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

One unit is 10ml or 8g 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 4% strength beer has about two units in it, while a single measure (25ml) of typical spirits is one unit.

If you want to work out the number of units in a drink, use our Alcohol Unit and Calorie Calculator above

Most alcoholic drinks are higher in calories than most people realise, alcohol also contains nearly the same amount of calories as fat. For example, a pint of lager contains roughly the same number of calories as a slice of pizza, or a large glass of wine is the same as a typical ice cream sundae.

As well as telling  you how many calories are in individual drinks, you can use our Alcohol Unit and Calorie Calculator above can tell you how many calories you had on a whole night out. Select "results" to see the impact.

Alcohol strength can vary widely, even within the same drink type: some ales can be as low as 3.5% ABV, while stronger lagers or craft beers can reach 5–6% ABV or more. Wines typically range between 11–14% ABV, although some can be as high as 14.5% ABV. Because of these variations, checking the ABV or the units on the label is the only reliable way to know how strong a drink is and how many units it contains.

Our Alcohol Unit and Calorie Calculator above can help you add up your drinks across a range of different ABVs.

To keep health risks from alcohol low, the UK Chief Medical Officers' (CMO) low risk drinking guidelines advise it is safest for men and women not to drink more than 14 units a week on a regular basis.

Our Alcohol Unit and Calorie Calculator above can help you see how your drinks add up across the week.

The number of units will depend on the strength of the wine, for example, a 13.5% strength bottle of wine has approx 10 units of alcohol. This means if you were to drink a whole bottle in a session, it would be deemed a binge session.

Our Alcohol Unit and Calorie Calculator above can help you see the difference between wine measures

Alcohol is typically detectable in blood, saliva, and breath within 15-60 minutes. Whilst it varies from person to person with multiple factors, it takes roughly one hour to process one unit of alcohol. However, the more you drink, the slower the body becomes at processing alcohol.