How many standard drinks are in a bottle of wine?
A standard 750 ml bottle of wine at 12% alcohol holds about 5 US standard drinks. Stronger wine holds more: a 14.5% red is about 6, and a 15% Zinfandel is about 6.3. If you've seen "7 or 8 drinks" quoted, that's the Australian count, which uses a smaller drink.
Below: the count for every common strength and bottle size, how many glasses you really get, what a bottle a night adds up to against US limits, and how to make a bottle last longer.
The quick answer by strength
A US standard drink is 14 grams of alcohol, the amount in 5 ounces of 12% wine. A 750 ml bottle is 25.4 ounces. Here is how many standard drinks it holds at each strength on the label:
| ABV on the label | Typical wines | Standard drinks per 750 ml bottle |
|---|---|---|
| 8–9% | Moscato d'Asti, some German Riesling | 3.4–3.8 |
| 10% | Light Riesling, Vinho Verde | 4.2 |
| 11% | Prosecco, many whites | 4.6 |
| 12% | Champagne, Pinot Grigio, rosé | 5.1 |
| 12.5% | Sauvignon Blanc, many everyday wines | 5.3 |
| 13% | Pinot Noir, Chardonnay | 5.5 |
| 13.5% | Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet | 5.7 |
| 14% | Napa Cabernet, Syrah | 5.9 |
| 14.5% | Big reds, Grenache | 6.1 |
| 15% | Zinfandel, Amarone | 6.3 |
| 17–20% | Port, sherry, other fortified wines | 7.2–8.5 |
The wine types are only a rough guide; strength varies a lot by producer and year. Always read the percent on your own bottle.
How to work it out for your bottle
The sum: ounces × ABV ÷ 0.6 = US standard drinks. A 750 ml bottle is 25.4 ounces.
- 13.5% red: 25.4 × 0.135 = 3.43 ounces of pure alcohol. 3.43 ÷ 0.6 = 5.7 drinks.
- 11% prosecco: 25.4 × 0.11 = 2.79. 2.79 ÷ 0.6 = 4.6 drinks.
In metric: milliliters × ABV × 0.789 gives grams of alcohol. 750 × 0.135 × 0.789 = 80 grams. Divide by 14 for US drinks (5.7), by 10 for Australian or New Zealand drinks (8.0), or by 8 for UK units (10). Same bottle, three answers, because each country defines a drink differently. Our standard drink size guide has the full chart for beer, spirits and cocktails too.
One more wrinkle: label figures aren't exact. US rules let a wine of 14% or less be up to 1.5 points off the stated strength, and a stronger wine up to 1 point. A bottle that says 12.5% could hold close to 14%.
Standard drinks by bottle size
Wine comes in more than one size, and the bigger formats are where counts get lost. All at 12.5%, a common everyday strength:
| Format | Volume | Same as | Standard drinks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Split (mini bottle) | 187 ml | a quarter bottle | 1.3 |
| Can | 250 ml | a third of a bottle | 1.8 |
| Half bottle or large can | 375 ml | half a bottle | 2.6 |
| Half liter | 500 ml | two-thirds of a bottle | 3.5 |
| Standard bottle | 750 ml | one bottle | 5.3 |
| Liter bottle | 1 liter | 1⅓ bottles | 7.0 |
| Magnum | 1.5 liters | 2 bottles | 10.6 |
| Bag-in-box | 3 liters | 4 bottles | 21 |
| Large box | 5 liters | 6⅔ bottles | 35 |
Cans are worth a second look. A 375 ml can is half a bottle, and it's easy to think of it as "one drink" because it's one can. Boxes make it hard to see how much is gone; a 3-liter box is 20 or more standard drinks, so a box that lasts a week is about 3 a night.
How many glasses are in a bottle of wine?
It depends entirely on the pour. A bottle is 25.4 ounces:
| Pour | Where you see it | Glasses per bottle | Standard drinks per glass (at 13.5%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 oz | the "standard" glass | 5 | 1.1 |
| 6 oz | many restaurants and bars | 4.2 | 1.4 |
| 8 oz | generous restaurant or home pour | 3.2 | 1.8 |
| 9–10 oz | a big glass filled halfway | 2.5–2.8 | 2.0–2.3 |
If you get three glasses out of a bottle at home, each glass is close to two standard drinks. To find your own pour, fill your usual glass with water to your usual line and tip it into a measuring cup.
Sharing a bottle: how much did you have?
Split evenly between two people, a 13.5% bottle is about 2.9 standard drinks each. Split three ways, about 1.9 each. But sharing is rarely even: the person who pours, or who drinks faster, often has more. The simplest honest count is to measure what you pour into your own glass, or to count glasses and multiply by your measured pour.
Opening a second bottle for two people takes each person to about 5.7 drinks, which is past the binge line for women (4) and men (5) if it happens over an evening.
What a bottle a night adds up to
Many people who drink wine at home don't count in drinks at all; they count in bottles. Here's what that looks like against the US lines from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA):
| Habit | Standard drinks a week (13.5% wine) | Compared with the lines |
|---|---|---|
| One 5 oz glass a night | 8 | just over the low-risk line for women (7); under it for men (14) |
| Half a bottle a night | 20 | heavy drinking for women (8+) and men (15+) |
| A bottle on Friday and Saturday only | 11 | over the women's weekly line, and over both daily lines (3 and 4) on those days |
| A bottle a night | 40 | about 3 times the men's line and more than 5 times the women's |
US health advice has also moved toward "less is better" in general. The 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines advise drinking less for better health rather than giving a safe daily amount, and the US Surgeon General's 2025 advisory notes that alcohol raises the risk of several cancers, including breast cancer, even at lower amounts.
If a bottle is your usual night, it's worth reading is drinking wine every night a problem? for the signs that matter. For a wider look at your week, see how many drinks a week is normal.
Calories in a bottle of wine
Alcohol carries about 7 calories per gram, so the 80 grams in a 13.5% bottle bring about 560 calories from alcohol alone. With the small amount of sugar in a dry wine, USDA figures put a bottle of dry red or white at roughly 600 to 650 calories. Sweet and dessert wines are higher. A bottle a night is in the range of 4,000 to 4,500 calories a week. The weight guide shows what cutting back saves.
Why a bottle disappears faster than you think
- Open bottles feel like they need finishing. Many people pour a second glass so the wine "doesn't go off", though a corked bottle in the fridge keeps for 3 to 5 days.
- Top-ups hide the count. A glass refilled before it's empty never feels like a second glass.
- Big glasses make 5 ounces look small, so people pour to a line that looks right.
- Cooking. A glass for the sauce and a glass for the cook is a common start to the evening.
How to make a bottle last longer
If you want to keep wine but drink less of it, these are the changes that tend to work, roughly from easiest to hardest:
- Measure once, then pour to a mark. Fill your glass with 5 ounces of water, note the line, and pour to it.
- Use a smaller glass. The same pour looks bigger, and it holds less if you fill it.
- Re-cork straight after the first pour and put the bottle back in the fridge, out of reach of the table.
- Buy smaller. Half bottles and 250 ml cans set a stop point. Skip the box if it makes counting impossible.
- Alternate. A glass of sparkling water between glasses slows the evening down.
- Lower the strength. Moving from a 14.5% red to a 12% one cuts the alcohol in the bottle by about a sixth.
- Set wine nights. Decide in advance which nights have wine, so the others don't need a decision.
The full method, with a 4-week plan, is in how to cut back on drinking wine. If you're not sure which moment starts the pouring, our free drinking pattern quiz asks when and why you usually drink and names your pattern in about 2 minutes.
When to talk to a doctor
If you've been drinking a bottle or more a day for a while, don't stop all at once without advice. Shaking, sweating, a racing heart, anxiety, nausea or trouble sleeping in the hours after your last drink are signs of withdrawal, and a doctor can help you cut down safely. SAMHSA's free, confidential helpline is open around the clock at 1-800-662-4357.
Questions people ask
Is a bottle of wine 4 or 5 glasses?
Five at a 5-ounce pour, about four at a 6-ounce restaurant pour, and often three at a generous home pour.
Is drinking a bottle of wine binge drinking?
Drinking a whole 750 ml bottle in one evening is about 5 to 6 standard drinks, which meets the US binge definition for women (4 or more in about 2 hours) and usually for men (5 or more).
Why do Australian sites say 7 or 8 drinks?
Australia's standard drink is 10 grams of alcohol; the US one is 14 grams. The same bottle counts as more Australian drinks.
How many UK units are in a bottle of wine?
About 9 units for a 12% bottle and 10 for a 13.5% one, since a unit is 8 grams of alcohol.
Is half a bottle a night too much?
Half a bottle is about 2.5 to 3 standard drinks, or around 20 a week. That's above the low-risk lines for both men and women and inside NIAAA's heavy-drinking range.
Does red wine have more alcohol than white?
Often, but not always. Many reds are 13.5% to 15%, many whites 11% to 13%. Check the label.
Find out when your bottle gets opened
The free 2-minute drinking pattern quiz shows the moment behind most of your drinks, and where a 30-day plan to drink less would start.
Take the quizMore on drinking less: all our drink-less guides.
Sources: NIAAA, "What Is a Standard Drink?" and Rethinking Drinking. NIAAA, "Drinking Levels Defined" (heavy and binge drinking). US Department of Health and Human Services and USDA, Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025–2030 (January 2026). US Surgeon General, Alcohol and Cancer Risk advisory, January 2025. USDA FoodData Central (calories in table wine). Australian Government Department of Health (10 g standard drink). UK NHS (alcohol units). US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, wine labeling: alcohol content tolerances. SAMHSA National Helpline. This guide is general information, not medical advice.