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Vodka calories per shot, and what the mixer adds

October 20, 2026 · Viral Tandel

Vodka calories are among the simplest figures in this whole category, because vodka is one of the few things people drink that contains exactly one source of energy. The United States Department of Agriculture puts it at 231 kcal per 100 g, with zero carbohydrate, zero protein and zero fat. All of it is the alcohol.

Key takeaways

• 231 kcal per 100 g. USDA weighs a standard serving at 42 g, a 1.5 fl oz shot, giving about 97 kcal.
• Zero carbohydrate, zero sugar, zero fat. There is nothing else in it.
• Vodka is not lower in calories than whiskey or tequila. At the same proof they are identical.
• The mixer routinely adds more than the vodka. Cola nearly doubles the drink.
• Tonic water is not soda water, and the gap between them is about 56 kcal a glass.

The vodka itself

Proof is what moves this. USDA's SR Legacy entry for vodka at 80 proof is also 231 kcal per 100 g, which is the strength most vodka is sold at. A higher proof bottle is proportionally higher, because there is more alcohol in the same volume and the alcohol is all there is.

This is also why no vodka is meaningfully lighter than another at the same strength. There is nothing to vary. Marketing that implies otherwise is selling you something other than a calorie saving.

The mixer is the real decision

Each of these is USDA's entry for the finished drink, not a vodka figure with something added on. The spread is 67 calories, which is more than two thirds of the vodka in the glass.

The one worth singling out is tonic. It sits beside soda water on every bar gun and in every fridge, the names are similar, and tonic contains sugar while soda water contains nothing. Fifty six calories a drink is not catastrophic once; across an evening it is the difference between the lowest and the highest option on this page.

Diet cola lands essentially level with soda water, which is the expected result and a reminder that the sugar is the variable, not the fizz or the flavour.

Logging it

Log the drink you actually drank, not the spirit inside it. A vodka tonic is its own entry, and logging it as a shot of vodka understates it by about half. This is the same component-versus-composite problem that makes restaurant food hard, covered in where calorie databases get their numbers.

Two other things to watch. A free pour is not a measured pour, and bar measures vary by country and by bartender. And flavoured vodkas may or may not be sweetened; USDA publishes no entry for them, so this site will not give you a figure for one.

If you want the full comparison against beer, wine and the other spirits, lowest calorie alcohol puts every published figure on a single standard-serving basis.

KalTrack can read a bottle label where one exists, which is the honest route for anything USDA does not cover. 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.