Drinks can quietly add a surprising amount of sodium to your day. A mug of broth, a glass of tomato juice, a sports drink after a workout, or a bowl of miso soup can contain hundreds of milligrams, sometimes more than a salty snack. This calculator takes the guesswork out of beverage sodium by converting your drink size and a typical sodium concentration into a clear total, along with its share of the daily recommended limit.
Use it to track sodium for blood pressure management, kidney-friendly meal planning, or sports nutrition. Pick from common beverages, enter a custom value from a nutrition label, and get results in milligrams plus a quick daily value percentage. Whether you’re an athlete replacing electrolytes or someone following a low-sodium diet, this tool helps you see what’s actually in your glass.
🥤 Drink Amount
🧂 Sodium Content
How to Use This Calculator
Start by entering the amount of drink you actually plan to consume, not the container size if you are only drinking part of it. Choose the unit that matches your glass, bottle, or can, then pick the closest drink type from the dropdown. The calculator converts everything to milliliters and applies a typical sodium-per-100-mL value for that beverage.
If you are evaluating a packaged drink, choose Custom from the drink list and enter the sodium concentration in milligrams per 100 mL. Most nutrition labels list sodium per serving rather than per 100 mL, so you may need to do a quick conversion: divide the label’s sodium by the serving size in mL and multiply by 100. For example, if a 500 mL bottle contains 60 mg of sodium, the concentration is 60 ÷ 500 × 100 = 12 mg per 100 mL.
Formula & Sodium Values Explained
The core calculation is simple: total sodium (mg) = drink volume (mL) ÷ 100 × sodium concentration (mg per 100 mL). Using mg per 100 mL makes it easy to compare drinks of different sizes, and it is the same basis many food databases and regulatory labels use.
Values in this tool are rounded averages drawn from typical USDA-style nutrition data. For example, plain water is naturally low in sodium, often between 0 and 20 mg per liter, while regular canned broth can pack several hundred milligrams per cup. The table below shows the approximate concentrations used by the calculator.
Reference Table: Sodium in Common Drinks
| Drink | Approx. mg per 100 mL | Approx. mg per 240 mL cup |
|---|---|---|
| Water, tap or sparkling | 1 | 2 |
| Coffee or tea, black | 1 | 2 |
| Coconut water | 25 | 60 |
| Sports drink | 20 | 48 |
| Energy drink | 15 | 36 |
| Cola, regular | 5 | 12 |
| Diet cola | 8 | 19 |
| Orange juice | 3 | 7 |
| Apple juice | 4 | 10 |
| Milk, 2% | 45 | 108 |
| Tomato juice | 100 | 240 |
| Vegetable juice | 80 | 192 |
| Broth, regular canned | 350 | 840 |
| Miso soup | 350 | 840 |
| Beer | 5 | 12 |
| Wine | 4 | 10 |
Values are starting points, not guarantees. Flavored waters, cocktail mixers, low-sodium broths, and specialty coffee drinks can all fall outside these ranges.
Worked Examples
1. Sports drink. A 12 fl oz bottle is about 355 mL. The calculator uses 20 mg per 100 mL for a typical sports drink, so 355 ÷ 100 × 20 = 71 mg of sodium. That is just over 3% of the 2,300 mg daily value.
2. Tomato juice. A 240 mL glass of regular tomato juice at 100 mg per 100 mL gives 240 ÷ 100 × 100 = 240 mg of sodium, about 10% of the daily value.
3. Custom label. Suppose a 500 mL iced tea bottle says 20 mg sodium per 240 mL serving. Convert to per 100 mL: 20 ÷ 240 × 100 = 8.3 mg per 100 mL. Then 500 ÷ 100 × 8.3 = 41.7 mg sodium for the whole bottle.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Using the whole bottle when you only drank half. The calculator is per entry, so enter what actually went into your body.
- Ignoring mixers. Tomato juice, clamato, salted lime rims, brothy cocktails, and even some tonic waters add sodium that is easy to forget.
- Assuming “clear” means sodium-free. Sports drinks, energy drinks, and some sparkling waters contain added electrolytes or mineral salts.
- Using the per-serving sodium without adjusting for your serving size. Convert to per 100 mL or scale the label amount to the volume you drank.
- Confusing sodium with salt. Sodium chloride is about 40% sodium by weight; 1 g of salt contains roughly 400 mg of sodium. This calculator reports sodium, not salt.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this calculator accurate for my exact drink? It uses averages, so it will be close for standard products but not exact. The Custom option is the most reliable way to match a specific label.
Why do sports drinks contain sodium? Sodium is an electrolyte lost in sweat. For endurance exercise, it helps maintain fluid balance and nerve function, but the amount still counts toward your daily sodium intake.
Does tap water have sodium? Usually only a small amount, but municipal water can range from roughly 1 to 20 mg per liter depending on treatment and hardness. For most people this is minor compared with broths and vegetable juices.
What should I do if I am on a low-sodium diet? Focus on unsalted plain water, coffee, tea, and products labeled low-sodium. Check labels for “sodium-free” and “no salt added,” and ask a kidney dietitian about your personal target. For full nutrient data, browse USDA FoodData Central.
Can this tool track other drink nutrients? This one focuses on sodium. If you are also watching sugar in sodas and sports drinks, try the Drink Sugar Calculator. For mixed drinks, the Cocktail Glycemic Load Calculator covers the glycemic load side of cocktails.