There’s no single number that’s safe for everyone, but as a working rule, most adults can have one to two standard drinks over a restaurant meal and stay under the 0.08% blood alcohol limit that defines a DUI in 49 states. The honest answer to how many drinks you can have at a restaurant depends on your weight, your sex, whether you’ve eaten, how fast you drink, and — critically — whether the pours in front of you actually match what the government calls a “standard drink.” They often don’t. A generous glass of wine or a craft cocktail can count as two.
A Standard Drink Is Smaller Than What You’re Served
Every safe-drinking guideline is built on one measurement. In the United States, a standard drink contains 0.6 ounces (14 grams) of pure alcohol. That works out to 12 ounces of regular beer at 5% alcohol, 5 ounces of wine at 12%, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits at 40% (80-proof).1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About Standard Drink Sizes
Restaurant pours rarely match those numbers. A generous wine pour can easily hit 8 or 9 ounces, nearly double a standard drink. A 16-ounce pint of craft beer at 8% ABV is closer to two standard drinks than one. A cocktail with two shots of liquor is already two standard drinks before any liqueurs or mixers get added. If you’re counting to stay under a limit, count by standard-drink equivalents, not by glasses. The NIAAA has an online calculator that converts any beverage’s ABV and container size into standard drinks.2National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcohol Drink Size Calculator
Federal dietary guidelines define moderate drinking as up to two drinks per day for men and one for women.3Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 Those are health limits, not driving limits, and they assume standard drinks.
How Many Drinks Put You at 0.08%
Blood alcohol content is the percentage of alcohol in your bloodstream, and it’s what determines whether you’re legally impaired. Because alcohol distributes through your body’s water, body weight matters. A 120-pound person and a 200-pound person drinking the same amount will hit very different BAC levels.
As a rough benchmark, a 160-pound man will typically reach about 0.04% BAC after two standard drinks over an hour. A 120-pound woman drinking the same amount could reach approximately 0.07%. Sex matters independently of weight: women generally reach higher BAC levels than men of the same weight because they tend to carry less body water and produce less of the stomach enzyme that breaks down alcohol before it enters the bloodstream.
Impairment starts well below the legal line. According to NHTSA, at 0.02% BAC you begin losing some judgment and the ability to track moving objects. At 0.05%, coordination drops, steering becomes harder, and your response to emergencies slows. By 0.08%, muscle coordination is noticeably poor and your ability to process information, detect danger, and control speed are all compromised.4National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The ABCs of BAC The 0.08% limit is where the law presumes impairment, not where impairment begins.
Food, Pace, and Time Change the Math
Eating a meal before or while you drink slows the rate at which alcohol enters your bloodstream, producing a lower peak BAC than the same drinks on an empty stomach. This is one reason a leisurely dinner and drinks at a bar can leave you in very different places. The type of food matters less than having something substantial in your stomach.
Pace matters just as much. Your liver processes alcohol at a fairly fixed rate, roughly one standard drink per hour. Drink faster than that and alcohol accumulates in your blood. Three drinks over three hours produces a very different BAC than three drinks in 45 minutes.
Once you stop drinking, BAC drops at an average rate of about 0.015 to 0.020 per hour. At that pace, someone who reaches 0.08% needs four to five hours of zero additional drinking before their BAC returns to zero. Coffee, cold water, fresh air, and food don’t speed this up. They may make you feel more alert, but they don’t change how fast your liver clears alcohol. Time is the only thing that works.
One threshold worth knowing: the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as a pattern that brings BAC to 0.08% or above, which typically corresponds to five or more drinks for a man, or four or more for a woman, in roughly two hours.5National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Understanding Binge Drinking A long dinner with a cocktail first, wine with each course, and a digestif afterward can cross that line before anyone feels obviously drunk.
Medications Can Shift Your Tolerance
Common prescription and over-the-counter drugs can amplify alcohol’s effects in ways that catch people off guard. Mixing alcohol with anti-inflammatory painkillers like ibuprofen or naproxen increases the risk of stomach bleeding and liver damage. Antidepressants combined with alcohol can cause extreme drowsiness, dizziness, and impaired motor control. Diabetes medications like metformin can cause dangerously low blood sugar when combined with alcohol. If you take any medication regularly, check the label or ask a pharmacist before ordering a drink with dinner.
The Legal Limit for Driving
The legal BAC limit for driving is 0.08% in 49 states and the District of Columbia. Utah is the exception; it lowered its limit to 0.05% in 2018. Several other states have introduced bills to follow Utah, though none had enacted a lower limit as of early 2025. Wherever the line sits, you can still be charged with impaired driving at any BAC if an officer observes signs of impairment.
Two groups face stricter limits. Drivers under 21 face zero-tolerance laws that set the BAC ceiling between 0.00% and 0.02%, depending on the state, so essentially any detectable alcohol triggers a violation.6National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Zero-Tolerance Law Enforcement Commercial vehicle drivers are held to a federal BAC limit of 0.04%.7eCFR. 49 CFR 392.5 – Alcohol Prohibition
What a DUI Actually Costs
A first-offense DUI is a misdemeanor in most states, but the label understates the impact. Penalties typically include fines ranging from a few hundred to over a thousand dollars, a license suspension lasting several months or longer, and possible jail time. Many jurisdictions require a minimum of one or two days in jail even for a first conviction, with a maximum of up to six months. Courts commonly order alcohol education or treatment programs, and a growing number of states require an ignition interlock device that forces you to pass a breath test before your car will start.
Repeat offenses, high BAC readings (typically 0.15% or above), or causing an accident escalate the consequences to felony charges, multi-year license revocation, and extended prison time. On top of the criminal penalties come higher insurance rates for years, a criminal record that can affect employment, and in some professions, loss of licensure.
Refusing a breath or blood test doesn’t get you out of any of this. Every state has an implied consent law: by driving on public roads, you’ve already agreed to submit to a chemical BAC test if an officer has reasonable suspicion you’re impaired.8National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. BAC Test Refusal Penalties Refusal triggers an automatic license suspension in nearly every state, often six months to a year, and the refusal itself can be used against you in court. Some states treat refusal as a separate criminal offense. Many jurisdictions now use no-refusal policies where officers can obtain a warrant for a blood draw on the spot.
Rules That Actually Work at the Table
Decide before you sit down how many standard drinks you’ll have, and adjust for what actually gets poured. A large cocktail or a generous glass of wine can count as two. Eat a full meal. Pace your drinks across the evening, no faster than one per hour. Alternate with water.
None of that guarantees you’ll be under 0.08%. If you plan on more than one or two drinks, separate drinking from driving entirely: rideshare, a designated sober driver, or public transit. The cost of a ride home is trivial compared to the fines, legal fees, and insurance premiums that follow a DUI, before you count jail time or harm to someone else.