How Much Caffeine Is in a Monster? 160 mg a Can

Your can of Monster holds about 160 mg of caffeine. That is what the label says in Europe, 32 mg per 100 mL on a 500 mL can, and it is what USDA measured independently, 33 mg per 100 g. In coffee terms you are drinking about 1.7 cups in one sitting. ^{[1] [2]}

Most pages stop at that number. What you need is what it means for you: how many cans you can fit inside a day, why Canada caps energy drinks at a figure your can sits just under, and how the white can and the zero-sugar can differ from the green one you probably hold.

How much caffeine is in your Monster?

You get about 160 mg from a 500 mL can and about 156 mg from the 473 mL US can. The cleanest way for you to compare cans of different sizes is per 100 mL, so that is how the chart reads.

Two things you should notice. Monster is not unusually strong per millilitre: Red Bull and Rockstar sit within a few milligrams of it, and your brewed coffee is stronger. Monster gets its reputation from the can size. A 500 mL can is twice a Red Bull and twice a coffee cup, so you drink twice the caffeine.

What does that come to per can?

USDA also lists Monster per 240 g serving, which comes to about 79 mg. Your can is two of those servings, which is why you will see both 80-something and 160 quoted for the same drink. ^[2]

Monster's coffee line and its larger cans are labelled higher than the standard can. You will find the figure printed on each can, so when you pick up anything other than the green, white or zero-sugar 500 mL can, read it.

How many Monsters is too many?

If you are a healthy adult, the FDA and Health Canada put your daily ceiling at 400 mg, which is two and a half standard cans with nothing else. Add your morning coffee and you are down to two cans. If you are pregnant, the Canadian limit is 300 mg, which you can reach with one can and a coffee.

There is a per-can rule as well. Health Canada caps caffeinated energy drinks at 180 mg of caffeine per single-serve container and requires a caution label, and your standard Monster can sits under that cap by about 20 mg. Your coffee faces no such ceiling, because it is not a formulated product; a large takeaway coffee can carry more caffeine than any can you can legally buy in Canada. ^[3]

The single-dose line is the one you have probably not heard of. The European Food Safety Authority's 2015 review set 200 mg as the amount a healthy adult can take in one sitting without a safety concern. One Monster keeps you under it. A Monster and a coffee together put you over it. Where a real caffeine overdose begins, and what it looks like, is a different scale again.

Monster vs coffee: which hits harder?

Per can, Monster. Per millilitre, coffee. You drink a can in ten minutes, cold and fizzy, and a hot coffee over half an hour, so the same caffeine reaches you faster from the can and you feel the peak more sharply. The original can also gives you 55 g of sugar, close to fourteen teaspoons, which has its own short lift. ^[1]

If you are choosing by caffeine alone, one Monster equals a large double-shot coffee. If you are choosing by sugar, black coffee gives you none and the green can gives you a lot; the white Ultra and Zero Sugar cans close that gap for you but keep most of the caffeine.

What to do

• Want one and done? One standard can is about 160 mg, under the 200 mg single-dose line and well under the 400 mg day.
• Drink coffee too? Count the can as a large coffee. Two cans plus a coffee puts you past 400 mg.
• Want less caffeine, same taste? The white Ultra can gives you about 150 mg; it is not a low-caffeine drink. There is no caffeine-free Monster.
• Pregnant? The Canadian limit is 300 mg a day. One can is half of it.
• Picking up a can that is not green, white or zero sugar? Read the label. Monster prints the caffeine on every can, and the other lines run higher.

The short version

Your Monster has about 160 mg of caffeine, 32 mg per 100 mL on the label and 33 mg per 100 g by USDA's measurement, about 1.7 cups of coffee in one can. Ultra gives you about 150 mg and Zero Sugar the full 160. Two and a half cans reach your 400 mg day, one can and a coffee pass the 200 mg single dose, and the standard can sits just under Canada's 180 mg per-container cap.