Does Pepsi have caffeine?

How much caffeine is in a can of Pepsi?

38 mg in a 12 fl oz can. That is PepsiCo’s figure, from the caffeine table on its US product facts site, which lists every Pepsi by package. Most of the family sits on exactly that number: cherry, vanilla, real sugar, prebiotic, with sugar or without. In a 12 fl oz serving, three drinks step off it, Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Mango and the Freeze, and all three step down.

Pepsi Mango is the odd one: the only sugared Pepsi below 38 mg in a 12 fl oz can. Diet Pepsi from the fountain is one milligram under the 12 fl oz package. PepsiCo explains neither, so neither do we. It does say why caffeine is in a cola at all.

PepsiCo says caffeine, either naturally occurring or man-made, is added to some beverages for a slightly bitter taste that enhances some flavors and balances the sweetness of others. 237

A label is a claim. Has anyone checked it? Once, at least: a 2007 lab study measured Pepsi and Diet Pepsi by name.

A 2007 study in the Journal of Food Science measured caffeine by HPLC in 56 national-brand and 75 store-brand carbonated drinks. Its abstract, which is all we have read, gives per 12 oz: Coca-Cola 33.9 mg, Diet Coke 46.3 mg, Pepsi 38.9 mg, Diet Pepsi 36.7 mg, Dr Pepper 42.6 mg, Diet Dr Pepper 44.1 mg, Mountain Dew 54.8 mg and Diet Mountain Dew 55.2 mg. The abstract gives no figure for Coca-Cola Zero Sugar and no sampling dates. 143

The lab found 38.9 mg in Pepsi against PepsiCo’s 38 mg, and 36.7 mg in Diet Pepsi against 35 mg. Close, and Diet Pepsi measured a little above its label. The abstract gives no sampling dates and predates Pepsi Zero Sugar’s new formula, so for Zero Sugar the label is all we found.

Does Pepsi Zero Sugar have more caffeine than regular Pepsi?

Not in the US, not any more. PepsiCo’s table gives Pepsi Zero Sugar 38 mg a can, exactly what it gives Pepsi, and the match holds in every size PepsiCo lists for both. Older pages, and some current ones, still print a different figure for Zero Sugar. PepsiCo does not list that figure today, and we found no PepsiCo page that does, so we do not print it.

PepsiCo announced a new formula of Pepsi Zero Sugar for the US on January 13, 2023. Its press release describes a new sweetener system and does not mention caffeine. Food Dive, a trade publication, reported on January 17, 2023 that the company said it had made the caffeine level the same as regular Pepsi and removed the ginseng. PepsiCo’s US caffeine table, read on November 12, 2026, gives Pepsi Zero Sugar the same figure as Pepsi in every package size it lists for both. 508509237

Read that carefully. PepsiCo’s own release talks about sweeteners and taste. The line about caffeine comes from a trade publication’s account of what the company said, not from a page of PepsiCo’s. What PepsiCo does publish is the result: the same number for both drinks, size by size.

Pepsi Zero Sugar now matches Pepsi. Parts of the internet are still drinking the old can

Is it the same drink everywhere? No. In Canada, Pepsi Zero Sugar still lists Panax ginseng root extract among its ingredients, and the page prints no caffeine figure. More on the countries that stay quiet below.

How much caffeine is in a 20 oz Pepsi, or a 2-liter?

A 20 fl oz bottle is 63 mg. A 16.9 fl oz bottle is 53 mg, and the 7.5 fl oz mini can is 24 mg. Every size is the same drink: by our arithmetic it works out at 3.2 mg per fl oz for the can and 3.1 mg per fl oz for the 16 fl oz bottle, so the number just follows the liquid.

For the 2-liter PepsiCo stops at 38 mg per 12 fl oz serving and prints nothing for the bottle. People do not drink a 2-liter in servings, so here is the sum, marked as ours.

Our arithmetic, not PepsiCo’s: PepsiCo states 38 mg of caffeine per 12 fl oz serving of a 67 fl oz (2-liter) bottle of Pepsi and of Pepsi Zero Sugar, and prints no figure for the whole bottle. At that strength the whole bottle holds about 212 mg. 237

Then there is Nitro. Nitro Pepsi Draft Cola is 77 mg in a 16 fl oz can, and Nitro Pepsi Vanilla is the same 77 mg in 13.65 fl oz. That is about 4.8 mg per fl oz for the plain Nitro by our arithmetic, against 3.2 mg per fl oz for Pepsi: a stronger drink, not just a bigger one. It is the highest per-package figure of any Pepsi in the table.

Nitro Pepsi pours slowly, which is a strange way to deliver the strongest Pepsi on the list

The table also lists 24 fl oz and 33.8 fl oz sizes marked as one can at the 12 fl oz figure. PepsiCo’s own product pages contradict the same quirk for Mountain Dew, so we left those rows out rather than guess. SodaStream syrups are out too: their figure is stated per spoonful of syrup, and it is not clear what that means in the glass.

Does Diet Pepsi have caffeine, and is there a caffeine-free Pepsi?

Diet Pepsi does, a little less than Pepsi: 35 mg in 12 fl oz, 59 mg in 20 fl oz. Diet Pepsi Wild Cherry is back up at 38 mg. The versions with none say so in the name.

PepsiCo’s US product facts site lists Pepsi Caffeine Free at 0 mg of caffeine for a 16.9 fl oz bottle, in 12, 16, 16.9 and 67 fl oz sizes, and Diet Pepsi Caffeine Free at 0 mg for a 20 fl oz bottle, in sizes from 12 to 67 fl oz and at the fountain. 506507

The words Caffeine Free are on the can. A Pepsi or a Diet Pepsi without them has the caffeine. We found no caffeine-free Pepsi Zero Sugar on PepsiCo’s US product facts site. For other sodas with none, from root beer to ginger ale, see sodas without caffeine.

How much caffeine is in Pepsi Max?

PepsiCo will not tell you. Pepsi Max is PepsiCo’s sugar-free cola in the UK and Australia, and PepsiCo’s sites there say it contains caffeine and stop.

PepsiCo’s UK, Australian and Canadian sites list or say that their colas contain caffeine but print no milligram figure. The UK FAQ answers “How much caffeine does Pepsi contain?” with “The Pepsi range contain low levels of caffeine”, and the UK Pepsi Max nutrition panel has no caffeine line. The Australian FAQ says “Pepsi MAX does contain low levels of caffeine.” Canada’s Pepsi Zero Sugar page lists caffeine and Panax ginseng root extract among the ingredients, with no caffeine line in the panel. 510511512513

The figures you will find for UK Pepsi Max come from compilers and shops, not from PepsiCo or a regulator, so we do not print one. The US figure belongs to the US drink; a Pepsi Max is not a Pepsi Zero Sugar with a different label until somebody who makes it says so.

Australia does put a ceiling on it, which is more than the label does.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand says that in cola-type drinks the total caffeine content must not exceed 145 mg/kg in the drink as consumed, and that foods containing added caffeine must state on the label that they contain caffeine. 360

PepsiCo prints no Australian figure, so we cannot say how close a can of Pepsi Max comes to that cap. If you are holding one, the label says it has caffeine. That is all PepsiCo has published.

Does Pepsi have more caffeine than Coke, or coffee?

More than Coke, much less than coffee. A can of Pepsi is 38 mg; a can of Coca-Cola is 34 mg, and so is Coke Zero.

Our arithmetic from the makers’ figures: a 12 fl oz can of Pepsi (38 mg) has 4 mg more caffeine than a can of Coca-Cola (34 mg), about 12% more. Per fluid ounce that is about 3.2 mg against 2.8 mg. 72237

Pepsi beats Coke on caffeine by a margin I could not feel if you paid me

The diet versions swap places. Diet Coke is the strongest cola in the table and Diet Pepsi the weakest of the three Pepsi colas. If caffeine is what you are managing, the brand on the can tells you less than the word in front of it.

Against coffee, a can is small. A 200 ml filter coffee is about 80 mg, a single espresso 63.6 mg. A 16 fl oz Pepsi is 50 mg; a Starbucks US grande brewed coffee, the same amount of liquid, states 315 mg to 390 mg. The rest are on the drinks page.

Is there a legal limit on caffeine in Pepsi? In the US there is a rule for colas, and it is vague.

US regulation 21 CFR 182.1180 lists caffeine as generally recognized as safe when used in cola-type beverages in accordance with good manufacturing practice, with a tolerance of 0.02 percent. The rule states no milligram figure and no serving size, and does not say whether the percentage is by weight or by volume. 142

Our arithmetic, not the rule’s: read as about 200 mg per liter, as this site reads it, the 0.02 percent tolerance in 21 CFR 182.1180 comes to about 71 mg in 12 fl oz. A can of Pepsi (38 mg) is about 54% of that. Nitro Pepsi, 77 mg in 16 fl oz, works out to about 57.8 mg per 12 fl oz, about 81%. 1427237

So on our reading, and it is only ours, a can of Pepsi uses about half of what that rule allows a cola, and Nitro most of it. The EU has no cap but a label rule, and the same arithmetic puts both Nitro Pepsi cans over its line.

In the European Union a drink with more than 150 mg of caffeine per liter, other than a coffee or tea named as such, must carry the words “High caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women” next to its name, with the caffeine per 100 ml. It is a label rule, not a cap. 212

Our arithmetic: a 12 fl oz (355 ml) can of Pepsi at 38 mg is about 107 mg of caffeine per liter. A 16 fl oz (473 ml) can of Nitro Pepsi at 77 mg is about 163 mg per liter, and 13.65 fl oz (404 ml) of Nitro Pepsi Vanilla at 77 mg about 191 mg per liter. 2377

Pepsi, at about 107 mg/L, is well under the EU’s 150 mg/L. Nitro Pepsi, at about 163 mg/L, and Nitro Pepsi Vanilla, at about 191 mg/L, are over it. Both are sold in the US, where that rule does not apply, and we make no claim about how it would be labeled anywhere else.

How many Pepsis a day is too much caffeine?

EFSA concludes that caffeine intakes up to 400 mg a day from all sources, spread through the day, do not raise safety concerns for healthy adults, except pregnant women. FDA cites 400 mg a day for most adults as an amount not generally associated with negative effects, and notes wide variation in how sensitive people are to caffeine and how fast they eliminate it. 225

Our arithmetic against the 400 mg a day that EFSA and FDA cite for healthy adults who are not pregnant: about 10.5 cans of Pepsi or Pepsi Zero Sugar (38 mg), 6.3 bottles of 20 fl oz (63 mg) or 5.2 cans of Nitro Pepsi (77 mg), counting no other caffeine. 225237

The guideline is a lot of Pepsi away. I have met people who took that as a challenge

That is a lot of soda before the caffeine is the problem. The better question is when. Caffeine’s half-life in healthy adults averages 4 hours and runs from 2 hours to 8 hours, so the bottle with dinner is still around at midnight. How long caffeine stays in your system has the arithmetic, and the method page shows how the instrument draws it.

A single 100 mg dose of caffeine, about 1.4 mg/kg body weight for a 70 kg adult, may increase the time it takes to fall asleep and reduce sleep duration in some adults, particularly when taken close to bedtime. 2223

A 20 fl oz bottle at 63 mg is most of that dose on its own; add one can and you are past it.