Starbucks Caffeine Guide: How Much Is in Each Drink
The strongest drink on the Starbucks menu usually isn't the one that tastes strongest. Brewed coffee often beats espresso drinks by a wide margin, because a big cup of drip coffee holds more caffeine than two small shots.
Caffeine by drink
Grande unless noted, standard recipe, highest first:
Standard recipe, US menu. Brewed coffee and cold brew caffeine vary by batch. How we calculate.
Why brewed coffee wins
A Grande Caffè Latte has two espresso shots, about 150 mg of caffeine. A Grande Pike Place Roast is about 310 mg. A shot of espresso is concentrated, but there's only about 30 ml of it. Drip coffee is weaker per sip, but you get a whole cup of it.
Bigger isn't always stronger
For hot espresso drinks, a Venti usually has the same two shots as a Grande. The extra size is milk. In our data, Grande and Venti Caffè Lattes are both 150 mg. Brewed coffee is different: a Venti Pike Place Roast is about 410 mg, more than the Grande.
How it compares with the daily guideline
The US Food and Drug Administration cites 400 mg a day as an amount not generally associated with negative effects for most healthy adults. A single Venti brewed coffee can reach that on its own. People who are pregnant, breastfeeding, sensitive to caffeine, taking certain medicines, or under 18 should follow their doctor's advice, which is usually a lower limit.
The calculator shows each drink's caffeine as a share of 400 mg so you can see where it sits.
Lower-caffeine choices
- Refreshers have a small amount of caffeine from green coffee extract, about 45 mg at Grande in our data.
- Matcha and chai lattes sit in the middle, about 80 to 95 mg at Grande.
- Decaf espresso drinks still contain a little caffeine, not zero.
- Fewer shots: ask for one shot in a Grande latte to roughly halve its caffeine.
Caffeine in brewed coffee and cold brew varies with the beans and the batch, so treat these as typical values, not exact ones.
