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How much do you really drink in a week?

A drink isn't always one drink. A 9 oz glass of 13.5% wine is two standard drinks, and a pint of 7% beer is nearly two. Enter a typical week with your real pours and strengths, and this works out the total in US standard drinks.

Beer, cider or seltzer

A standard can or bottle is 12 oz and a US pint is 16 oz. Check the label for strength.

Wine

A standard drink of wine is 5 oz. A 750 ml bottle holds about 25 oz, or five of those.

Liquor, straight or mixed

A standard drink is 1.5 oz of 80-proof liquor. Count each shot in a mixed drink.

Your heaviest day

Count your heaviest day in standard drinks. NIAAA publishes separate levels for women and men; pick the set you want to compare with.

Your week

0 standard drinks

Enter your drinks to see the total.

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What counts as one standard drink

In the US, one standard drink has about 14 grams of pure alcohol, which is 0.6 fluid ounces. That is:

DrinkSizeStrength
Regular beer12 ozabout 5%
Malt liquor or hard seltzer8 to 10 ozabout 7%
Wine5 ozabout 12%
Distilled spirits (80 proof)1.5 ozabout 40%

The math for any drink: ounces times strength, divided by 0.6. A 16 oz pint of 7% IPA is 16 × 0.07 ÷ 0.6 = 1.9 standard drinks. A 9 oz pour of 13.5% wine is 2.0.

The heavy-drinking line

NIAAA, the federal alcohol research institute, defines heavy drinking as:

  • Women: 4 or more drinks on any day, or 8 or more in a week.
  • Men: 5 or more drinks on any day, or 15 or more in a week.

Binge drinking is a pattern that takes blood alcohol to 0.08% or higher: for a typical adult, about 4 drinks for women or 5 for men within roughly two hours.

Being under these lines doesn't make drinking safe. The current federal Dietary Guidelines (2025 to 2030) dropped the old "up to one or two a day" numbers and now say only to drink less for better overall health, and that some people, including anyone recovering from alcohol use disorder, should not drink at all.

What a number can and can't tell you

A total over the heavy-drinking line is a reason to talk to a doctor, not a diagnosis. Alcohol use disorder is diagnosed from what drinking does to your life, not from a count: things like drinking more than you meant to, trying to cut back and not managing it, or needing more to feel the same. The signs, in plain words.

If you want to cut back, medication can help. Naltrexone and acamprosate are approved for it and any licensed prescriber can write them. Find a program that prescribes them near you, or start with your own doctor.

If you drink heavily every day, don't stop all at once without talking to a clinician first. Withdrawal can cause seizures. How to stop safely.

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