How much caffeine is in Cold brew?

One 240 ml serving of cold brew contains 200 mg of caffeine.

Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant that increases alertness and reduces perceived fatigue; the 200 mg figure on this page is taken from our open dataset (Dataset) and reports the caffeine mass per 240 ml serving. The same 240 ml serving gives a concentration of 83.3 mg per 100 ml, calculated directly from the 200 mg per 240 ml value and shown in our dataset (Dataset), so this drink is markedly stronger by concentration than many brewed coffees.

Compared with a standard drip coffee at 96 mg per 240 ml (Drip coffee, 96 mg), a single 240 ml cold brew delivers roughly 2.1 times the caffeine of one 240 ml drip cup (2.1× is computed from 200 mg ÷ 96 mg and recorded in our dataset at Dataset); physiologically, 200 mg will commonly produce measurable increases in heart rate and alertness for several hours in healthy adults (effect size varies by tolerance and body mass).

How long Cold brew stays in your system

Half-life is the time required for the amount of a substance in the body to fall to half its value; population-average caffeine half-life is 5.7 hours (Drake et al., 2013: Drake et al., 2013), and we use that figure for the decay model below. The decay model is first-order elimination, remaining = dose × 0.5^(hours / 5.7), so for a 200 mg dose the arithmetic at the referenced intervals is: remaining(3 h) = 200 × 0.5^(3/5.7) = 200 × 0.6936 ≈ 139 mg; remaining(6 h) = 200 × 0.5^(6/5.7) = 200 × 0.4823 ≈ 96 mg; remaining(9 h) = 200 × 0.5^(9/5.7) = 200 × 0.3341 ≈ 67 mg; remaining(12 h) = 200 × 0.5^(12/5.7) = 200 × 0.2320 ≈ 46 mg (the numeric outputs above follow directly from the 5.7 h half-life model in Drake et al., 2013: Drake et al., 2013).

As an example, if this 240 ml cold brew is consumed at 15:00 then by 21:00 (6 hours later) roughly 96 mg would remain in systemic circulation and by 00:00 (9 hours later) roughly 67 mg would remain, using the same 5.7-hour half-life model (Drake et al., 2013: Drake et al., 2013); these remaining masses are the quantities available to exert physiological effects and to interfere with sleep.

This 200 mg serving represents 50% of the common 400 mg daily-intake guidance for healthy adults; the 400 mg/day guidance is reported by the EFSA Scientific Opinion (2015) as an appropriate upper bound for healthy adults (EFSA, 2015), so two such 240 ml cold brews would meet that 400 mg threshold.

For late-day timing, use the decay numbers above: if the 240 ml cold brew is taken in the late afternoon, the remaining caffeine by typical bedtimes is often still substantial (for example, 6 hours later ≈96 mg and 9 hours later ≈67 mg using the 5.7 h half-life model; Drake et al., 2013: Drake et al., 2013). For planning the last cup before sleep, our interactive tool can compute precise cutoffs for your bedtime and body weight at Latest cup before bedtime and the half-life calculator at Caffeine half-life calculator shows decay under alternative half-life assumptions.

Certain groups should be more conservative: pregnant people are advised to limit caffeine to about 200 mg per day by EFSA (2015) (EFSA, 2015), so this single 240 ml cold brew would meet that 200 mg pregnancy threshold; adolescents and people with caffeine sensitivity should also reduce intake and can use the body-weight guidance at Safe daily limit by body weight to estimate a personal limit.

Ranking this cold brew against similar drinks in our dataset shows it as stronger than a typical 240 ml drip coffee at 96 mg and a French press at 107 mg, but slightly below some nitro cold brews at 215 mg per 240 ml; the specific dataset entries are: drip coffee 96 mg (Drip coffee, 96 mg), French press 107 mg (French press, 107 mg), and nitro cold brew 215 mg (Nitro cold brew, 215 mg), so the 200 mg cold brew sits near the high end of brewed-coffee values in the dataset (Dataset).

Interpreting that ranking for consumption: the 200 mg cold brew delivers roughly the caffeine of two standard 240 ml drip cups combined (2.1× drip coffee equivalence, computed as 200 ÷ 96 and noted in our dataset at Dataset), which clarifies why a single 240 ml cold brew can replace two smaller cups of coffee in total stimulant exposure over the following hours.

What changes the number for Cold brew

Cold brew caffeine per 240 ml in our dataset is listed as 200 mg (Dataset), but actual caffeine in a given bottle or café cup changes with extraction variables: grind size, coffee-to-water ratio, and steep time can each alter caffeine mass. For brewed coffee the usual mechanisms are simple chemistry—longer contact time and higher coffee mass raise extraction efficiency—so a stronger coffee concentrate or a longer steep commonly increases the milligram amount in the finished 240 ml you consume (these procedural causes are why a single published figure is an estimate).

Commercial and home variants show category-level differences in our dataset: pour over (240 ml) reports 145 mg, French press (240 ml) 107 mg, and drip coffee (240 ml) 96 mg, while nitro cold brew (240 ml) appears higher at 215 mg and instant coffee (240 ml) is lower at 62 mg (Pour over, 145 mg, French press, 107 mg, Drip coffee, 96 mg, Nitro cold brew, 215 mg, Instant coffee, 62 mg). These measured differences in our dataset are the empirical basis for saying that preparation method moves the number.

Other practical variants you will encounter include concentrate versus ready-to-drink: some cold brew is sold as an undiluted concentrate and then diluted at service, which changes mg per 240 ml; decaffeinated versions are available — decaf coffee in our dataset is 3 mg per 240 ml (Decaf coffee, 3 mg) — and roast-to-roast and bean-to-bean chemistry can shift caffeine by tens of percent between batches, so the 200 mg reported here is a central estimate based on analyzed samples in the dataset (Dataset).

• Key drivers of variance: coffee-to-water ratio, steep time, grind size, bean species and roast level; our categorical comparisons above show the practical magnitude of those differences in analyzed samples (Dataset).

Where this figure comes from

The 200 mg value for 240 ml cold brew on this page comes from the TrackCaffeine open dataset and the underlying analyzed samples that comprise that dataset (Dataset), where entries are drawn from laboratory analyses and published manufacturer data. Published values disagree because laboratories use different extraction and assay methods, commercial recipes vary by batch and dilution, and sample selection differs across studies; when new, verified lab analyses are added to our dataset we update the page to reflect the changed central estimate (Dataset).

Bottom line

Bottom line: a 240 ml (8.1 fl oz) cold brew contains 200 mg of caffeine (83.3 mg per 100 ml) as recorded in our dataset (Dataset); that single serving is 50% of the 400 mg/day guidance reported by EFSA (2015) (EFSA, 2015) and is roughly 2.1× the caffeine in a 240 ml drip cup at 96 mg (Drip coffee, 96 mg). Using a 5.7-hour population half-life (Drake et al., 2013: Drake et al., 2013), expect about 139 mg at 3 h, 96 mg at 6 h, 67 mg at 9 h and 46 mg at 12 h after this dose.