Free Alcohol Use Test

What your AUDIT score means

The AUDIT has ten questions. The first three ask how much and how often you drink. The next three ask about signs of dependence — not being able to stop once you start, drinking getting in the way of obligations, needing alcohol in the morning. The last four ask what drinking has cost you: guilt, blackouts, injury, and other people’s concern.

Each item scores 0 to 4, except the last two, which score 0, 2, or 4. Totals run from 0 to 40.

The World Health Organization notes that a score of 8 or more indicates hazardous and harmful drinking, and that a lower cut-off of 7 may be more appropriate for women and for adults over 65, who reach the same blood alcohol level on less. If you scored a 6 or 7 and something about your drinking has been bothering you anyway, that instinct is worth more than the number.

If you scored 8–15 and would rather cut back than quit, read can you moderate your drinking?

A screening tool is not a diagnosis

The AUDIT was built to identify people whose drinking is risky, in settings like primary care where nobody has an hour to spend on it. It is very good at that. It was not built to diagnose anyone.

Alcohol Use Disorder is a clinical diagnosis with eleven specific criteria in the DSM-5, and it is graded mild, moderate, or severe by how many apply. Making that call requires an actual clinical assessment — a conversation about your history, your circumstances, your health, and what else is going on in your life. A number on a webpage can’t do that, and no number here should be read as “you have Alcohol Use Disorder.”

What the number can do is give you something concrete to bring to that conversation.

What counts as one drink

People routinely under-report their drinking by accident, because a “glass of wine” at home is often two standard drinks and a strong IPA can be closer to two than one. In the United States, one standard drink contains about 14 grams of pure alcohol, which is:

• 12 oz of regular beer, around 5% alcohol
• 5 oz of table wine, around 12% alcohol
• 1.5 oz of distilled spirits, around 40% alcohol — one shot

A 16 oz pour of an 8% beer is closer to two and a half standard drinks. A generous pour of wine is closer to two. A double is two. It is worth doing that arithmetic honestly before you answer the first two questions, because everything else on the AUDIT is read against them.

When is it worth talking to someone?

You don’t have to wait until you’ve lost a job or a marriage, and you don’t have to call yourself an alcoholic first. Consider reaching out if you notice yourself:

• Drinking more, or for longer, than you intended — repeatedly
• Setting rules about your drinking and then negotiating with them
• Needing more than you used to for the same effect
• Thinking about the first drink well before it’s time for it
• Losing pieces of the night, or whole nights
• Drinking to steady yourself, sleep, or take the edge off anxiety
• Feeling shaky, sweaty, nauseated, or badly anxious the morning after
• Being vague with a partner or a doctor about how much you actually drink
• Having someone tell you they’re worried, and finding a reason it doesn’t apply
• Managing consequences — missed mornings, arguments, a DUI — and drinking anyway

The number of drinks is a poor measure on its own. Two glasses of wine that you cannot skip is a more meaningful signal than six that you can. The better question is how much room alcohol is currently taking up — in your day, your health, and your honesty with the people close to you.

Tolerance is not the same as handling it well

One of the most common things I hear is a version of “it doesn’t really affect me.” Usually that’s offered as evidence that drinking isn’t a problem.

Clinically it points the other direction. Needing more alcohol to reach the same effect is tolerance, and tolerance is one of the DSM-5 criteria for Alcohol Use Disorder rather than a defense against it. The body has adapted. The reason four drinks no longer feel like much is that your nervous system has recalibrated around them.

Being able to drink a lot without appearing drunk is a sign of how much alcohol your body has gotten used to, not a sign that it isn’t doing anything.

The same adaptation is why cutting back suddenly can feel so bad, and in some cases be genuinely dangerous — which is worth knowing before you decide to white-knuckle a dry month.

Please don’t quit heavy drinking cold turkey on your own

This is the one piece of medical caution on this page, and it matters more than anything else here.

If you drink heavily or daily, stopping abruptly without medical guidance can be dangerous. Alcohol withdrawal is one of the few withdrawals that can be life-threatening. Symptoms usually start within about eight hours of the last drink, though they can begin days later: tremor, sweating, a racing heart, nausea, agitation, trouble sleeping. In a smaller number of cases it progresses to seizures or to delirium tremens, which is a medical emergency.

None of that is a reason to keep drinking. It is a reason to talk to a doctor first. A physician can tell you within one appointment whether you can taper safely at home or need medically supervised withdrawal (what most people call detox), and if medication would make it easier. Many people are surprised by how ordinary that conversation is.

If you are already experiencing withdrawal symptoms — shaking, sweating, a racing heart, vomiting, confusion, or a seizure — seek medical care right away.

How alcohol therapy actually works

I’m Chris Beerman, MSW, LCSW, CADC. I provide specialized therapy for adults struggling with alcohol, in person in Logan Square and online throughout Illinois and Minnesota.

Treatment isn’t being told to stop. You already know you could stop; that’s usually not the part that’s stuck.

We work on what alcohol is doing for you — what it’s regulating, what it’s protecting you from feeling, which situations reliably lead to the first drink, and what makes the second one feel automatic. And we work out what you actually want, which is not always abstinence. Some people want to stop entirely. Others want to find out whether moderation is realistic for them, which is a legitimate question with a real answer.

Start with a free 15-minute consultation. You don’t need to have it figured out first, and you don’t need to have decided to quit.

About the AUDIT

The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test is a ten-item screening instrument developed by the World Health Organization to identify hazardous and harmful patterns of alcohol consumption. As a WHO-approved instrument, the AUDIT is in the public domain.

All ten items and response options on this page are the official WHO wording. Notes explaining what counts as one standard drink use the US definition of 14 grams of pure alcohol and do not change any item or any score. This assessment is provided free of charge.

Babor, T. F., Higgins-Biddle, J. C., Saunders, J. B., & Monteiro, M. G. (2001). AUDIT: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test — Guidelines for Use in Primary Care (2nd ed.). Geneva: World Health Organization.

This self-assessment is provided for educational and screening purposes only. It does not constitute a diagnosis, medical advice, or a therapist-client relationship. Nothing here should be used to decide on your own whether it is safe to stop drinking — that is a question for a physician. If you are in crisis, contact 988 or your local emergency services.

Reviewed by Chris Beerman, MSW, LCSW, CADC · September 2026.