How much caffeine is in a latte? About 63 mg per shot of espresso, so a one-shot latte has about 63 mg and a two-shot latte about 126 mg. A grande (16 oz) Starbucks Caffè Latte has 150 mg, according to Starbucks. The milk adds no caffeine, so the shots are the whole story.
That puts a typical latte somewhere between a single espresso and a big mug of drip coffee. To see what your latte leaves in you at bedtime, put the time you drank it into the caffeine calculator.
Free toolCaffeine Cutoff CalculatorHow much caffeine is still in you at bedtime, and your latest cup.How much caffeine is in a latte?
Count the shots and multiply by about 63 mg. That figure comes from USDA FoodData Central, which lists restaurant espresso at 212 mg per 100 grams, or about 63 mg in a 1 oz shot. Steamed milk, foam and syrup don't change it.
| Latte | Shots | Caffeine |
|---|---|---|
| Small latte, 1 shot | 1 | about 63 mg |
| Latte, 2 shots | 2 | about 126 mg |
| Latte, 3 shots | 3 | about 189 mg |
| Starbucks Caffè Latte, grande (16 oz) | 150 mg | |
| Decaf latte, 2 shots | 2 | about 6 to 32 mg |
| For comparison: brewed coffee, 8 oz | about 95 mg |
Treat 63 mg as an average. When researchers tested 104 espressos from coffee shops in Scotland, Italy and Spain, caffeine ranged from 48 to 317 mg per serving, partly because shops pour very different amounts. The espresso guide explains why shots vary so much.
How much caffeine is in a Starbucks latte?
A grande (16 oz) Starbucks Caffè Latte has 150 mg of caffeine, according to Starbucks' nutrition information. That's a bit more than the 126 mg you'd expect from two average shots, which is a good reminder that one shop's shots aren't the same as the USDA average.
Starbucks lists caffeine for the grande only, so other sizes aren't given here. If you order a tall or a venti, the caffeine depends on how many shots go in, so ask the barista and count about 63 mg per shot as a rough guide.
Latte vs coffee: which has more caffeine?
It depends on the shots and the cup size: a one-shot latte has less caffeine than an 8 oz coffee, and a two-shot latte has more. An 8 oz cup of brewed coffee has about 95 mg, based on USDA data.
| Drink | Caffeine |
|---|---|
| Latte, 1 shot | about 63 mg |
| Brewed coffee, 8 oz | about 95 mg |
| Latte, 2 shots | about 126 mg |
| Starbucks Caffè Latte, grande | 150 mg |
| Brewed coffee, 16 oz | about 190 mg |
So a latte isn't automatically the "lighter" coffee order. Size for size, though, a 16 oz latte usually has less caffeine than 16 oz of drip coffee, because most of the cup is milk.
Latte vs cappuccino: which has more caffeine?
They have the same caffeine when they have the same number of shots. The difference is the milk: a latte has more steamed milk and a thin layer of foam, and a cappuccino has less milk and more foam.
At Starbucks, a grande latte and a grande cappuccino both list 150 mg. If one drink tastes stronger, it's because there's less milk around the same espresso, not more caffeine.
How much caffeine is in a Dunkin latte?
Dunkin doesn't publish a latte caffeine figure that we could verify, so we don't give one here. The safest estimate is to count the espresso shots in your size and use about 63 mg each. Ask at the counter if you're not sure how many shots go in.
Latte vs matcha latte
A two-shot coffee latte has roughly twice the caffeine of a typical matcha latte. A matcha latte usually lands around 30 to 65 mg, depending on how much powder goes in, and a grande Starbucks Matcha Latte has 65 mg, about the same as a one-shot coffee latte. Our post on how much caffeine is in matcha breaks it down by the gram.
Does a decaf latte have caffeine?
Yes, a little. In one lab study, decaf espresso shots from the same coffee shop ranged from about 3 to 16 mg each, so a two-shot decaf latte might have about 6 to 32 mg. That's small, but it isn't zero. For more on evening decaf, see decaf coffee before bed.
What's the latest time to drink a latte before bed?
For an 11 PM bedtime, finish a one-shot latte by about 4:19 PM, a two-shot latte by about 11:19 AM and a grande Starbucks latte by about 10:04 AM. These are the times each drink falls below 25 mg by bedtime, using the site's average 5-hour caffeine half-life.
| Latte | Caffeine | Hours before bed | Bedtime 10 PM | Bedtime 11 PM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 shot | 63 mg | 6 h 40 min | 3:19 PM | 4:19 PM |
| 2 shots | 126 mg | 11 h 40 min | 10:19 AM | 11:19 AM |
| Starbucks grande | 150 mg | 12 h 55 min | 9:04 AM | 10:04 AM |
| 3 shots | 189 mg | 14 h 36 min | 7:24 AM | 8:24 AM |
| For comparison: coffee, 8 oz | 95 mg | 9 h 38 min | 12:22 PM | 1:22 PM |
The two-shot latte is the one that surprises people. A 1 PM latte with two shots still leaves about 32 mg at 11 PM:
| Latte at | 1 shot (63 mg) | 2 shots (126 mg) | Starbucks grande (150 mg) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 AM | 7 mg | 14 mg | 16 mg |
| 11 AM | 12 mg | 24 mg | 28 mg |
| 1 PM | 16 mg | 32 mg | 38 mg |
| 3 PM | 21 mg | 42 mg | 49 mg |
| 5 PM | 27 mg | 55 mg | 65 mg |
This site uses 25 mg at bedtime as a sensible line, not an official limit. People clear caffeine at very different speeds, and falling asleep fine doesn't mean it had no effect: in an at-home study, a large dose taken 6 hours before bed cut total sleep by more than an hour.
How to keep your latte from costing you sleep
- Make the afternoon latte a single, or switch to decaf or half-caf after lunch.
- Count shots across the day. Two two-shot lattes are four shots, about 252 mg. The caffeine limit calculator shows how that fits under the 400 mg a day the FDA cites for healthy adults.
- Run your own times through the caffeine calculator if your bedtime isn't on the table.