Alcohol Burn Off Rate Calculator
“Alcohol burn off rate” means two different things, and most pages only answer one of them. In your body, it is how fast your liver clears alcohol from your blood: blood alcohol concentration (BAC) falls by about 0.015 percentage points per hour, and nothing you drink, eat or splash on your face makes it fall faster. In your kitchen, it is how much alcohol evaporates out of a dish, which depends on the cooking method and the clock: simmer a stew for 30 minutes and about 35% of the alcohol is still in the pot, according to USDA retention research. This alcohol burn off rate calculator handles both questions in one card. Pick the Body tab for a Widmark BAC estimate, or the Cooking tab for what is left in your food.
The body calculator below is pre-filled with a worked example you can check: a 200 lb man, 5 standard drinks, 1 hour since drinking started. It returns an estimated peak BAC of 0.106%, a current BAC of 0.091%, about 6 hours 3 minutes until sober, and about 43 minutes until the estimate drops below the 0.08% limit used for driving in most US states. Treat every one of those numbers as an educational estimate, never as permission to drive. Impairment begins well below 0.08%, your real elimination rate may be slower than the average, and no calculator can measure your body. If you have been drinking, do not drive.
Estimates only, using population averages. This is not medical advice and it cannot measure your actual BAC or fitness to drive. Impairment begins well below 0.08%. If in doubt, do not drive.
Retention figures come from USDA cooking studies. They are averages for uncovered cooking; a lid, a narrow pot or a shorter simmer keeps more alcohol in the food.
Quick Answer
Key takeaways
- Your liver clears alcohol at a roughly steady average of 0.015 BAC per hour. Nothing speeds it up; only time lowers BAC.
- Cooking removes alcohol slowly. After 30 minutes of simmering about 35% remains, and even 2.5 hours leaves about 5%.
- Flambeing is theatre, not removal: about 75% of the alcohol survives the flames.
- Every number on this page is an estimate from published averages, not a measurement of you or your dish.
- Quick Answer
- How to use this calculator: two tabs, two questions
- The Widmark formula behind the body tab
- Worked example: five drinks, one hour, a 200 lb man
- What changes your personal burn-off rate
- The cooking side: USDA retention, method by method
- What competing calculators miss
- Frequently asked questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
- References
How to use this calculator: two tabs, two questions
Pick the tab that matches your question, because the two burn-off rates share nothing but a name. The Body tab takes your weight, sex, standard drinks and hours since drinking started, and returns four figures: estimated peak BAC, estimated current BAC, time until the estimate reaches zero, and time until it falls below 0.08%. The Cooking tab takes the millilitres of alcohol you added and the cooking method, and returns millilitres remaining, millilitres burned off, and the retention percentage with a caution note.
Count drinks in standard drinks, not glasses. One standard drink is 14 grams of pure alcohol, the definition the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism standard drink guide uses: roughly 12 oz of 5% beer, 5 oz of 12% wine, or 1.5 oz of 40% spirits. A 16 oz craft IPA at 8% is about two standard drinks, and treating it as one understates your BAC by half. If you are working out what a bottle or keg actually contains, the ABV drink calculator converts alcohol by volume into standard drinks before you come back here.
The Widmark formula behind the body tab
The body tab uses the Widmark formula, the standard estimation method in forensic toxicology since the 1930s. It treats your body water as the tank the alcohol dilutes into, then subtracts steady elimination over time.
Two honesty notes about the constants. First, the literature carries two common r pairs: the original Widmark values used here (0.73 and 0.66), and lower forensic averages (0.68 and 0.55) used by some other calculators. Run the same person through both and the second pair gives a higher BAC, because a smaller tank concentrates the same alcohol. Neither pair is your body; they are population averages, and the gap between them is a fair picture of how much uncertainty sits inside any BAC estimate. Second, real elimination rates range from about 0.010 to 0.020 per hour around the 0.015 average, so your personal clock can run slower than the one on this page. Plan with the slow end in mind.
Worked example: five drinks, one hour, a 200 lb man
The Body tab is pre-filled with this case, and every figure below is what it returns when you press Calculate. Alcohol consumed: 5 × 14 = 70 grams. Body weight: 200 × 453.592 = 90,718 grams. Peak BAC: 70 ÷ (90,718 × 0.73) × 100 = 0.106%. After 1 hour of elimination: 0.106 − 0.015 = 0.091% current BAC.
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Estimated peak BAC | 0.106% |
| Estimated current BAC (after 1 hour) | 0.091% |
| Time until sober (0.00%) | 6 hr 3 min (0.091 ÷ 0.015) |
| Time until below 0.08% | 43 min ((0.091 − 0.08) ÷ 0.015) |
| Verdict badge | At or above 0.08%: do not drive |
Change one input and the picture moves the way the formula says it should. A 140 lb woman with 3 standard drinks 1 hour ago gets a peak of 0.100% and a current estimate of 0.085%: higher than the heavier man’s five-drink start after the same hour, because her distribution factor and body mass are both smaller. Her time to zero is about 5 hr 41 min. If you are estimating drinks for a group event rather than a body, the number of drinks calculator works the planning side of the same standard-drink unit.
What changes your personal burn-off rate
Your burn-off rate is set by your liver, and it is stubbornly steady. Weight and sex move the starting BAC through the formula, but once alcohol is in your blood, elimination runs at its own pace. Food slows absorption, so a meal before drinking lowers and delays the peak; it does not make the liver work faster afterwards. Age, liver health, medications and drinking history nudge the real rate around the 0.015 average, in both directions.
The myths deserve a direct answer, because people act on them. Coffee makes you feel awake; it does not lower BAC. A cold shower, fresh air and exercise change how alert you feel, not how fast alcohol dehydrogenase enzymes work. Water helps with dehydration and pacing future drinks. Sleep helps you wait, which is the only mechanism that works: while you sleep, the same 0.015 per hour keeps ticking. The CDC overview of alcohol use makes the same point from the public-health side: impairment begins at low levels and there is no shortcut back to sober.
The cooking side: USDA retention, method by method
In the kitchen, burn-off is evaporation plus dilution, and it is slower than the flames suggest. The Cooking tab uses the retention measurements published in the USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors: the share of added alcohol still present after each preparation method. The pre-filled example is a beef stew with 200 ml of red wine simmered for 30 minutes: 200 × 0.35 = 70.0 ml remains, 130.0 ml burns off, and the badge reads Moderate retention, the tier the tool applies from 25% up to 50%.
| Method | Alcohol remaining | What it means for a 200 ml addition |
|---|---|---|
| No heat applied | 100% | 200.0 ml remains |
| Added to boiling liquid, removed from heat | 85% | 170.0 ml remains |
| Flambeed | 75% | 150.0 ml remains |
| Simmered 15 minutes | 40% | 80.0 ml remains |
| Simmered 30 minutes | 35% | 70.0 ml remains |
| Simmered 1 hour | 25% | 50.0 ml remains |
| Simmered 2 hours | 10% | 20.0 ml remains |
| Simmered 2.5 hours | 5% | 10.0 ml remains |
Three practical consequences follow. First, a dish cooked briefly with wine is not alcohol-free food: a 15-minute simmer keeps 40% of what you poured in. Second, flambeing is the worst removal method that involves fire; the flame lasts seconds and the liquid underneath barely warms. Third, the figures assume uncovered cooking in the USDA tests. A tight lid, a narrow pot and a gentle barely-bubbling surface all keep more alcohol in. If you are cooking for children, someone pregnant, or anyone in recovery, the only fully safe choice is to leave the alcohol out; long simmering gets close to zero but the table never reaches it.
What competing calculators miss
We reviewed the top-ranking BAC tools and the cooking-retention explainers before rebuilding this page. The field splits cleanly in half, and each half ignores the other.
Winning move 1: both meanings, one card. NeftCal, Softonic, SmartBAC and the other ranking BAC calculators answer only the body question. The USDA-table explainers answer only the cooking question. Searchers use the same three words for both, so half of them land on a competent page about the wrong problem. The tabbed card here answers whichever question you brought, without a second page or a second search.
Winning move 2: the two time answers, up front. Most BAC tools stop at a percentage. The questions people actually type are “how long until I am sober” and “how long until I am under the limit”. This tool computes both from the same estimate and shows them as first-class results, with the never-drive warning attached to the number rather than buried in a footer.
Winning move 3: millilitres for your recipe, not just a percentage table. Cooking explainers print the USDA percentages and leave the arithmetic to you. The Cooking tab multiplies by your actual addition and returns millilitres remaining and burned off, plus the caution tier. It also corrects the record on flambeing with data instead of folklore.
One limit is shared by every tool in this comparison, including this one: an average-based estimate can be wrong about you in the unsafe direction. Your elimination rate may be 0.010, not 0.015. Your pour may have been two standard drinks, not one. Treat any result that says you are close to a limit as a result that says do not drive.
Frequently asked questions
At the average elimination rate this calculator uses, blood alcohol concentration falls by about 0.015 percentage points per hour, roughly one US standard drink per hour. Dropping from 0.08% to zero takes about 5 hours and 20 minutes at that rate. Coffee, cold showers, food and exercise do not speed it up. Only time lowers BAC.
No calculator can tell you that you are safe or legal to drive. This tool gives a population-average estimate from the Widmark formula, not a measurement of your body. Impairment starts well below 0.08%, your personal elimination rate may be slower than average, and limits are lower for young and commercial drivers in many places. If you have been drinking, the safe decision is not to drive.
One standard drink is 14 grams of pure alcohol, the US definition used by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. That is about 12 ounces of regular beer at 5%, 5 ounces of wine at 12%, or 1.5 ounces of spirits at 40%. A pint of strong craft beer or a large pour of wine can count as two standard drinks, so count grams, not glasses.
Alcohol spreads through body water, and women carry a lower share of body water on average. The Widmark formula captures that with the distribution factor r: 0.73 for men and 0.66 for women in this calculator. The same drinks in the same body weight therefore produce a higher estimated BAC for a woman. Individual body composition varies, which is one more reason every result here is an estimate.
No. USDA retention research shows some alcohol remains after every common cooking method: about 85% stays when alcohol is added to boiling liquid and taken off the heat, 75% after flambeing, 35% after 30 minutes of simmering, and still about 5% after 2.5 hours of simmering. Long simmering gets you close to zero, but no method reaches it quickly.
Barely. The flames burn surface vapour for a few seconds, and USDA figures put retention after flambeing at about 75%, worse than 15 minutes of plain simmering, which leaves about 40%. If your goal is to remove alcohol for children or guests who avoid it, time at a simmer works far better than fire.
Divide your estimated current BAC by 0.015 to get hours to zero. In the worked example on this page, a current BAC of 0.091% needs about 6 hours and 3 minutes to reach zero. That clock runs from now, not from your last drink, and it assumes the average rate. Plan on more time, not less, if you need to be safe.
Body weight and sex set the starting estimate through the Widmark formula. Food in your stomach slows absorption, so peak BAC arrives later, but it does not speed elimination. Age, liver health, medications and regular heavy drinking can shift your real rate in either direction. The 0.015 per hour figure is an average across people, not a promise about you.
No. It is an educational estimate built on published averages: the Widmark formula for the body tab and USDA retention data for the cooking tab. It cannot diagnose anything, measure your actual BAC, or judge your fitness to drive or to serve a dish to someone avoiding alcohol. For medical questions, talk to a clinician. For driving, do not rely on any calculator.
They share two words and nothing else. Here, burn-off rate means how fast alcohol leaves your blood or your food. In business, a burn rate is how fast a company spends cash. If you landed here looking for the money version, you need a startup finance tool, not this page.
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References
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “What Is a Standard Drink?” – defines the US standard drink as 14 grams of pure alcohol and gives the beer, wine and spirits equivalents used by this calculator. NIAAA: What Is a Standard Drink?. Accessed October 2026.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “About Alcohol Use” – overview of alcohol metabolism, impairment and health effects, including that impairment begins at low blood alcohol levels. CDC: About Alcohol Use. Accessed October 2026.
- US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, “USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors, Release 6” – the retention dataset behind the cooking tab, including alcohol retention by cooking method and time. USDA: Table of Nutrient Retention Factors. Accessed October 2026.
- Jones AW, “Evidence-based survey of the elimination rates of ethanol from blood with applications in forensic casework”, Forensic Science International – peer-reviewed survey reporting blood ethanol elimination rates centred near 0.015 g per 100 mL per hour. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law: Ethanol Forensic Toxicology. Accessed October 2026.
- NeftCal, “BAC Calculator: Free Blood Alcohol Content Estimator (Widmark Formula)” – competitor tool using the same 0.73 and 0.66 distribution factors and the fluid-ounce form of the Widmark equation, checked during competitor analysis. NeftCal: BAC Calculator. Accessed October 2026.
- SmartBAC, “BAC Calculator FAQ” – summarises NIAAA and NHTSA guidance that elimination averages about 0.015% BAC per hour and cannot be sped up by coffee, water, food or exercise. SmartBAC: BAC Calculator FAQ. Accessed October 2026.
- CalcuLife, “Alcohol Elimination Time Calculator” – documents the 0.010 to 0.020 %/h real-world range around the 0.015 average and why estimates differ from breath or blood tests. CalcuLife: Alcohol Elimination Time Calculator. Accessed October 2026.
- Culinary Lore, “The Truth About Whether Alcohol Burns Off During Cooking” – reproduces the official USDA alcohol retention table used for the cooking worked example. Culinary Lore: USDA Alcohol Retention Table. Accessed October 2026.
- Food Republic, “Does Alcohol Actually Burn Off During Cooking?” – explains why evaporation depends on time, temperature and surface area, citing the USDA retention factors. Food Republic: Does Alcohol Burn Off During Cooking?. Accessed October 2026.
- The Drinks Business, “Why the wine rarely vanishes: the truth about cooking with alcohol” – reports the USDA and Journal of the American Dietetic Association retention measurements, including 75% remaining after flambeing. The Drinks Business: Cooking With Alcohol. Accessed October 2026.
- FCalculator, “Blood Alcohol Calculator” – gram-based Widmark implementation using the alternative 0.68 and 0.55 distribution factors, reviewed for the r-value discussion in this article. FCalculator: Blood Alcohol Calculator. Accessed October 2026.
- Numeric Core, “Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) Calculator” – forensic-style presentation of the Widmark equation with the 14 gram standard drink and the 0.015 elimination rate. Numeric Core: BAC Calculator. Accessed October 2026.