How many calories are in a Budweiser?
A 12 fl oz can of Budweiser holds 357 g of beer and 146 calories. Per 100 g the beer runs 41 calories. Pour that same beer into a 16 fl oz draft pint and you are at 195. The glass moves this number far more than the recipe does.
You'd need to walk about 29 minutes to burn the 146 calories in a 12 fl oz can (357 g).
How long does it take to burn off Budweiser?
A 12 fl oz can (357 g) is 146 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 146 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 29 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 18 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 21 min |
| Jogging | 17 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 32 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 (357 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Budweiser quick facts
- US servings from one ounce to a 24 oz tallboy
- Every Budweiser size in one table
- Budweiser Select and the light beer question
- Where the Budweiser calories come from
- How does Budweiser compare?
- Most popular budweiser brands
- FAQ
Budweiser quick facts
The row behind every number here is SR Legacy 168747, "Alcoholic beverage, beer, regular, BUDWEISER". It is the one USDA record for the beer people actually pick up — the red can, the brown bottle, the draft pour — and it already carries a 12 fl oz serving, so nothing has to be reconstructed to answer the question in the title.
There is a second record under the brand, 168748 for Budweiser Select, and it is a different product with a different recipe, not another reading of the same beer. It gets its own section below rather than being blended into the main figure.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 12 fl oz can (357 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 41 | 146 | — |
| Total fat | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Carbohydrate | 2.97 g | 10.6 g | 4% |
| Dietary fiber | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Protein | 0.36 g | 1.3 g | 3% |
| Sodium | 3 mg | 11 mg | 0% |
| Cholesterol | 0 mg | 0 mg | 0% |
| Potassium | 33 mg | 118 mg | 3% |
% 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 →
Three rows you would expect on a food label are missing on purpose. Saturated fat, total sugars and added sugars are not published in this SR Legacy record, so they are left out entirely instead of being guessed at from the carbohydrate line. Percent Daily Values follow the FDA reference amounts for the Nutrition Facts label.
The sodium line is the quiet one: 11 mg in a whole can, well under 1% of the day. That is a rounding error next to almost anything you would eat alongside the beer.
US servings from one ounce to a 24 oz tallboy
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 fl oz | 29.8 g | 12 kcal |
| 1 oz by weight | 28 g | 12 kcal |
| 12 fl oz can or bottle | 357 g | 146 kcal |
| 16 fl oz draft pint | 476 g | 195 kcal |
| 24 fl oz tallboy can | 714 g | 293 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 41 kcal |
Only the 12 fl oz line is a USDA household serving. The 16 fl oz pint, the 24 fl oz tallboy and both one-ounce rows are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, scaled straight from the 41 calories per 100 g and rounded once at the end.
The single most useful line for a drinker is the one-ounce row, because it turns any glass into a number. Beer sits at roughly 12 calories an ounce, so half a leftover pint is about 98 and a short six-ounce tasting pour is about 73. No label on a bar tap will tell you that.
Every Budweiser size in one table
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budweiser, 12 oz can or bottle | 41 kcal | 12 fl oz (357 g) | 146 kcal |
| Budweiser, draft pint | 41 kcal | 16 fl oz (476 g) | 195 kcal |
| Budweiser, 24 oz tallboy | 41 kcal | 24 fl oz (714 g) | 293 kcal |
| Budweiser Select, light | 28 kcal | 12 fl oz (355 g) | 99 kcal |
The first three rows are the same liquid. Nothing about the beer changes between them; only the container does. That is why the can-to-pint jump costs 49 calories and the can-to-tallboy jump costs 147 — a tallboy is two cans plus a splash, and it slides down like one drink.
This is where most calorie math on beer goes wrong. People log "a beer" as 146 after a night on draft pints, and by the third glass they are 147 calories short of the truth. Two draft pints (390) already cost more than two and a half cans.
Budweiser Select and the light beer question
Budweiser Select is the lighter recipe USDA lists under the brand: 28 calories per 100 g, so a 12 fl oz can at 355 g is 99 calories. That is 47 fewer than regular Budweiser, and the carbohydrate drops from 10.6 g to 3.1 g per can. Sodium is trivial in both, at 11 mg a can either way.
Put differently, three Selects (297) cost about the same as two regular Budweisers (292). If a Friday night reliably means four beers, switching the whole round saves 188 calories without changing the count.
USDA does not publish a record for Bud Light, so this page will not quote a number for it. Anything you see elsewhere comparing the two comes from brewer label data, not from FoodData Central, and mixing the two sources in one table is how comparisons get sloppy.
Where the Budweiser calories come from
Look at the can and the arithmetic does not add up at first glance. Carbohydrate contributes 10.6 g and protein 1.3 g; fat is zero. Those macros together account for well under half of the 146 calories. The rest comes from the alcohol, which carries calories but is not a macronutrient on the Nutrition Facts panel and never shows up in the rows above.
That single fact explains a comparison that surprises people: regular cola is 42 calories per 100 g and Budweiser is 41. Two drinks, nearly identical calories per ounce, arriving by completely different routes — sugar in one, ethanol in the other. Root beer lands at exactly the same 41 per 100 g as the beer.
For anyone counting the drinks themselves rather than the calories, the CDC counts a 12 fl oz regular beer as one standard drink, which makes the 12 oz can a convenient unit twice over. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans set out what moderate drinking means for adults who choose to drink; the calorie side of it is what this page is for.
If you are watching carbohydrate rather than calories, the 4% Daily Value per can is genuinely small — a can of Budweiser costs fewer carbs than a slice of bread. If you are watching calories, the alcohol makes the drink far denser than the carb line suggests.
How does Budweiser compare?
| Drink | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budweiser | 41 kcal | 12 fl oz can, 357 g | 146 kcal |
| Budweiser Select | 28 kcal | 12 fl oz, 355 g | 99 kcal |
| Malt liquor | 40 kcal | 12 fl oz, 355 g | 142 kcal |
| Root beer | 41 kcal | 12 fl oz, 355 g | 146 kcal |
The malt liquor and root beer servings are our own arithmetic from each USDA 100 g figure; the two Budweiser rows use USDA household servings. Our take: for weight loss, Budweiser Select is the only real lever in this table — 99 a can, and the only entry under 100. Everything else here lands within four calories of the others per 100 g, so swapping regular Budweiser for malt liquor buys you nothing worth logging. The bigger win is container discipline: staying on 12 oz cans instead of drifting to draft pints saves 49 calories a drink, more than any brand swap on this list, Select included. And root beer is not the safe alternative it looks like — same calories per 100 g as the beer, all of it sugar.
Most popular budweiser 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) |
|---|---|
| Budweiser Regular Beer | 41 cal |
| Budweiser Select Light Beer | 28 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Budweiser FAQs
How many calories are in a 12 oz Budweiser?
A 12 fl oz can or bottle weighs 357 g and carries 146 calories, based on the USDA figure of 41 calories per 100 g. That is the standard single serving printed on almost every American beer package, and it is the number to log for one regular Budweiser.
How many calories in a pint of Budweiser?
A 16 fl oz draft pint holds 476 g and comes to 195 calories, our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure rather than a listed serving. That is 49 more than a can of the same beer, purely because the glass is a third larger.
How many carbs does Budweiser have?
A 12 fl oz can has 10.6 g of carbohydrate, 4% of the FDA Daily Value, from 2.97 g per 100 g. Protein adds 1.3 g and fat is zero. The remaining calories come from alcohol, which is why the carb count looks so small next to the total.
Is Budweiser or Bud Light lower in calories?
USDA FoodData Central has no record for Bud Light, so there is no verified number to quote, and the lighter beer it does list under the brand is Budweiser Select at 28 calories per 100 g. That is 99 per 12 fl oz can against 146 for regular Budweiser, a saving of 47 calories.
How many calories in Budweiser Select?
Budweiser Select runs 28 calories per 100 g, so a 12 fl oz can at 355 g is 99 calories. That saves 47 calories per can against regular Budweiser and drops carbohydrate to 3.1 g. Three Selects land close to two regular cans on calories.
Does Budweiser have any sugar?
A 12 fl oz can has 10.6 g of carbohydrate, but USDA publishes no total sugars value for this Budweiser record, so no sugar figure appears on this page. Most of that carbohydrate is residual malt carbohydrate left after fermentation rather than added sweetener.
How many calories in a 24 oz Budweiser can?
A 24 fl oz tallboy weighs 714 g and works out to 293 calories, our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure. One tallboy is worth two cans plus a splash, and it puts 98 more calories in your day than a 16 fl oz draft pint.
Is beer more caloric than soda per ounce?
No, and the gap is tiny: Budweiser is 41 calories per 100 g, regular cola 42 and root beer 41. A 12 fl oz can lands at 146 for the beer and 149 for the cola. The difference is the source: alcohol in one, sugar in the other, at nearly the same cost per ounce.
Similar foods
- Tom yum soup — 191 cal per bowl
- Clementine — 35 cal per clementine
- Ceviche — 158 cal per cup
- Pomegranate — 72 cal for 1/2 cup arils
- Clam Chowder — 237 cal per cup
- Chinese Chicken and Broccoli — 206 cal per cup
Count it without the math
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