Alcohol unit and calorie calculator
Pick a drink or type in a volume and a strength. You get UK units, French verres standards, US standard drinks, grams of pure alcohol and the calories the alcohol itself carries, all at once. Guidance from different countries counts in different things.
A UK pint is 568 ml; a French demi is 250 ml.
- UK units
- 2.6 UK / Ireland
- Verres standards
- 2.0 France
- US standard drinks
- 1.4 United States
- Pure alcohol
- 20 grams
- Calories
- 143 kcal from alcohol
Calories shown are from the alcohol itself (7.1 kcal per gram). Beer, cider, sweet wine and mixers add carbohydrate calories on top, so a real pint is higher. Nothing you type here leaves your browser.
The formula is millilitres × ABV ÷ 1,000 = UK units. A 568 ml pint at 4.5% is 2.6 units. For grams of pure alcohol, multiply the millilitres of pure alcohol by 0.789; divide by 10 for a French verre standard, by 14 for a US standard drink.
How to work it out yourself
- Find the volume and the strength. Take the volume of the drink in millilitres and its strength as a percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV). A UK pint is 568 ml; a large glass of wine is usually 250 ml. The ABV is printed on the bottle, the can or the menu.
- Multiply, then divide by 1,000. Multiply the volume in millilitres by the ABV percentage and divide the result by 1,000. That gives UK units. A 568 ml pint at 4.5% is (568 x 4.5) / 1000 = 2.6 units.
- Convert to grams for other countries. Multiply the millilitres of pure alcohol (volume x ABV / 100) by 0.789 to get grams. Divide the grams by 10 for French verres standards or Australian standard drinks, by 13.45 for Canadian standard drinks, and by 14 for US standard drinks.
- Add the calories if you want them. Multiply the grams of pure alcohol by 7.1 to get the calories from the alcohol itself. Beer, cider, sweet wine and mixers carry carbohydrate calories on top of that.
Common drinks, worked out
| Drink | UK units | Verres standards | US drinks | kcal (alcohol) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pint of lager (4.5%) | 2.6 | 2.0 | 1.4 | 143 |
| Pint of strong lager (5.6%) | 3.2 | 2.5 | 1.8 | 178 |
| Medium glass of wine (175 ml, 13%) | 2.3 | 1.8 | 1.3 | 127 |
| Large glass of wine (250 ml, 13%) | 3.3 | 2.6 | 1.8 | 182 |
| Bottle of wine (750 ml, 13%) | 9.8 | 7.7 | 5.5 | 546 |
| Single spirit measure (25 ml, 40%) | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 56 |
The calorie column counts the alcohol only, at 7.1 kcal per gram. Beer, cider, sweet wine and anything mixed with a soft drink carry carbohydrate calories on top, so a pint in real life sits above the figure shown here. Spirits with a diet mixer sit close to it.
Why the same drink gives four different numbers
A unit is not a drink. It is a fixed quantity of pure alcohol, and countries fixed it at different quantities: 8 g in the UK, 10 g in France and Australia, 13.45 g in Canada, 14 g in the US. A 250 ml glass of 13% wine is 3.3 UK units (a little under a quarter of the British week) and 1.8 US standard drinks (nearly the whole American daily figure for a man). Neither number is wrong; they are answering different questions.
If you want the reference figures themselves (how many units a week each country publishes, and what each one says about days off), they are on the alcohol unit guidelines page, with sources.
From one drink to a week of them
A calculator answers a question about one glass. What a normal week actually adds up to needs the same sum repeated without you thinking about it. That is what Modraly does: save the drinks you actually order as favourites, log one in two taps, and the week's total sits next to your country's reference figure.
No account, no server, no coaching, and no opinion about the number. Modraly is not a medical device and does not provide medical advice.
Free to download. Logging is unlimited, always.
Common questions
How do you calculate alcohol units?
Multiply the volume of the drink in millilitres by its ABV percentage, then divide by 1,000. A 568 ml pint at 4.5% ABV is (568 x 4.5) / 1000 = 2.6 UK units. A 175 ml glass of wine at 13% is (175 x 13) / 1000 = 2.3 units.
How many units are in a pint of beer?
A UK pint of 4.5% lager is about 2.6 units. A pint of 3.8% bitter is about 2.2 units, and a pint of 5.6% strong lager is about 3.2 units. Strength matters more than people expect: two pints of strong lager is almost exactly the same alcohol as three pints of bitter.
How many calories are in a glass of wine?
A 175 ml glass of 13% wine contains about 18 grams of pure alcohol, which is roughly 127 calories from the alcohol alone. Residual sugar adds more. A dry wine is close to that figure; a sweet one is well above it.
Is a UK unit the same as a standard drink?
No. A UK unit is 8 g of pure alcohol. A French verre standard and an Australian standard drink are 10 g, a Canadian standard drink is 13.45 g, and a US standard drink is 14 g. This calculator shows all of them at once so you do not have to convert between guidance from different countries.
Does the calculator send my drinks anywhere?
No. The calculation runs in your browser. There is no account, no cookie for it, and nothing is sent to a server. That is the same principle the Modraly app is built on.