How much caffeine does it take to get addicted

If you’re like many people, your morning feels incomplete if it doesn’t include a nice, warm cup of coffee. About 89% of American adults consume caffeine daily. Worldwide, about 1.6 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day. Some might argue that most of us are at least a little addicted to caffeine. So how can you know if your daily intake is too high? 

Caffeine has been shown to help boost energy, concentration, and even physical performance. And lifelong caffeine consumption has been associated with reduced risk of developing stroke, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer's, as well as cognitive decline. 

On the flip side, caffeine has also been linked in some people with anxiety, insomnia, and gastric reflux disease, as well as urinary issues. In high doses, it may mimic other drugs of abuse and lead to withdrawal symptoms when you try to quit. 

Here’s a guide to the latest research on caffeine use, the potential for toxicity or dependence, and how to keep your caffeine intake in the healthy range.

Why trust us

Dr. Karen Hovav is a practicing pediatrician who has a passion for translating the latest research on medical topics into helpful guidance for families. In a world of information overload, Dr. Hovav wants to empower people to feel confident navigating their health concerns and making educated, stress-free decisions. Despite the fact that she never manages to finish her morning coffee, she appreciates the boost in cognitive performance and energy that can come with a good latte. 

To provide the most comprehensive guide on caffeine, Dr. Hovav conducted an extensive literature search to review the latest studies on caffeine and consulted with leading expert organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Psychological Association (APA), as well as publications like the Journal on Caffeine Research.

How addictive is caffeine?

While caffeine isn’t typically thought of as a substance of abuse, there is an emerging understanding that caffeine can cause many of the same neurochemical changes of other substances of abuse. Many of the well-known substances of abuse, such as cocaine and methamphetamines, activate reward centers in our brain and release dopamine, which is the ultimate feel-good chemical. Dopamine creates a powerful, pleasant sensation that motivates us to repeat whatever actions lead to the release of more dopamine.

It turns out that caffeine also leads to increased release of dopamine in the brain, though it’s a weaker link than with other drugs. This explains why caffeine can lead to addiction for some people but is not as addictive as other typical drugs of abuse. You might experience headaches and fatigue if you try to quit, but chances are higher that you’d be successful if you want to stop. 

Still, it’s worth noting that caffeine can be a tough habit to break. One study of high school and college students, drug treatment patients, and pain clinic patients found that 23% of those surveyed had a desire to cut down or control their use of caffeine. Also, 26% experienced withdrawal symptoms when they tried to cut down.

If you’re addicted to caffeine, does it count as a substance use disorder?

This depends on who you ask. In the past decade, more studies have found evidence that regular caffeine ingestion can lead to several of the same components as other drugs of abuse. These components include:

• Tolerance: This is a state in which you need more and more caffeine in order to feel the same effect.

• Withdrawal symptoms: These are the physical and mental effects that you may experience when you stop taking a substance.

• Toxicity: This means that in large amounts, a drug can cause severe health problems, even death. 

In 2012, the Worth Health Organization (WHO) officially identified caffeine as a potential drug of abuse. Since then, multiple studies have shown that caffeine addiction does exist and can lead to poor health outcomes. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5 (DSM-5), the handbook that many mental health experts use to diagnose mental health disorders, stopped short of including caffeine use disorder as an official substance use disorder. But it did identify caffeine use disorder as a condition for further study.

In the proposed criteria, caffeine use disorder would be diagnosed if you have all three of the characteristics below:

• You want to cut down or control your caffeine use, or you’ve tried and failed to limit your use in the past. 

• You keep using caffeine, even though you know it’s causing you to have physical or psychological problems.

• You have withdrawal symptoms when you try to quit caffeine or cut back, or you need to use more caffeine to make those symptoms go away.

What are the health risks of drinking too much caffeine?

When taken in large amounts, caffeine intake has been associated with a wide variety of health problems, such as: 

In rare cases, taking in toxic amounts of caffeine (typically from sources such as powders or supplements) can lead to severe symptoms such as seizures, heart attacks, and even death.

What are the symptoms of caffeine toxicity?

One way to see if your level of caffeine is too much is to monitor your symptoms. If you consume caffeine daily and find yourself struggling with any of the following symptoms, you might be experiencing caffeine toxicity:

• Dizziness 

• Anxiety

• Tremor

• Fast heartbeat

• Sweating

• Irritable mood

• Frequent urination or inability to hold urine

• Upset stomach

Do you get withdrawals from quitting caffeine?

If you ingest caffeine regularly and your body has become used to it, you can get withdrawal symptoms when you stop. If you find that skipping your morning coffee gives you a headache by midday, it may be a sign that your body is addicted to caffeine and you are going through withdrawal symptoms. 

While headache is the most common symptom of caffeine withdrawal, there are many others. As noted above, the DSM-5 hasn’t identified caffeine use disorder as an official diagnosis (though it is a condition for further study). But when it comes to caffeine withdrawal, the research is clearer and there’s a broad consensus that it is a diagnosable disorder. The latest version of the DSM officially recognized caffeine withdrawal as a disorder. 

Caffeine withdrawal is a disorder that can develop after you have consumed caffeine daily for a long period of time. If you stop taking caffeine and you have three or more of the following withdrawal symptoms within 24 hours of stopping, then you are experiencing withdrawal: 

• Headache

• Fatigue or drowsiness

• Irritability or moodiness

• Difficulty concentrating

• Flu-like symptoms, such as muscle aches, vomiting, or achiness

• Anxiety or depression

The good news is that for most of us, symptoms of caffeine withdrawal are temporary and will go away on their own. Symptoms of withdrawal usually start within 12 hours of quitting caffeine, peak around 36 hours afterward, and can last for about a week. So if you’re trying to kick your caffeine habit, you can rest assured that after a week your body will no longer feel any dependence on caffeine.

What’s a healthy amount of caffeine to consume each day?

A recent article reviewed the findings of 95 different studies on caffeine and concluded that you should limit your consumption of caffeine to 400 mg per day. That’s about the amount of caffeine in 4 to 5 cups of coffee, 8 to 10 cans of soda, or 2 energy drinks. 

Keep in mind that some supplements have very high levels of caffeine. Also, some pre-workout powders can equal many cups of caffeine in one serving. One particularly dangerous trend lately has been the “dry-scoop” challenge on TikTok, in which people consume several scoops of pre-workout protein powder — without water — which contains very high amounts of caffeine. 

For children under age 12, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends avoiding caffeine entirely. Even for older adolescents, the AAP recommends avoiding energy drinks. 

Which products should you avoid if you’re trying to cut caffeine? 

Of course the most obvious source of caffeine is in our coffee. But many people don’t think about all the other sources of caffeine we might take in. Everything adds up. The following are the most common sources of caffeine in our diet, with their typical serving size and caffeine amounts:

SourceSizeCaffeine amountCoffee8 oz cup40 mg to 180 mgTea (black and green)8 oz cup10 mg to 100 mgSoda12 oz can/bottle0 mg to 70 mgDark chocolate2 oz40 mg to 70 mgMilk chocolate2 oz3 mg to 20 mgEnergy drinks1 can6 mg to 240 mgCertain medications (like Excedrin)Dosing varies30 mg to 100 mgDietary supplements1 serving0 mg to 310 mg

If you’re worried about your caffeine consumption, a good first step is to start tracking how much you consume in a day. Here’s a helpful caffeine chart that can show you how much caffeine is in commonly consumed beverages. If you’re trying to cut down your caffeine intake, you could drink instant coffee instead of brewed coffee. Or try switching to teas to further reduce.

Does excess caffeine negatively affect your mental health?

At low or moderate doses, caffeine has been shown to have potential positive effects on your mental health. These effects include improved concentration, improved mood, and better cognitive function. However, high dose caffeine intake can be associated with worsening mental health. This mostly leads to anxiety and insomnia. In rare cases, though, high caffeine intake — more than 400 mg, or 4 to 5 cups of coffee a day — has been reported to cause manic or psychotic symptoms.

Since poor sleep can lead to worsening mental health overall, one of the most common ways that caffeine can affect your mental health is by decreasing your ability to sleep. For this reason, it’s generally best to drink coffee early in the day rather than in the afternoon or evening.

Keep in mind

Much of the research on the effects of caffeine has focused on healthy adults. There is a lot that we don’t know about vulnerable populations. This is especially true for children, pregnant women and fetuses, and those with other substance use disorders. 

High caffeine intake during pregnancy has been associated with increased miscarriages, smaller birth size, and even birth defects in animal studies (though no conclusive studies on humans have shown that link). However, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology notes that moderate caffeine consumption (less than 200 mg per day) has not been associated with problems such as miscarriages or birth defects. Since there is still ongoing research into potential links, the American Pregnancy Association recommends limiting caffeine intake during pregnancy as much as possible. 

More research is also needed to fill in gaps of knowledge about caffeine’s effects on children. The literature suggests that low-moderate levels of caffeine are likely safe but that higher doses can cause harm, especially in children with cardiac or psychiatric disorders. Another ongoing area of research is looking at links between caffeine use and starting to use other substances such as cigarettes or drugs, especially in adolescents. 

It is possible that there is a small subset of people who are especially sensitive to caffeine, perhaps related to genetic causes. For those people, even lower doses of caffeine may trigger more intense adverse reactions.

More information and resources

If you or someone you know struggles with substance use, help is available. Call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) to learn about resources in your area.

References

starBest study we found: Meredith, S., et al. (2013). Caffeine use disorder: A comprehensive review and research agenda. Journal of Caffeine Research.

Alberta Government and Alberta Health Services. (2019). Caffeine. MyHealth.Alberta.Ca 

GoodRx Health has strict sourcing policies and relies on primary sources such as medical organizations, governmental agencies, academic institutions, and peer-reviewed scientific journals. Learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate, thorough, and unbiased by reading our editorial guidelines.

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