How many calories are in a can of ginger ale?
A 12 fl oz can of regular ginger ale holds 124 calories. That is 34 calories per 100 g, the lightest of the four mainstream sodas compared further down. Every one of those calories comes from sugar: 32.6 g in the can, with no protein, no fat and no fiber behind it.
You'd need to walk about 25 minutes to burn the 124 calories in a 12 fl oz can (366 g).
How long does it take to burn off ginger ale?
A 12 fl oz can (366 g) is 124 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 124 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 25 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 16 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 18 min |
| Jogging | 15 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 28 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 (366 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Ginger ale quick facts
- US servings from one ounce to a 20 oz bottle
- The versions that change the number
- Sugar is the only nutrient in the can
- How does ginger ale compare to other sodas?
- Most popular ginger ale brands
- FAQ
Ginger ale quick facts
The number on this page is the SR Legacy record 174846, "Beverages, carbonated, ginger ale". That is the plain, sugar-sweetened kind you pour over ice, and the record ships with the two household measures Americans actually buy it in: the 12 fl oz can and the 16 fl oz bottle. The FNDDS entry for the same drink (2710555) carries identical values per 100 g, so the choice of record does not move a single figure here.
One thing to know before you read the table: the can weighs 366 g, not 355 g. A 12 fl oz can holds 355 milliliters, but sugar water is denser than water, and USDA weighs the liquid rather than measuring it. That extra 11 g is why the can lands on 124 calories instead of 121.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 can, 12 fl oz (366 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 34 | 124 | — |
| Total fat | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Saturated fat | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Carbohydrate | 8.76 g | 32.1 g | 12% |
| Dietary fiber | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Total sugars | 8.9 g | 32.6 g | — |
| Protein | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Sodium | 7 mg | 26 mg | 1% |
% 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 above because the SR Legacy edition of this record has no such field. It is worth saying out loud anyway: nothing in a can of ginger ale is fruit, so the sugar in it was put there. Cholesterol is 0 mg and potassium is 1 mg per 100 g, which works out to 4 mg in the can — a rounding error, not a mineral source. You can see the FDA's Daily Value reference list for the percentages behind the last column.
A small oddity in the record, since people notice it: USDA lists 8.9 g of sugar against 8.76 g of carbohydrate per 100 g. Sugars and total carbohydrate come from two different lab methods, and in a drink that is nothing but sugar and water they can cross by a tenth of a gram. Treat them as the same number.
US servings from one ounce to a 20 oz bottle
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 fl oz | 30.5 g | 10 kcal |
| 1 oz by weight | 28.4 g | 10 kcal |
| 1 can or bottle, 12 fl oz | 366 g | 124 kcal |
| 1 can or bottle, 16 fl oz | 488 g | 166 kcal |
| 1 bottle, 20 fl oz | 610 g | 207 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 34 kcal |
The 12 fl oz and 16 fl oz rows are USDA household measures attached to record 174846. The 20 fl oz bottle and the ounce-by-weight row are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not USDA servings — the convenience-store bottle is simply the 100 g value scaled up.
Now the part that trips up everyone who logs a restaurant glass. Ice takes up volume, and FNDDS treats a fluid ounce of soda poured over ice as 23 g instead of the 31 g it weighs neat. Fill a 16 fl oz tumbler at a diner and you are drinking roughly 368 g of ginger ale, about 125 calories — not the 166 the bottle row suggests. A tall iced glass and a can are, in practice, the same drink. Free refills are where the arithmetic falls apart, not the first pour.
At the other end, one fluid ounce is 10 calories. That is the splash in a cocktail, the sip a flight attendant hands you in a plastic cup, or the two tablespoons some people use to cut a whiskey. It is small enough to ignore once; it is not small enough to ignore six times a day.
The versions that change the number
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular ginger ale | 34 kcal | 1 can, 12 fl oz (366 g) | 124 kcal |
| Diet ginger ale | 0 kcal | 1 can, 12 fl oz (360 g) | 0 kcal |
| Ginger ale over ice | 34 kcal | tall glass, 16 fl oz with ice (368 g) | 125 kcal |
| Ginger ale, big bottle | 34 kcal | 1 bottle, 20 fl oz (620 g) | 211 kcal |
| Whiskey and ginger ale | 83 kcal | 1 drink (225 g) | 187 kcal |
| Dark ginger ale, store brand | 42 kcal | 12 fl oz (355 mL) | 149 kcal |
| Black cherry ginger ale, store brand | 39 kcal | 12 fl oz (355 mL) | 138 kcal |
Diet ginger ale is a genuine zero. USDA lists 0 calories, 0 g of carbohydrate and 0.1 g of protein per 100 g, with 6 mg of sodium — the sweetener contributes nothing worth counting, so the can is a rounding line in your day rather than an entry.
The whiskey highball is the surprise. At 83 calories per 100 g it looks like a light drink, but only 6.59 g of that 100 g is carbohydrate. The rest is alcohol, which carries calories without carbs, and a 225 g glass lands at 187 calories — half again as much as the plain can, with less sugar in it. Cutting the soda to diet takes the drink down toward the spirit alone; it does not take it down to zero.
Two more notes on the table. The 620 g weight for the 20 fl oz bottle comes from the FNDDS portion list, while the 610 g in the servings table above is our own conversion at 30.5 g per fluid ounce; a 10 g gap on a bottle that size is four calories, and you can pick either. The dark and black cherry lines are label figures from branded records rather than the generic USDA entry, which is why they sit higher: the darker styles run 39 to 42 calories per 100 g against 34 for plain, or up to 25 more calories a can.
Sugar is the only nutrient in the can
Read the quick facts column again and notice what is missing. Zero fat, zero saturated fat, zero fiber, zero protein, four milligrams of potassium. A can of ginger ale is 124 calories of sugar water with 26 mg of sodium along for the ride — less than a fiftieth of a teaspoon of table salt, and 1% of the Daily Value.
That makes it a clean thing to budget for and a poor thing to rely on. There is nothing in the can that will hold you over. If a 400-calorie lunch is your target, a can spends nearly a third of it and leaves the plate exactly as hungry as it found you. Swapping to the diet version is the cheapest 124 calories you will ever cut, which is the whole premise of the CDC's Rethink Your Drink guidance.
On sugar specifically: the Dietary Guidelines for Americans advise keeping added sugars under 10% of daily calories, which is 50 g on a 2,000-calorie day. USDA does not publish an added sugars figure for this record, so we are not going to convert the 32.6 g of total sugars in the can into a percentage of that limit. What we can say is the plain number: 32.6 g in one can, and none of it comes from fruit.
How does ginger ale compare to other sodas?
| Soda | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ginger ale | 34 kcal | 12 fl oz can, 366 g | 124 kcal |
| Fruit-flavored soda, caffeine free | 40 kcal | 12 fl oz can, 366 g | 146 kcal |
| Root beer | 41 kcal | 12 fl oz can, 366 g | 150 kcal |
| Cola | 42 kcal | 12 fl oz can, 366 g | 154 kcal |
The three comparison cans are our own arithmetic from each record's 100 g figure at the same 366 g can weight, so the only thing moving between rows is the drink itself.
Our take: ginger ale is the lightest of the four, and by a margin that is real but modest — 30 calories under a can of cola, 26 under root beer. Trade a daily cola for a ginger ale and you save about 210 calories a week, which is worth having and is not a diet. The bigger lever is the one in the variants table: diet ginger ale is 124 calories cheaper than regular, every single time. If you like the flavor, drink it. If you are counting, drink the diet one and put the 124 calories on food that does something for you.
Most popular ginger ale 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) |
|---|---|
| Schweppes Ginger Ale | 34 cal |
| Schweppes Premium Ginger Ale | 34 cal |
| Schweppes Dark Ginger Ale | 42 cal |
| Schweppes Black Cherry Ginger Ale | 39 cal |
| Schweppes Dry Grape Ginger Ale | 39 cal |
| Schweppes Diet Ginger Ale | 0 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Ginger ale FAQs
How many calories are in a 12 oz can of ginger ale?
124 calories in a 12 fl oz can, which USDA weighs at 366 g rather than 355 g because sweetened soda is denser than water. That works out to 34 calories per 100 g. A 16 fl oz bottle is 166 calories, and a 20 fl oz convenience-store bottle is about 207.
How much sugar is in ginger ale?
32.6 g of sugar in a 12 fl oz can, or 8.9 g per 100 g. There is no fruit in ginger ale, so that sugar was added during production. It is also the entire calorie content of the drink: the can carries no fat, no protein and no fiber to go with it.
Is ginger ale healthier than cola?
It is lighter by 30 calories a can: 124 against 154, or 34 versus 42 calories per 100 g. Both are sugar water with no protein, fiber or fat. Ginger ale is the better pick if you are choosing between the two, but the gap is small enough that switching is not a strategy on its own.
How many calories in diet ginger ale?
Zero: USDA lists diet ginger ale at 0 calories and 0 g of carbohydrate per 100 g, with 0.1 g of protein and 6 mg of sodium. A full 12 fl oz can rounds to 0 calories against 124 for the regular version, which makes it the single biggest saving available on this page.
How many calories in a whiskey and ginger ale?
187 calories for a 225 g highball, based on the USDA mixed-drink record at 83 calories per 100 g. Only 6.59 g of that 100 g is carbohydrate; the rest of the calories come from the spirit. So the drink beats a plain can by 63 calories despite containing less sugar.
How many carbs are in ginger ale?
32.1 g of carbohydrate in a 12 fl oz can, or 8.76 g per 100 g, which is 12% of the Daily Value. Essentially all of it is sugar, and there is no fiber at all. Diet ginger ale is the zero-carb alternative at 0 g per 100 g.
How much sodium is in ginger ale?
26 mg in a 12 fl oz can, from 7 mg per 100 g. That is 1% of the 2,300 mg Daily Value, or less than a fiftieth of a teaspoon of table salt. Diet ginger ale is similar at 6 mg per 100 g. Sodium is not the reason to think twice about this drink.
Is ginger ale healthy?
A can is 124 calories, 32.6 g of sugar, 0 g of protein and 0 g of fiber, so it is a treat rather than a food. The Dietary Guidelines advise keeping added sugars under 10% of daily calories, 50 g on a 2,000-calorie day. If you drink it daily, the diet version costs nothing.
Similar foods
- Beer — 155 cal for 12 fl oz can
- Cider — 202 cal per can or bottle (12 fl oz)
- Prosecco — 135 cal per glass
- Cosmopolitan — 224 cal per cocktail
- Martini — 241 cal per drink
- Shot Of Tequila — 97 cal per shot (1.5 fl oz)
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the glass and BodyPal counts the can, the ice and the whiskey in it for you.
