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Whiskey and bourbon calories, per shot and per pour

October 23, 2026 · Viral Tandel

The calories in whiskey come entirely from the alcohol, which makes the figure predictable in a way most drinks are not. The United States Department of Agriculture puts whiskey at 231 kcal per 100 g in its general entry, which works out to about 97 kcal for a standard 1.5 fl oz shot.

Key takeaways

• 231 kcal per 100 g generally, about 97 for a 1.5 fl oz shot.
• At 86 proof, USDA lists 250 kcal per 100 g, which makes the same shot about 105.
• Bourbon is whiskey. There is no separate USDA entry and no separate number.
• Carbohydrate is 0.1 g per 100 g. The sweetness in a good whiskey is not sugar.
• A whiskey sour is about 277 kcal a drink. The whiskey is barely a third of it.

Whiskey, neat

Those two rows are the whole picture, and the gap between them is instructive. Eighty six proof is 43 percent alcohol against 40 percent for the standard 80 proof bottle. That eight percent increase in strength produces an eight percent increase in calories, almost exactly, because alcohol is the only thing being counted.

So the practical rule for any spirit is to read the proof on the label rather than the name on the bottle. A cask strength whiskey at 120 proof is a significantly bigger pour in calorie terms than the same volume at 80, and nothing about the colour, the age or the price tells you that.

A standard 1.5 fl oz shot is 42 g on USDA's weights, giving about 97 kcal at 231 per 100 g, or about 105 at the 86 proof figure.

Bourbon, rye, scotch and the rest

USDA publishes one whiskey entry. There is no bourbon figure, no rye figure, no single malt figure, and this site will not invent the difference between them.

That is not a gap in the data so much as a reflection of reality. Bourbon is whiskey made to a particular specification about grain and barrel. Those rules shape flavour, not energy. Two spirits at the same proof carry the same alcohol, and alcohol is where the calories are.

If your bottle is stronger than 80 proof, scale from the proof. That is the only adjustment the data supports.

Mixed, it stops being about the whiskey

A whiskey sour is USDA's own entry for the finished cocktail, and at 277 kcal it contains nearly three times the energy of the whiskey in it. Sour mix is sugar, lemon and water, and the sugar is doing the work.

Ginger ale is the same story in a milder form. It is a sweetened soft drink, and swapping it for soda water would bring the drink down to roughly the level of the two lightest options in lowest calorie alcohol.

None of which is an argument for drinking whiskey neat. It is an argument for logging the drink rather than the spirit, which is the same point made about vodka and about composite dishes generally.

Logging it

Read the proof, log the finished drink, and be honest about the pour. A home measure is usually larger than a bar measure, and neither is 1.5 fl oz unless somebody poured it that way.

KalTrack reads a label where there is one, and tells you what it recognised when there is not. Try it.

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