How much alcohol do you need for a party? If you are throwing a wedding, housewarming party, 40th birthday party, or any other big bash, you may be wondering how much alcohol you need. Luckily, we’ve got a handy party drink calculator to help you avoid overspending on liquor while still having enough.
And if you read our How Many Glasses Do You Need? blog, you may be searching for some additional information on how much alcohol to buy to go in those glasses.
Party Drink Calculator
Plan on one drink per drinking guest for every hour the bar is open. A 4-hour party with 100 guests needs about 400 drinks. That’s the quick answer. Your actual shopping list depends on who’s drinking, what you’re pouring and whether it’s 90 degrees outside.
Our free party drink calculator handles it all. Enter your guest count and bar hours, choose your bar style, and you’ll get beer, wine, liquor, champagne, water, and ice amounts, plus a shopping list you can copy straight to your phone.
Party Drink Calculator
Get a full bar shopping list for beer, wine, liquor, a champagne toast, water and ice.
1Your event
2What you're serving
3Extras
How this calculator works
- Drinks: drinking guests × bar hours × drinks per hour (1 for an average crowd).
- Full bar mix: 40% beer, 36% wine and 24% cocktails. Beer & wine is 60% beer and 40% wine.
- Beer: one 12 oz serving per drink. Cases hold 24, and a standard keg pours about 165 servings.
- Wine: 5 glasses per 750 ml bottle. Cooler or indoor events split 50% red, 25% white and 25% sparkling. Warm or outdoor events split evenly.
- Liquor: 1.5 oz per cocktail, so about 16 cocktails per 750 ml bottle, plus 4 oz of mixer per drink.
- Champagne toast: 1 bottle for every 8 guests.
- Non-drinkers: one soda, juice or mocktail per hour.
- Water: four 12 oz glasses per guest (six in warm weather).
- Ice: 1 lb per guest for drinks (2 lb outdoors or in warm weather), plus 1 lb per guest for chilling bottles and cans.
How to Use the Party Drink Calculator
Count drinking guests, not just guests
Kids, designated drivers, and guests who don’t drink still count toward your water and ice, but not your beer and wine. Enter your full guest count, then use the slider to set how many will drink. A family reunion with lots of kids might land around 70%. An adults-only cocktail party may be close to 100%. The calculator plans one soda, juice or mocktail per hour for everyone else.
Pick your crowd’s pace
- Light (¾ drink per hour): daytime showers, work events, lunch receptions
- Average (1 drink per hour): most birthdays, holiday parties and weddings
- Lively (1¼ drinks per hour): late-night receptions, milestone birthdays and any party with a shuttle home
Choose your bar style
A full bar covers beer, wine and cocktails. Beer and wine shifts the split to 60% beer and 40% wine. Wine only works well for dinner parties. Custom lets you set your own mix, which is handy if you know your crowd skews toward one drink. Still deciding who pays for what? Here’s the difference between a host bar and an open bar.
Add the extras
Turn on the champagne toast if you’re raising a glass. Choose outdoors or warm weather for summer and backyard events: it adds ice and water and shifts your wine toward white and sparkling. The 10% buffer is cheap insurance for weddings and long parties.
How Much Alcohol Do You Need for a Party?
Every drink calculator starts with the same formula:
Drinking guests × hours the bar is open × drinks per hour = total drinks
For an average crowd, drinks per hour is 1. From there, split the total by what you’re serving. For a full bar, plan on 40% beer, 36% wine and 24% cocktails. Here’s what that looks like for a 4-hour party:
How Much Alcohol Do You Need for a Party?
| Guests | Total drinks | Beer | Wine | Liquor |
| 50 | 200 | 80 (4 cases) | 15 bottles | 3 bottles |
| 75 | 300 | 120 (5 cases) | 22 bottles | 5 bottles |
| 100 | 400 | 160 (7 cases) | 29 bottles | 6 bottles |
| 150 | 600 | 240 (10 cases) | 44 bottles | 9 bottles |
| 200 | 800 | 320 (14 cases) | 58 bottles | 12 bottles |
| 250 | 1,000 | 400 (17 cases) | 72 bottles | 15 bottles |
How Much Beer Should You Buy for an Event?
Beer typically makes up about 40% of all drinks served at a party.
To estimate the number of beers you’ll need:
Total number of drinks × 40% = Number of beers
For example:
1,000 total drinks × 40% = 400 beers
We recommend serving bottled beer, but if you’re planning to serve beer from a keg, make sure you have enough beer to provide approximately 400 servings.
Keg serving guide: A standard keg contains approximately 15.5 gallons, which provides about 165 12-ounce servings.
For 400 beers, you’ll need about 3 standard kegs (495 servings total).
How Much Wine Do You Need for an Event?
Wine typically makes up about 60% of the remaining drinks after you account for beer.
To estimate the number of glasses of wine you’ll need, use this formula:
(Total number of drinks − Number of beers) × 60% = Number of glasses of wine
For example:
(1,000 − 400) × 60% = 360 glasses of wine
How Many Bottles of Wine Do You Need for an Event?
A standard 750 ml bottle of wine typically provides about 6 glasses. However, unless you are very careful with your pours, you may not get a full 6 glasses from every bottle.
For planning purposes, we recommend using 5 glasses per bottle. This gives you a little extra to ensure you don’t run out.
To calculate the number of bottles needed:
Number of glasses needed ÷ 5 = Number of bottles
In our example:
360 glasses ÷ 5 glasses per bottle = 72 bottles of wine
Red, White & Sparkling Wine
Next, decide how many bottles of red, white, and sparkling wine you’ll need. Your split may vary depending on the season and whether your event is indoors or outdoors.
Indoor / Fall / Winter / Spring Events:
Guests generally tend to drink more red wine, so we recommend planning for:
-
50% red
-
25% white
-
25% sparkling
For 72 bottles, that would be:
-
36 bottles of red
-
18 bottles of white
-
18 bottles of sparkling
Outdoor / Summer Events:
For warm-weather outdoor events, you can divide the wine evenly:
-
⅓ red
-
⅓ white
-
⅓ sparkling
For 72 bottles, that would be:
-
24 bottles of red
-
24 bottles of white
-
24 bottles of sparkling
Buying Wine by the Case
When purchasing multiple bottles of wine, buying by the case is usually the easiest and most cost-effective option.
We recommend rounding up to the next full case rather than buying the exact number of bottles you calculate. A few extra bottles help ensure you don’t run out—and you may even have a few left over for hostess gifts or to enjoy while you wind down after the event!
How Much Liquor Do You Need for Mixed Drinks?
Any drinks that are not beer or wine fall into the mixed drink category.
To calculate the number of mixed drinks you’ll need:
Total number of drinks − Beers − Glasses of wine = Number of mixed drinks
Calculating how much liquor and mixers you’ll need is a little trickier because it depends on the specific cocktails you plan to serve.
One of the easiest ways to simplify your planning is to offer one or two signature cocktails. This allows you to calculate exactly how much liquor, juice, soda, and other mixers you’ll need.
How Much Liquor Is in a Cocktail?
The average cocktail typically uses:
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1½ ounces of base liquor, such as vodka, gin, rum, tequila, or whiskey
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¼–½ ounce of accent juice, such as lemon or lime juice
-
4–6 ounces of juice or soda to fill a highball or tall glass
For example, a Mojito typically contains rum, lime juice, and club soda. For planning purposes, you can estimate:
-
1½ ounces rum
-
¼ ounce lime juice
-
4–6 ounces club soda
To determine how many cocktails you can make from a bottle of liquor, first determine how many ounces the bottle contains. Then divide the total ounces by the amount used in each cocktail.
Example:
A 750 ml bottle contains approximately 25 ounces of liquor.
25 ounces ÷ 1½ ounces per cocktail = approximately 16 cocktails
You can use the same process to calculate how much lime juice, soda, or other mixers you’ll need.
How Much Champagne Do You Need?
If you are serving champagne for a champagne toast, plan on approximately 1 bottle for every 8 guests. This should provide about ½ glass per guest for the toast.
For example, if you have 250 guests:
250 guests ÷ 8 guests per bottle = 31.25 bottles
Since you can’t purchase a fraction of a bottle, round up to 32 bottles of champagne.
As with your other beverages, it’s always a good idea to round up slightly to ensure you have enough for everyone.
Plan for Non-Drinkers, Water and Ice
Non-alcoholic drinks
Plan on one non-alcoholic drink per non-drinking guest for every hour of the party. A signature mocktail in a beverage dispenser feels just as festive as the cocktails and saves you from stocking a dozen kinds of soda.
Water
Every guest needs water, especially drinkers. Plan on about four 12 oz glasses per guest, or six in warm weather. For 100 guests, that’s about 38 gallons. Serving tap water from dispensers is easier than handing out bottles and keeps plastic out of the trash.
Ice
Plan on 1 pound of ice per guest for drinks (2 pounds outdoors or in warm weather), plus 1 pound per guest to chill bottles and cans. For 100 guests at an indoor party, that’s 200 pounds, or 20 ten-pound bags. Pick up ice last, or arrange delivery for the day of the party.
How Much Alcohol Do You Need for a Wedding?
Weddings follow the same formula with a few twists. The bar is often open longer, cocktail hour is the busiest stretch of the night, and there’s usually a toast. Here’s a typical reception:
120 guests, a 5-hour bar, about 85% drinking, full bar with a champagne toast
- Total drinks: 510
- Beer: 204 (9 cases)
- Wine: 37 bottles (19 red, 9 white, 9 sparkling)
- Liquor: 8 bottles for 122 cocktails
- Champagne toast: 15 bottles
- Non-alcoholic drinks: 90
- Water and ice: 45 gallons and 24 ten-pound bags
A few wedding-specific tips:
- Enter actual bar hours. If the bar closes during the ceremony or dinner, leave that time out.
- Turn on the 10% buffer. Running dry at a wedding is a lot more memorable than a few extra bottles.
- Check your venue contract first. Many venues require licensed bartenders or limit outside alcohol.
What to Rent to Set Up Your Bar
Once you know what you’re pouring, you need a place to pour it. Use your guest count to plan the setup:
- Bars: about one bar station per 100 guests keeps the line moving
- Glassware: wine glasses, rocks glasses and pint glasses for every drink on the menu. Here’s how many glasses you need and the most popular glassware for events
- Champagne flutes: one per guest for the toast
- Beverage tubs and coolers: to keep beer, white wine and sparkling cold
- Beverage dispensers: for water, lemonade or a signature drink
Reventals makes it easy to find bars, glassware, and serving gear from local vendors and request everything in one place. Browse bar and glassware rentals near you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if I only serve wine? How much wine do I need for 50 guests? 100?
We plan on one drink per guest per hour. For a 4-hour event, that means four glasses of wine per guest. A standard bottle of wine pours about five glasses.
For 50 guests, that comes out to 200 glasses of wine, or 40 bottles. For 100 guests, plan on 400 glasses, or 80 bottles.
What if I only want to serve beer and wine? How much beer and wine do I need for 100 guests?
If you are only serving beer and wine, plan on 60% of your guests drinking beer and 40% drinking wine. For a 4 hour party with 100 guests, you will need 400 servings: 240 beers and 160 glasses of wine.
How much alcohol do you need for 50 guests?
For a 4 hour party with 50 guests, you will need approximately 200 drinks: 80 beers, 72 glasses of wine (15 bottles) and enough for 48 individual cocktails (amounts will depend upon what type of cocktail you serve). If you aren’t serving wine, plan on 120 cocktails.
How much alcohol do you need for 100 guests?
For a 4-hour party with 100 guests, you will need approximately 400 drinks: 160 beers, 144 glasses of wine (29 bottles), and enough liqueur for 96 individual cocktails (amounts will depend upon what type of cocktail you serve). If you aren’t serving wine, plan on 240 cocktails.
How much alcohol do you need for 150 guests?
For a 4-hour party with 150 guests, you will need approximately 600 drinks: 240 beers, 216 glasses of wine (44 bottles), and enough for 144 individual cocktails (amounts will depend upon what type of cocktail you serve). If you aren’t serving wine, plan on 360 cocktails.
How much alcohol do you need for 250 guests?
For a 4 hour party with 250 guests, you will need approximately 1000 drinks: 400 beers, 360 glasses of wine (72 bottles) and enough for 240 individual cocktails (amounts will depend upon what type of cocktail you serve). If you aren’t serving wine, plan on 600 cocktails.
Keep these tips in mind, and use this party drink calculator, you can rest assured that you will have everything you need (drink-wise) for your big event. If you need glasses, tables, chairs, etc. check out reventals.com.
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Other blogs that can help you plan:
2024: What is the Difference Between a Host Bar or an Open Bar?
2024: What Size Party Tent Rental Do I Need?
How Much Event Space Do You Need?
What is the Most Popular Glassware for Events in 2024?
