Coffee Caffeine Estimator
Add up your daily caffeine across drip, espresso, instant, and cold brew, compared to the FDA 400 mg guideline.
Count lattes and cappuccinos as espresso shots, since the milk doesn't add caffeine. Real caffeine varies with bean, roast, and brew strength, so treat this as a ballpark, not a lab reading. If you're pregnant or manage a heart condition, ask a clinician about a lower ceiling than 400 mg.
How it works
Enter how many servings of each drink you had today, and the calculator adds up the caffeine using typical averages: 96 mg for an 8 oz cup of drip, 64 mg for a single espresso shot, 62 mg for instant coffee, 100 mg for cold brew, and 2 mg for decaf. Lattes and cappuccinos aren't listed separately, since the milk doesn't add caffeine, so just count the espresso shots they're built on.
Worked example: 2 cups of drip and 1 espresso shot. That's 2 x 96 mg plus 1 x 64 mg, which comes to 256 mg. The FDA points to 400 mg a day as a reasonable ceiling for most healthy adults, so 256 mg works out to 64% of that guideline, still some room before hitting the limit.
FAQ
Why is cold brew higher in caffeine than drip?
Cold brew is typically steeped at a stronger coffee-to-water ratio and for much longer (12 to 18 hours), which pulls out more caffeine per ounce even though the water never gets hot. An 8 oz serving of cold brew concentrate diluted to drinking strength still tends to land around 100 mg, a bit above a cup of drip.
Does dark roast have less caffeine than light roast?
Barely any difference by weight. Roasting burns off a small amount of caffeine, but if you measure beans by volume (a scoop) rather than weight, a dark roast's beans are less dense, so a scoop of dark roast can actually have slightly less caffeine than the same scoop of light roast. It's a small effect either way.
Is decaf really caffeine-free?
Not entirely. Decaffeination removes most, not all, of the caffeine, so an 8 oz cup still has around 2 mg, compared to roughly 96 mg in regular drip. That's low enough to be negligible for most people.
Should I use a lower limit than 400 mg?
The 400 mg guideline is for generally healthy adults who aren't pregnant. If you're pregnant, nursing, sensitive to caffeine, or managing a heart condition, ask your doctor what ceiling makes sense for you instead of defaulting to this number.
For more on where that caffeine comes from, see how to dial in espresso at home, how to make cold brew coffee at home, and light vs. dark roast, what actually changes.