Caffeine Count — McDonald's Iced Coffee
Super low cost when compared to your local café — but is the amount of caffeine in a McDonald's iced coffee large or small?
McDonald's doesn't publish caffeine numbers for their iced coffee, so the figures below are our estimates based on each size.
By size — caffeine in McDonald's iced coffee
- Small (8 fl oz) — 94mg caffeine, 140 calories
- Medium (11.5 fl oz) — 133mg caffeine, 180 calories
- Large (17 fl oz) — 200mg caffeine, 260 calories
For reference, a single shot of espresso is about 63mg. So a medium McDonald's iced coffee carries roughly two shots' worth of caffeine.
How it compares to other chains
Starbucks iced coffee:
- Tall (12 fl oz) — 120mg caffeine, 60 calories
- Grande (16 fl oz) — 165mg caffeine, 80 calories
- Venti (24 fl oz) — 235mg caffeine, 120 calories
- Trenta (30 fl oz) — 280mg caffeine, 160 calories
Dunkin' iced coffee:
- Small (16 fl oz) — 234mg caffeine
- Medium (24 fl oz) — 357mg caffeine
- Large (32 fl oz) — 469mg caffeine
Dunkin' is the outlier here by a wide margin — a large Dunkin' iced coffee carries more than twice the caffeine of a large McDonald's, and more than seven shots of espresso. We broke those numbers down in how much caffeine is in Dunkin' iced coffee.
Worth knowing: chain iced coffee is brewed at a much higher ratio than what you'd make at home, which is why the numbers climb so fast with size. It isn't stronger coffee — it's more of it.
Related reading
- How many ounces is a shot of espresso?
- How much caffeine is in a Starbucks Frappuccino?
- How much caffeine is in a shot of espresso?
If you'd rather know exactly what's in your cup, our freshly roasted coffee starts at $6 a bag — and a shot you pull yourself costs a fraction of the drive-through.
