How long you stay drunk depends mostly on how much you drank, but as a general rule, your body lowers your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) by about 0.015 per hour. That means if you’re at the legal driving limit of 0.08, it takes roughly 4 to 5 hours to reach zero. Drink more heavily and you could still be intoxicated well into the next day.
There’s no way to speed this up. Your liver works at a fixed pace, and everything from your body size to your age affects where your BAC peaks and how long the ride back down takes.
Why Your Liver Sets a Fixed Clock
Most substances leave your body faster the more of them are in your system. Alcohol doesn’t work that way. The main enzyme your liver uses to break down alcohol gets overwhelmed quickly, even at low concentrations. Once it’s working at full capacity, it can’t go any faster no matter how much alcohol is waiting in line. This is why your BAC drops at a steady, predictable rate of about 0.015 per hour rather than clearing out in a sudden rush.
Think of it like a single-lane toll booth on a highway. Whether there are 5 cars or 500 cars backed up, they still pass through one at a time. The more you drink, the longer the line, and the longer you wait.
Realistic Timelines by Number of Drinks
A standard drink in the United States contains about 14 grams of pure alcohol. That’s one 12-ounce beer, one 5-ounce glass of wine, or one 1.5-ounce shot of liquor. Each standard drink raises your BAC by roughly 0.02 to 0.03, though this varies by body size.
For a person of average weight, here’s what the math looks like:
- 2 to 3 drinks: You might peak around 0.04 to 0.06 BAC. You’d be back to zero in about 3 to 4 hours after your last drink.
- 4 to 5 drinks: A peak around 0.08 to 0.10 is common. Expect 5 to 7 hours to fully clear.
- 7 or more drinks: BAC can easily reach 0.15 or higher. That’s 10 or more hours before you’re at zero, meaning you could still be legally impaired the morning after.
These timelines start from when you stop drinking, not from when you start. If you drink steadily over several hours, your BAC keeps climbing during that window.
Body Size, Sex, and Age All Matter
Your body composition plays a major role in how high your BAC gets and how drunk you feel. Alcohol dissolves in water, not fat. People with more lean muscle mass and total body water have a larger “tank” to dilute alcohol into, so the same number of drinks produces a lower peak BAC. Men on average carry about 42% more lean body mass than women of similar weight, which is why the same round of drinks typically hits women harder and faster.
Interestingly, when researchers account for these body composition differences, the liver itself processes alcohol at the same rate per unit of liver tissue regardless of sex. The difference in how long you stay drunk isn’t about liver efficiency. It’s about how concentrated the alcohol becomes in your blood in the first place.
Age changes the equation too. As you get older, your total body water decreases and your liver slows its processing. The result is that the same amount of alcohol produces a higher BAC in a 60-year-old than in a 25-year-old, and it takes longer to clear.
Why You Can Still Feel “Off” After Your BAC Hits Zero
Feeling sober and actually being at a BAC of 0.00 aren’t the same thing, and the mismatch works both ways. You might feel fine while your BAC is still elevated, especially if it’s on the way down, because your brain partially adapts to alcohol’s presence over the course of an evening. This is deceptive and a common reason people misjudge their ability to drive.
On the flip side, a hangover can leave you feeling foggy, nauseous, and slow-reacting even hours after all the alcohol has left your bloodstream. Your body is still dealing with the byproducts of alcohol breakdown, dehydration, disrupted sleep, and inflammation. Being at a BAC of zero doesn’t mean your brain and body are performing normally.
Nothing Actually Speeds It Up
Coffee, cold showers, food, water, exercise: none of these change how fast your liver processes alcohol. Coffee might make you feel more alert, but your BAC stays exactly where it was. Eating before or during drinking can slow how quickly alcohol enters your bloodstream, which lowers your peak BAC, but once the alcohol is absorbed, your liver still clears it at the same fixed rate.
The only variable that meaningfully shortens how long you stay drunk is drinking less in the first place.
How Long Alcohol Shows Up on Tests
Even after you feel completely sober, alcohol or its byproducts can still be detected depending on the type of test. A standard breath or blood test picks up alcohol only while it’s actively in your system, which tracks closely with the BAC timelines above. Urine testing has a wider window. A metabolite called EtG can show up in urine for up to 48 hours after a few drinks, and 72 hours or longer after heavier drinking. This is relevant if you’re subject to workplace or legal testing, where the detection window extends well beyond the point where you feel normal again.