Calories in alcohol: wine, beer and cocktails, by the glass

How many calories in a glass of wine? About 125 for a 5 oz glass of red and about 121 for white, per USDA FoodData Central.

A 12 oz can of regular beer is about 153, a light beer about 103, and a 1.5 oz shot of 80 proof vodka, gin, rum or whiskey about 97. Cocktails range widest, from about 112 for a small daiquiri to about 275 for a margarita.

This page lists the USDA numbers for each drink, shows where the calories come from, and covers how to log a drink without fuss. It isn’t advice to drink more or less. That part is yours.

Key takeaways

• A 5 oz glass of wine is about 121 to 125 calories, a 12 oz regular beer about 153, and a 1.5 oz shot of 80 proof spirits about 97, per USDA FoodData Central.
• In wine and spirits, nearly all of the calories come from the alcohol itself, at roughly 7 calories per gram (NHS). In beer and cocktails, carbs and sugar add a large share.
• Pour size can move the number as much as the type of drink. A 9 oz pour of red wine is about 225 calories, not 125.
• Alcohol isn’t protein, carbs or fat, so a drink’s calories won’t add up from its macros.
• Logging a drink takes one line: what it was and roughly how much.

How many calories in a glass of wine, a beer or a shot?

Here are the USDA FoodData Central figures for the common pours. We read each entry on November 6, 2026, and scaled its per-100-gram values to the serving weight USDA lists. Tap or click a drink to see its USDA entry.

Red and white wine land within a few calories of each other. The bigger gaps are between light, regular and stronger beer, and between 80 and 100 proof spirits. More alcohol means more calories.

The “Alcohol” column is grams of pure alcohol. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines one US standard drink as about 14 grams of pure alcohol (NIAAA, What Is a Standard Drink?, updated December 2025). That’s a 12 oz beer at 5%, a 5 oz glass of wine at 12%, or a 1.5 oz shot of 40% spirits.

Most USDA pours above sit close to one. The stronger beer carries about two, a 100 proof shot about 1.3, and a light beer about 0.8.

How many calories are in a beer?

A 12 oz can of regular beer is about 153 calories, and a light beer about 103, per USDA. Beer is the one drink where carbs carry real weight: the regular beer entry has 12.6 g of carbs per can, against 3.8 g in a glass of wine.

Strength matters as much as style. USDA’s higher-alcohol beer entry comes to about 206 calories for 12 oz, with almost twice the alcohol of a regular can. Craft beers vary widely, so if the label shows the ABV, that’s the number worth noting.

NIAAA’s page points out that many light beers carry about 85% as much alcohol as regular beer, so “light” is lighter, not light.

A pint is 16 oz, not 12. At the same USDA values, a pint of regular beer is about 204 calories.

How many calories are in a shot of vodka?

A 1.5 oz shot of 80 proof vodka is about 97 calories, per USDA. Gin, rum and whiskey at 80 proof have the same entry. At 100 proof, the same shot is about 124.

Spirits have no carbs, fat or protein to speak of. Every calorie is the alcohol. What changes the total is the mixer: soda water adds nothing, while regular cola, juice or a sweet mix adds its own calories on top.

How many calories are in a margarita and other cocktails?

Cocktails range the most, because the recipe does. Here are the four USDA entries:

The margarita comes from USDA’s survey database (FNDDS), and its recipe is 2 fl oz of 80 proof spirit with 5.5 fl oz of a bottled sour mix. The other three are SR Legacy recipes. A bar margarita made with fresh lime and less mix, or a bigger frozen one, can land well away from 275.

Every drink on one scale:

Where do the calories in a drink come from?

Mostly from the alcohol. Alcohol has about 7 calories per gram, almost as much as fat, according to the NHS (NHS, Calories in alcohol, last reviewed June 2023).

Run that through the tables and the pattern is clear. The 15.6 g of alcohol in a glass of red wine accounts for roughly 109 of its 125 calories.

In a regular beer, the alcohol is about 97 of 153, and the carbs make up most of the rest. In a margarita, the alcohol is about 130 of 275, and the sugar in the mix is most of the other half.

That has two practical consequences:

• A “low-carb” drink isn’t a low-calorie drink. Straight spirits have zero carbs and still about 97 calories a shot.
• Mixers and pours are where the swings are. The size of the glass and what’s poured on top can matter as much as the drink type.

Why the size of the pour matters

USDA’s servings are tidy: 5 oz of wine, 12 oz of beer, 1.5 oz of spirits. Real glasses often aren’t.

The arithmetic is simple, so it’s worth doing once:

A bottle of wine is about 25 fl oz, so it holds about five 5 oz glasses.

If you’re not sure of the size of a pour, “a big glass” or “about half a bottle” is a far better log than nothing. A consistent estimate, kept up, beats a precise number logged once.

How do you log alcohol in a calorie tracker?

Alcohol isn’t protein, carbs or fat, so a drink’s calories won’t add up from its macros. A glass of wine is about 125 calories but only about 4 g of carbs.

Nothing is missing: the rest is the alcohol. We explain how calories and macros fit together in how to track macros.

A few habits make drinks easy to log:

1. Log the drink, the size and the strength if you know it. “Pint of IPA, 7%” is better than “beer”.
2. Count rounds, not sips. “Three glasses of white wine over dinner” is one entry.
3. Name the mixer. “Rum and diet cola” and “rum and regular cola” are different logs.
4. Log it the next morning if that’s easier. A late entry beats a blank day.

Here’s an illustration of what that looks like in Getfiit. It’s an example of the kind of exchange, using the USDA values above, not a measured result:

two glasses of red wine with dinner12:38

Were they regular 5 oz glasses or bigger restaurant pours?12:39

big ones, maybe 6 oz each12:40

Logged: 2 glasses of red wine, about 6 oz each, about 300 calories and 9 g of carbs. Most of that is the alcohol itself. Protein and fat are close to zero. Reply to fix it anytime.12:41

Asking about the pour is the point. A photo of a glass can’t show how much is in it, the same way it can’t show the oil in a pan. We go through that blind spot in how AI calorie counters work.

Drinks at the holidays

The weeks from Thanksgiving to New Year bring more toasts, parties and long dinners, and drinks are easy to leave out of a log because they don’t feel like food. They’re worth one line. The research on the season itself is calmer than the headlines: we go through it in what the research says about holiday weight gain, and the meal is in Thanksgiving dinner calories. For the warm drinks of the season, see calories in hot chocolate, eggnog and cider.

Tracking is not for everyone. If counting food or drink brings on stress or guilt, or you have a history of disordered eating, it may do more harm than good. A doctor or a registered dietitian can help you decide what’s right for you.

Where does Getfiit fit?

Getfiit is an AI nutrition and fitness coach that lives in WhatsApp. You send a photo, a voice note or a sentence about what you ate or drank, and it sends back calories, protein, carbs and fat. When something is unclear, like the size of a pour, it asks before it logs.

There’s no new app to install.

As of November 6, 2026, Getfiit costs $19.99 a month after a 3-day free trial, and you can cancel anytime. The how it works section on the home page walks through it.

Frequently asked questions

How many calories are in a glass of wine?

About 125 calories for a 5 oz glass of red and about 121 for white, per USDA FoodData Central. A bigger pour scales up: 9 oz of red is about 225.

Is red or white wine lower in calories?

They’re within a few calories of each other per glass, by USDA’s entries. The size of the pour and the wine’s alcohol content matter far more than the color.

How many calories are in a light beer compared with a regular beer?

About 103 for a 12 oz light beer and about 153 for a regular one, per USDA. Light beer still carries most of the alcohol of a regular beer.

Does alcohol count toward my macros?

Not as protein, carbs or fat. Alcohol has its own calories, about 7 per gram, so a drink’s calories count in full, while its macros show only the few grams of carbs or sugar it contains.

Do I have to log every drink?

No. Logging is a tool, not a duty. If you do log, one line per round is plenty, and a missed evening breaks nothing. More answers like this are in the FAQ on the home page.

Your next step

Next time you have a drink, log it in one line: what it was and roughly how much. That’s all the precision it needs.