24-Hour Alcohol Intake Calculator: Standard Drinks

What it does

Patients rarely report alcohol use in standard drinks. They report "a couple of IPAs" or "a big glass of wine". This calculator lets you document what was consumed over a 24-hour period and converts it to US standard drinks and grams of pure ethanol. One US standard drink is 14 g of pure ethanol (0.6 fl oz).

Beverages and the calculation

The tool lists twelve preset beverages, each with an editable default volume and ABV, plus one free-text "Other" row:

• Beer: regular (12 oz, 5%), light (12 oz, 4.2%), craft beer or IPA (16 oz, 7%), malt liquor (12 oz, 8%), hard seltzer (12 oz, 5%)
• Wine: standard pour (5 oz, 12%), large pour (8 oz, 12%), fortified wine such as port or sherry (3 oz, 18%), champagne or sparkling (5 oz, 12%)
• Spirits: shot (1.5 oz, 40%), mixed drink with one shot (1.5 oz, 40%), cocktail with two shots (3 oz, 40%)

Enter the quantity for each row. Grams of ethanol are calculated as volume (oz) × 29.5735 mL/oz × ABV/100 × 0.789 g/mL, multiplied by the quantity. Standard drinks are grams divided by 14. Each row shows its subtotal, and the running total shows standard drinks and grams per 24 hours.

Interpreting the total

The tool shows a flag next to the total, based on the NIAAA low-risk limits it cites (men up to 4 per day and 14 per week; women up to 3 per day and 7 per week). The flag does not ask for the patient's sex.

Total (std drinks / 24 h)	Flag shown
Above 0 and up to 3	Within NIAAA daily low-risk limits
Above 3 and below 5	At or near the daily ceiling; exceeds the limit for women
5 or more	Binge-level intake; exceeds low-risk limits

The report notes that binge drinking is about 5 or more drinks for men and 4 or more for women within about 2 hours (approximately 0.08 g/dL BAC). Because the calculator totals a full 24 hours, it cannot tell whether drinks were consumed within that 2-hour window.

What the report includes

Generate Report copies a plain-text summary with the date, one line per beverage entered (quantity, volume, ABV, standard drinks and grams), the 24-hour total, and the reference definitions above. Reset clears the quantities and the custom description after a confirmation.