How many calories are in a boba drink?
One boba tea, the size USDA logs as a single drink at 435 g, carries 239 calories. Per 100 g it runs 55 calories, which sounds mild for something that drinks like dessert. Volume is the catch. Order the same recipe in a 24 oz cup and you are at 396.
You'd need to walk about 48 minutes to burn the 239 calories in one drink, any size (435 g).
How long does it take to burn off a boba drink?
One drink, any size (435 g) is 239 kcal. Enter your weight and the amount you ate to see how long it takes you to burn that off:
lb
| Activity | Time to burn 239 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 48 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 30 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 34 min |
| Jogging | 28 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 53 min |
Times are for a 155 lb adult at a steady pace; change the weight to see yours. The amount is set to the portion in the text (435 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Boba quick facts
- US servings, from one ounce to a 24 oz cup
- Milk tea, iced tea and the rows without pearls
- Cup size moves boba more than the flavor
- Saturated fat is the row to watch
- How does boba compare?
- Most popular boba brands
- Boba FAQs
Boba quick facts
The row behind every number here is FNDDS 2710508, "Tea, bubble". That is the finished drink: brewed tea, milk, sweetener and tapioca pearls, in the cup, the way it lands in your hand at the shop counter. The branded boba entries in the same database are something else — instant kits, powder packs and canned fruit with popping boba — so they answer a different question and stay out of the main table.
USDA gives the drink a household serving of "1 item, any size," weighed at 435 g. That is roughly a 14 to 15 fl oz cup with the pearls settled at the bottom, which is close to what most shops call a regular.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 drink (435 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 55 | 239 | — |
| Total fat | 1.39 g | 6.0 g | 8% |
| Saturated fat | 0.84 g | 3.7 g | 18% |
| Carbohydrate | 10.35 g | 45.0 g | 16% |
| Dietary fiber | 0.1 g | 0.4 g | 2% |
| Total sugars | 3.5 g | 15.2 g | — |
| Protein | 0.39 g | 1.7 g | 3% |
| Sodium | 9 mg | 39 mg | 2% |
% Daily Value is based on a 2,000-calorie diet.
Verified nutrition data
Numbers on this page come from USDA FoodData Central, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food composition database, and from manufacturer labels where a branded product is named. Last verified September 2026. How we verify our data →
There is no added sugars row and no trans fat row above, because this FNDDS release does not publish either value for bubble tea — and total sugars carry no Daily Value on the US label, so that cell stays empty. Two extras the table leaves out: cholesterol, 17 mg per drink or 6% DV, and potassium, 74 mg or 2% DV. Both come along with the milk, not the pearls.
One honest caveat about the source. FNDDS builds a recipe average, so this is boba as a category, not boba as your local shop pours it. Shops that finish a cup with brown sugar syrup, whole milk and extra pearls land above the average; anyone ordering half sweet lands below it.
US servings, from one ounce to a 24 oz cup
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 fl oz | 30 g | 17 kcal |
| 1 cup | 240 g | 132 kcal |
| One drink, any size | 435 g | 239 kcal |
| 16 fl oz medium cup | 480 g | 264 kcal |
| 24 fl oz large cup | 720 g | 396 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 55 kcal |
Two of those are USDA's own household measures: the 435 g drink and the 240 g cup. The 1 fl oz, 16 fl oz and 24 fl oz lines are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure at about 30 g per fluid ounce, not USDA servings, and they are here because nobody orders 435 g of anything.
That distinction matters more than usual with boba. A measuring cup holds 240 g and 132 calories; the cup you actually carried out of the shop holds two to three times that. If you log "1 cup of boba" from a database and walk away, you can undercount a large by 264 calories, which is more than the drink you thought you logged.
Milk tea, iced tea and the rows without pearls
Every version below is priced at the same 16 fl oz so the comparison is fair. Boba itself is 264 calories at that size.
| Version | Per 100 g | 16 fl oz cup | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boba (bubble tea) | 55 kcal | 480 g | 264 kcal |
| Hot tea with milk, no pearls | 51 kcal | 480 g | 245 kcal |
| Bottled black iced tea | 45 kcal | 480 g | 216 kcal |
| Decaf bottled black iced tea | 38 kcal | 480 g | 182 kcal |
| Iced tea lemonade | 34 kcal | 480 g | 163 kcal |
| Sweetened black iced tea | 32 kcal | 480 g | 154 kcal |
| Sweetened green iced tea | 32 kcal | 480 g | 154 kcal |
Every tea row here sits below boba's 55 calories per 100 g, and the gap is smaller than most people expect. Hot milk tea without a single pearl is 245 against boba's 264 — a difference of 19 calories in a 16 fl oz cup. Skipping the pearls saves you almost nothing if the milk stays.
The real gap is against plain sweetened tea. Brewed black tea pre-sweetened with sugar is 154 calories per 16 fl oz, so boba costs 110 calories more for the same volume, about 71% on top. That is the price of the milk plus the tapioca, and it is the number worth knowing before you decide which one is the everyday drink.
Packaged boba behaves differently again. Ready-to-drink cartons like the O's Bubble gummy boba lattes sit near 47 to 51 calories per 100 g, close to the shop average, at 221 to 240 calories a bottle; instant kits are dry mixes, so their 169 to 263 calories per 100 g describe powder and pearls before you add water, and the made-up drink comes out around 110 to 250 calories per package.
Cup size moves boba more than the flavor
Here is the thing the flavor menu hides. Taro, brown sugar, strawberry — across the ready-to-drink branded rows above they span roughly 47 to 51 calories per 100 g, a spread of about 4 calories per 100 g. Cup size spans 132 calories for a measured cup to 396 for a 24 oz, a spread of 264.
Same drink, +157 calories, purely from going from the standard 435 g cup to the large. No topping decision on the menu comes close to that. If you want boba to fit a day, the size button is the one that does the work, and the sweetness slider is the second lever, since sugar syrup is a straight carbohydrate add.
Saturated fat is the row to watch
The surprise in the label is not sugar. One 435 g boba carries 3.7 g of saturated fat, which is 18% of the FDA Daily Value of 20 g — a higher share of the day than its carbohydrate (16%) or anything else in the table. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans ask adults to keep saturated fat under 10% of daily calories, and a single afternoon boba spends close to a fifth of the 20 g budget that sits behind that.
Sugar is the second story. 15.2 g of total sugars in a 435 g drink is real, though smaller than the reputation, and USDA does not publish an added sugars figure for this record, so we cannot tell you how much of it is syrup rather than lactose from the milk. Assume most of it is added and you will not be far wrong.
Protein is where boba earns nothing: 1.7 g per drink, 3% DV. It is a beverage that costs like a snack and satisfies like a drink, which is why MyPlate's advice on drinks puts sweetened beverages in the occasional column. If you are watching saturated fat, a smaller cup does more for you than switching flavors.
How does boba compare?
| Drink | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boba (bubble tea) | 55 kcal | 16 fl oz, 480 g | 264 kcal |
| Hot tea with milk | 51 kcal | 16 fl oz, 480 g | 245 kcal |
| Bottled black iced tea | 45 kcal | 16 fl oz, 480 g | 216 kcal |
| Sweetened black iced tea | 32 kcal | 16 fl oz, 480 g | 154 kcal |
Our take: treat boba as a small dessert, not a drink, and the math stops fighting you. At 239 calories for the standard cup it fits a day easily; at 396 for a 24 oz it is a meal component that leaves you hungry. If you are cutting, order the smallest size on the board and keep the flavor you like — that single choice is worth more than every "lighter" swap on the menu combined. If you just want the tea habit without the cost, sweetened black iced tea at 154 calories per 16 fl oz is the drink that gets you there.
Most popular boba brands in the United States
Ranked by how widely each product appears among foods sold in the United States, from the BodyPal food database of over 3.3 million products. Calories are the figures printed on each Nutrition Facts label, checked against USDA FoodData Central.
| Product | Calories (per 100 g) |
|---|---|
| O's Bubble Taro Gummy Boba Latte | 51 cal |
| O's Bubble Brown Sugar Gummy Boba Latte | 47 cal |
| O's Bubble Brown Sugar Gummy Boba Soy Milk | 51 cal |
| O's Bubble Strawberry Gummy Boba Soy Milk | 48 cal |
| J-Basket Matcha Instant Boba Kit | 263 cal |
| Boba Bam Brown Sugar Instant Boba Drink Packs | 169 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Boba FAQs
How many calories are in a boba drink?
239 calories for one standard boba tea, the 435 g drink USDA logs as "1 item, any size," at 55 calories per 100 g. A measured cup of 240 g is 132 calories. Milk, sugar syrup and tapioca pearls all contribute; the tea itself contributes almost nothing.
How many calories in a large boba tea?
About 396 calories for a 24 fl oz large, which weighs roughly 720 g. That is our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure of 55 calories, not a USDA serving. Compared with the standard 435 g cup at 239 calories, the large adds 157 calories for the identical recipe.
How many calories are in boba pearls alone?
USDA publishes one figure for the finished drink, 239 calories per 435 g, and no separate record for tapioca pearls on their own, so any pearls-only number would be invented. What the data does show: milk tea without pearls is 245 calories per 16 fl oz against 264 for boba.
Is boba tea high in sugar?
A 435 g boba carries 15.2 g of total sugars, or 3.5 g per 100 g. That is moderate rather than extreme, and less than the drink's reputation suggests. USDA does not publish an added sugars value for this record, so we cannot split the syrup from the milk sugars, and shop versions vary with the sweetness level you pick.
How many calories in boba with milk tea?
239 calories per 435 g drink — the USDA bubble tea record already is milk tea with pearls, so that is the standard build. Sized at 16 fl oz it comes to 264 calories, while the same volume of hot tea with milk and no pearls is 245. The pearls cost about 19 calories there.
Does boba have protein?
1.7 g per 435 g drink, which is 3% of the Daily Value and effectively nothing. Per 100 g it is 0.39 g. The small amount that is there comes from the milk, not the tapioca. If you want a drink that carries protein, boba is not it — this one is a dessert in a cup.
How many carbs are in a boba tea?
45.0 g of carbohydrate in a 435 g drink, 16% of the Daily Value, from 10.35 g per 100 g. Fiber is negligible at 0.4 g per drink, so essentially all of it is starch from the pearls plus sugar from the syrup and milk. A 16 fl oz cup works out to about 50 g.
Can you drink boba on a diet?
Yes, at 239 calories for the standard cup it fits most days without trouble. The size is what breaks a plan: a 24 fl oz runs 396 calories, and 132 calories is what a measured 240 g cup actually costs. Order small, keep the flavor, and log the cup size rather than the menu name.
Similar foods
- Bubble Tea — 239 cal per drink
- Protein Shake — 156 cal per cup
- Apple cider — 114 cal per cup
- Root beer — 152 cal for 12 fl oz glass
- Tonic Water — 124 cal per can or bottle (12 fl oz)
- Sweet tea — 119 cal for 12 fl oz glass
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the cup and BodyPal counts the boba for you, pearls included.
