How many calories are in sake?
One ochoko cup of sake, the little 2 fl oz ceramic cup that comes with a flask, weighs 58.2 g and carries 78 calories. Per 100 g sake runs 134 calories, which is more than most people expect from a clear drink with 5 g of carbohydrate and no fat at all.
You'd need to walk about 16 minutes to burn the 78 calories in one ochoko cup (58.2 g).
How long does it take to burn off sake?
One ochoko cup (58.2 g) is 78 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 78 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 16 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 10 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 11 min |
| Jogging | 9 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 17 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 (58.2 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Sake quick facts
- US pours, from one ounce to a tokkuri flask
- Cooking sake, mirin and dessert wine
- The calories come from alcohol, not sugar
- How does sake compare?
- Sake FAQs
Sake quick facts
The row used on this page is SR Legacy 167723, "Alcoholic beverage, rice (sake)". It is the only USDA entry for drinking sake, and it is exactly what comes out of the bottle at a restaurant or off the shelf at a liquor store. There is no Branded equivalent, because bottled alcohol is labeled under TTB rules rather than FDA rules, so it never enters the Branded database.
The serving column below is one ochoko cup at 2 fl oz. That is the cup sake actually arrives in, rather than a wine glass measure that nobody uses for it.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 ochoko cup, 2 fl oz (58.2 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 134 | 78 | — |
| Total fat | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Saturated fat | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Carbohydrate | 5 g | 2.9 g | 1% |
| Dietary fiber | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Total sugars | 0 g | 0 g | — |
| Protein | 0.5 g | 0.3 g | 1% |
| Sodium | 2 mg | 1 mg | 0% |
% 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 here: the SR Legacy edition does not carry that field at all, and since total sugars are 0 g there is nothing for it to report anyway. Cholesterol is 0 mg and potassium is 25 mg per 100 g, or 15 mg in a cup — well under 1% of the FDA Daily Value of 4,700 mg. Sake is close to a single-nutrient drink: calories and water, with a rounding error of everything else.
US pours, from one ounce to a tokkuri flask
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 fl oz | 29.1 g | 39 kcal |
| 1 oz | 28.3 g | 38 kcal |
| One ochoko cup, 2 fl oz | 58.2 g | 78 kcal |
| One standard pour, 3 fl oz | 87.3 g | 117 kcal |
| One tokkuri flask, 6 fl oz | 174.6 g | 234 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 134 kcal |
Only the 1 fl oz line is a USDA household measure. The cup, the pour and the flask are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, scaled at 29.1 g per fluid ounce.
Watch the two ounces. A fluid ounce of sake is 29.1 g and 39 calories; a weight ounce is 28.3 g and 38 calories, which is our own scaling rather than a USDA serving. One calorie apart is nothing on a single cup, and it is still only about six calories across a whole flask.
Speaking of which: three ochoko cups is 234 calories, and that is the whole 6 fl oz flask. Sake is served in cups small enough that the flask empties before the count registers. A standard 720 ml retail bottle, at 29.1 g per fluid ounce, comes to roughly 708 g and about 949 calories — again our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g number, not a USDA serving, but it is the figure worth knowing before splitting a bottle two ways.
Cooking sake, mirin and dessert wine
Three things sit next to sake on the shelf and none of them behave like it.
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sake, drinking | 134 kcal | one ochoko cup, 58.2 g | 78 kcal |
| Sake cooking wine, Holland House | 83 kcal | 2 Tbsp, 30 g | 25 kcal |
| Mirin, sweetened sake | 333 kcal | 1 Tbsp, 15 g | 50 kcal |
| Dessert wine, dry | 152 kcal | 1 fl oz, 29.5 g | 45 kcal |
The serving calories for all four are scaled from the USDA 100 g figures rather than lifted from USDA household measures.
Cooking sake is the lightest of the group per 100 g, and it is the one to stop reading as sake. Holland House sake cooking wine carries 533 mg of sodium per 100 g against 2 mg in the drinking version. Two tablespoons in a stir-fry adds only 25 calories but about 160 mg of sodium, or 7% of the Daily Value — a salt line, not a calorie line. It is salted precisely so it cannot be sold as a drink.
Mirin is the opposite problem. At 333 kcal per 100 g it is the densest thing on this page, because it is sweetened sake used as a glaze. A single tablespoon brushed over salmon is 50 calories, roughly two thirds of a whole cup of sake, from 15 g of liquid.
The calories come from alcohol, not sugar
Run the arithmetic on the USDA row and the picture is blunt. Five grams of carbohydrate and 0.5 g of protein account for about 22 of the 134 calories in 100 g, using the standard 4 calories per gram — our own math, not a USDA field. The other 112 calories, roughly five sixths of the total, come from the alcohol itself.
That is why sake looks so strange on a nutrition table. Fat 0%, fiber 0%, sugar 0 g, sodium 0% of the Daily Value, and still 134 calories per 100 g. Nothing in the label rows explains where the number comes from, so people log the cup as though it were close to free.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans treat calories from alcoholic drinks as calories that arrive without meaningful nutrients attached, and the CDC's drinking guidance counts drinks by their alcohol content rather than by the size of the cup they are served in. Practically: if you are keeping an eye on your daily total, count the flask, not the cup, because a tokkuri is a 234-calorie decision made once and drunk in three sips.
How does sake compare?
| Drink | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sake | 134 kcal | one ochoko cup, 58.2 g | 78 kcal |
| Dessert wine, dry | 152 kcal | 1 fl oz, 29.5 g | 45 kcal |
| Daiquiri, canned | 125 kcal | 1 fl oz, 29.5 g | 37 kcal |
| Whiskey sour, canned | 119 kcal | 1 fl oz, 29.5 g | 35 kcal |
The 1 fl oz calories for the three comparison drinks are our own scaling from the USDA 100 g figures rather than USDA servings.
Our take: by weight, sake sits in the middle of this group — under dry dessert wine at 152, above both canned cocktails. Where it separates itself is the carbohydrate column: 5 g per 100 g against 11.67 g for dessert wine, 13.4 g for a whiskey sour and 15.7 g for a daiquiri, the lowest of the four by a wide margin. If you are tracking carbs, sake is the easy pick here. If you are tracking calories, the advantage evaporates, because sake is poured by the flask while cocktails are poured by the glass and counted once.
Sake FAQs
How many calories are in a glass of sake?
A 3 fl oz pour, the closest thing to a wine-glass measure for sake, is 87.3 g and about 117 calories, scaled from the USDA figure of 134 calories per 100 g. The smaller 2 fl oz ochoko cup that comes with a flask is 78 calories.
How many calories in a bottle of sake?
A 6 fl oz tokkuri flask is 234 calories. A full 720 ml bottle, the standard retail size, works out to roughly 708 g and about 949 calories, which is our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not a USDA serving. That is a meal's worth.
Does sake have carbs?
Yes, 5 g per 100 g, which is 2.9 g in a 2 fl oz cup, or 1% of the Daily Value. Total sugars are 0 g in the USDA record, so those carbohydrates are leftovers from the rice rather than sweetness. A 6 fl oz flask carries 8.7 g.
Is sake lower in calories than wine?
Per 100 g sake is 134 calories against 152 for dry dessert wine, so sake is the lighter of the two by weight. By the fluid ounce it is 39 calories against 45. USDA has no row for ordinary table wine, so dessert wine is the closest published comparison available.
Does hot sake have more calories than cold sake?
No — heating changes nothing about the numbers: 134 calories per 100 g either way, 78 in a 2 fl oz cup. What warming changes is the pace, since hot sake is served in small cups from a flask, and a 6 fl oz tokkuri poured out as three cups is 234 calories.
Is there sugar in sake?
Zero — the USDA record lists 0 g of total sugars per 100 g, alongside 5 g of total carbohydrate. Fermentation turns the rice starch into alcohol, and the calories follow the alcohol. Added sugars are not published for this SR Legacy record, so that label row is left out here.
Is cooking sake the same as drinking sake?
No — Holland House sake cooking wine is 83 calories per 100 g but 533 mg of sodium, against 2 mg in drinking sake. Two tablespoons, 30 g, is 25 calories and about 160 mg of sodium, or 7% of the Daily Value. It is salted so it cannot be drunk.
Does sake have any protein?
0.5 g per 100 g, which is 0.3 g in a 2 fl oz cup, or 1% of the Daily Value. Sake is not a protein source in any useful sense. It also carries 25 mg of potassium per 100 g, no fat, no fiber and no cholesterol at all.
Similar foods
- Chicken Chow Mein — 288 cal per cup
- Half And Half — 20 cal per tbsp
- Lasagna — 286 cal per piece
- Snow Cone — 256 cal per snow cone
- Egg Foo Yung — 108 cal per patty
- Toor Dal — 348 cal per cup
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the flask and BodyPal counts the pour for you, cup by cup.
