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Tequila calories per shot, and where margaritas go wrong

October 26, 2026 · Viral Tandel

The calories in a shot of tequila come to about 97, which puts it level with every other spirit at the same strength. The United States Department of Agriculture lists tequila at 231 kcal per 100 g, identical to its vodka and whiskey entries, and weighs 1 fl oz at 28 g.

Key takeaways

• 231 kcal per 100 g, 0 g carbohydrate. A 1.5 fl oz shot is 42 g, about 97 kcal.
• Tequila, vodka and whiskey are the same number at the same proof. Agave does not change it.
• The sugars from the agave are fermented and then distilled away. None reach the bottle.
• A tequila sunrise is about 250 kcal a drink, two and a half times the spirit in it.
• USDA publishes no margarita figure, so this site does not give you one.

The spirit

People are often surprised that an agave spirit carries no carbohydrate. The explanation is distillation. Agave is rich in sugars, those sugars are fermented into alcohol, and distillation then separates the alcohol from almost everything else. What reaches the bottle is alcohol and water.

That also means blanco, reposado and anejo do not differ in any way this data can see. Barrel ageing changes colour and flavour, not energy.

Where the calories actually come from

A tequila sunrise is orange juice and grenadine with tequila in it. USDA's entry for the finished drink is 250 kcal, so roughly 153 of those calories arrived after the spirit did.

Margaritas work the same way and usually more so, because a standard bar margarita is built on a sweet and sour mix that is mostly sugar. USDA publishes no margarita entry, which means there is no sourced number for one on this site and there will not be an invented one. What can be said with confidence is the direction: it is a long way above 97.

If you want the number for a specific chain's margarita, the chain's own published nutrition data is the right source. That is the same principle behind the restaurant calculators on this site, which are built from brands' own figures rather than estimates.

The lighter versions

Tequila with soda water and a squeeze of lime stays close to the spirit itself, for the same reason a vodka and soda does: soda water contributes nothing. The comparison across every published drink sits in lowest calorie alcohol.

A ranch water, a paloma made with diet grapefruit soda, or a simple tequila and soda are all in the same territory. A frozen margarita from a machine is not in the same conversation.

Logging it

Log the drink, not the shot. If you had two margaritas, logging two shots of tequila will understate the evening by a wide margin, and this is one of the categories people most reliably undercount, as noted in vodka calories.

Where a figure does not exist, say so in your own log rather than substituting the nearest thing. A line that reads margarita, estimate is more useful next month than a precise-looking number that was never real.

KalTrack can read a bottle or a can where one exists. For a cocktail somebody mixed for you, treat any figure as an estimate and keep it consistent. Try it.

This is general information about published nutrition data, not medical advice, and not advice to drink. If you are pregnant, taking medication, or have any reason to avoid alcohol, those considerations sit entirely outside what a calorie figure can tell you. Speak to a clinician.