It is important to understand what a standard drink is, so you know how much alcohol you are consuming. This can help you reduce your risk of alcohol caused cancer by following the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines:
To reduce the risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury, healthy men and women should drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than 4 standard drinks on any one day. The less you drink, the lower your risk of harm from alcohol.
In Australia, one standard drink is any containing 10 grams of alcohol.
All bottles, cans and casks of alcohol packaged for sale are required by law to state on the label the approximate number of standard drinks contained.
It can be hard to estimate standard drinks in real-life situations because:
- glass sizes vary
- people share drinks (e.g. jugs, casks or bottles of alcohol)
- glasses are topped up by other people
- the composition of mixed drinks is unknown (cocktails or punch).
Think you know what a standard drink looks like? Use our Standard Drink Tool and see how your drinking adds up.
Light beer (2.7% alcohol)
Container |
Amount |
Standard drinks |
1 middy or pot |
285ml |
0.5 standard drinks |
1 can or stubbie |
375ml |
0.8 standard drinks |
Mid beer (3.5% alcohol)
Container |
Amount |
Standard drinks |
1 middy or pot |
285ml |
0.7 standard drinks |
1 can or stubbie |
375ml |
1 standard drink |
Regular beer (4.5% alcohol)
Container |
Amount |
Standard drinks |
1 middy or pot |
285ml |
1.1 standard drinks |
1 can or stubbie |
375ml |
1.4 standard drinks |
Wine (9.5% to 13% alcohol)
Container |
Amount |
Standard drinks |
1 standard serve |
100ml |
1 standard drink |
1 average serve |
150ml |
1.6 standard drinks |
1 bottle |
750ml |
7 to 8 standard drinks |
Spirits (40% alcohol)
Container |
Amount |
Standard drinks |
1 nip |
30ml |
1 standard drink |
1 bottle |
700ml |
22 standard drinks |
Pre-mixed drinks (5% alcohol)
Container |
Amount |
Standard drinks |
1 can or bottle |
375ml |
1.5 standard drinks |
Note: Some cocktails contain more than 3 standard drinks. Source: NHMRC, 2020