Guide
What is a standard drink?
Almost everyone undercounts. A “drink” at home is often one and a half standard drinks — which means your weekly total is fiction unless your math is right.
The definitions
A standard drink is a fixed amount of pure alcohol — but the amount differs by country:
United States: 14 grams (0.6 oz) of pure alcohol. That is roughly a 12 oz beer at 5%, a 5 oz glass of wine at 12%, or 1.5 oz of 80-proof spirits.
Canada: 13.6 grams (0.6 oz) of pure alcohol — effectively the same reference drinks as the US.
United Kingdom: 8 grams (10 ml) of pure alcohol — one “unit.” UK units are smaller, so the same pint counts as more units than it does standard drinks in North America.
Where counting goes wrong
Craft beer. A 16 oz IPA at 6.5% is about 1.7 US standard drinks, not one.
Wine at home. A typical home pour is 6–8 oz, not the 5 oz restaurant pour the definition assumes. That “glass of wine” is 1.2–1.6 drinks.
Cocktails. A double, a long pour, or a high-proof base spirit can make one cocktail equal two or three standard drinks.
The rule of thumb: if you did not measure it, round up, not down.
Why it matters for cutting back
Guidelines, targets, and your own weekly numbers all assume standard drinks. If your “7 drinks a week” is really 11, every conclusion you draw from the data is wrong — and you will wonder why cutting back “isn't working.” Fix the math first; it takes one evening of honest measuring. Our guide to cutting back builds on accurate counting.
Let the app do the math
SipSmart computes real standard drinks from what you actually poured — volume and strength, per your region — so a pint of IPA and a light beer never count the same.