Alcoholic drinks and units

Discover what’s in an alochol unit and how units work

Alcohol units are a simple way of understanding the quantity of pure alcohol in a drink.

One unit is 10ml (millilitres) or 8g (grams) of pure alcohol. Because alcoholic drinks come in different strengths and sizes, units are a way to tell how strong your drink is, which can also help you to make comparisons.

As an example, a pint of average strength beer (4%‘alcohol by volume’, or ABV has about two units in it, while a single measure (25ml) of typical spirits is one unit.

What’s in your drink?

Use our simple guides to find out how many units are in your favourite alcoholic drinks.

Spirits

How many units of alcohol and calories are there in single small shot of spirit.

Single small shot of spirits* (25ml, ABV 40%)

1 unit - 61 kcal

Wine

Find out how many calories and units of alcohol there are in white, red, rosé and sparkling wine.

Small glass of red/white/rosé wine (125ml, ABV 13%)

2.3 unit - 159 kcal

Cider

How many units of alcohol and calories are there in a pint of cider.

Pint of Cider (568ml, ABV 4.5%)

2.6 unit - 216 kcal

Champagne

Find out how many calories and units of alcohol there are glass of champagne.

Small glass of champagne (125ml, ABV 12%)

1.5 unit - 89 kcal

Alcopops

Find out how many calories and units of alcohol there are in a bottle of Alcopops.

Bottle of Alcopops (275ml, ABV 4%)

1.1 unit - 170 kcal

Beer

Find out how many calories and units of alcohol there are in a bottle/pint of beer.