per week. All of them say not to drink at all if you are pregnant or could be, and that less is lower risk.

How big is one?

units

At 4% ABV, 1 unit is 250 mL (8.5 US fl oz).

Working

  1. 1
    Pure alcohol in one drink: size × ABV ÷ 100568 × 4 ÷ 100 = 22.72 mL
  2. 2
    One UK unit is 10 mL of pure alcohol22.72 ÷ 10 = 2.27 units
  3. 3
    Check: the alcohol in one drink divided by the strength gives the size back22.72 mL ÷ 4% = 568 mL

Before you rely on this result. This is a screening estimate for healthy adults, not a diagnosis. Talk to a doctor or registered dietitian before acting on it, especially if you are pregnant, under 18, an athlete or managing a health condition. Units count the alcohol in a drink, not its effect on you, so never use them to decide whether you can drive. Sources used on this page.

How it's worked out

Every count starts from the amount of pure alcohol in the glass. ABV, short for alcohol by volume, is the share of the drink that is ethanol. So a 568 mL pint at 4% holds 4% of 568 mL, which is 22.72 mL of pure alcohol.

pure alcohol (mL)\displaystyle \text{pure alcohol (mL)}=size (mL)×ABV100\displaystyle {}= \text{size (mL)} \times \frac{\text{ABV}}{100}

A UK unit is 10 mL of pure alcohol. Dividing by 10 gives the NHS shortcut, where you multiply the strength by the size and divide by 1,000:

UK units\displaystyle \text{UK units}=ABV×size (mL)1000\displaystyle {}= \frac{\text{ABV} \times \text{size (mL)}}{1000}

Other countries count standard drinks by weight. The tool turns milliliters of ethanol into grams with a density of 0.789 g per mL, then divides by the grams in one standard drink:

standard drinks\displaystyle \text{standard drinks}=pure alcohol (mL)×0.789grams per drink\displaystyle {}= \frac{\text{pure alcohol (mL)} \times 0.789}{\text{grams per drink}}
MeasurePure alcohol
UK unit10 mL, 7.89 g
US standard drink14 g
Canadian standard drink13.45 g
Australian standard drink10 g
New Zealand standard drink10 g

The "How big is one?" box runs the same sum backward. It divides the alcohol in one unit or drink by the strength, so you see the pour that holds it.

Worked examples

Sam: four pints of 4% bitter on a Saturday

Each pint holds 2.27 units, so four come to 9.1 units. That is 65% of the UK's 14-unit week in one evening. About 6.2 pints like this reach 14. The guideline also asks for the week's drinking to be spread over three or more days, which one big night does not do.

Open this example in the tool

Mike: a 16 oz can of 7% IPA

16 fl oz is 473.2 mL. At 7% that is 33.1 mL of ethanol, or 26.1 g. Divided by 14 g, the can is 1.87 US standard drinks, not one. 4.3 of these cans reach 8 drinks, the weekly level at which NIAAA counts drinking as heavy for women.

Open this example in the tool

Lena: how big is one standard drink of 14.5% Shiraz?

In Australia a standard drink is 10 g of alcohol. At 14.5% that is a pour of only 87.4 mL. A 150 mL restaurant glass of the same wine holds 1.7 standard drinks, so two glasses already pass the NHMRC's limit of 4 on any one day.

Open this example in the tool

Reading your result

Each country sets its guideline in its own measure, as a weekly amount. The bar in the tool shows the scale for the measure you pick, and the zone your total falls in.

CountryWeekly guideline
UK Chief Medical OfficersNo more than 14 units a week, spread over 3 or more days
NIAAAHeavy drinking: 8 or more a week for women, 15 or more for men
CCSA2 or fewer a week is low risk; 3 to 6 moderate; 7 or more increasingly high
NHMRCNo more than 10 a week and no more than 4 on any one day
Health New ZealandNo more than 10 a week for women and 15 for men, with 2 drink-free days

The US has no weekly limit of its own now. The 2025 to 2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released in January 2026, dropped the old figures of 2 drinks a day for men and 1 for women and simply advise drinking less. That is why the US scale uses NIAAA's definition of heavy drinking. NIAAA also defines binge drinking as about 4 drinks for women or 5 for men in two hours.

These lines mark where risk climbs faster, not a safe amount. The WHO said in 2023 that no level of drinking is free of health risk. Every guideline here says not to drink at all if you are pregnant or trying to be, and to drink less if you take medicines that react with alcohol.

Common mistakes

  • Counting a glass as one unit. A small 125 mL glass of 13% wine is 1.6 units. A large 250 mL glass of the same wine is 3.3. Bar measures in the UK are 125, 175 and 250 mL, so ask which one you got.
  • Treating every pint the same. A pint of 3.6% bitter is 2.0 units, while a pint of 5.2% lager is 3.0. Strength matters as much as size.
  • Assuming a can is one drink. A 12 oz can of 9% double IPA is 1.8 US standard drinks. The US "one drink" figure assumes about 5% beer.
  • Mixing up measures. One UK unit is about 8 g of alcohol, a US drink is 14 g and an Australian drink is 10 g. A total from one country's chart does not fit another country's guideline.
  • Using units to judge if you can drive. Units say what is in the glass, not how it affects you. Body size, food and time all change your blood alcohol, and no count makes driving safe after drinking.

Questions people ask

Sources

Maintained by Updated October 28, 2026Checked against 26 reference values

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