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A standard 16oz can of Monster Energy has 160mg of caffeine, per Caffeine Informer. That works out to 10mg per fluid ounce, roughly the strength of one 8oz cup of drip coffee spread across a 16oz can. The catch with Monster is that "a Monster" can mean anything from 60mg to 300mg depending on which can you grabbed, so the full table below is worth a scan before you assume.
The lineup is wider than the label suggests
Monster runs several distinct product families and they do not share a caffeine number. The original green-claw can and most Juice Monster flavors sit at 160mg. The white and pastel Ultra cans are zero sugar and mostly 150mg, though a few Ultra flavors drift up to 155mg or down to 140mg, per Caffeine Informer's Ultra page. Java Monster, the coffee-and-milk line in the shorter 15oz can, jumps to 200mg, and the Java Monster 300 and Killer Brew cans hit 300mg, which is nearly double the original.
One thing behind the counter people get wrong constantly: Reign is not a Monster flavor. It is a separate brand owned by the same parent company, with its own formulation and its own caffeine numbers, so it is not in the table below. If a customer asks you to compare "the Monster ones," Reign cans do not count.
Also worth knowing: the original Monster carries 54g of sugar and 210 calories per can. The Ultra line is the reason it exists as a counterpoint, at 0g sugar and 10 calories with nearly the same caffeine.
Caffeine in Monster by product
All figures below were verified against Caffeine Informer's Monster pages (linked above and below). Where a line has flavor-level variation, the exceptions are listed separately.
| Product | Can size | Caffeine | Sugar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monster Energy (original) | 16 fl oz | 160mg | 54g |
| Monster Zero Sugar | 16 fl oz | 160mg | 0g |
| Monster Lo-Carb | 16 fl oz | 140mg | |
| Mega Monster | 24 fl oz | 240mg | |
| Monster Ultra (Zero Ultra and most flavors) | 16 fl oz | 150mg | 0g |
| Ultra Sunrise, Ultra Black | 16 fl oz | 155mg | 0g |
| Ultra Paradise, Ultra Blue | 16 fl oz | 140mg | 0g |
| Juice Monster (Pipeline Punch, Pacific Punch, most flavors) | 16 fl oz | 160mg | 37g |
| Juice Monster Mango Loco | 16 fl oz | 150mg | |
| Monster Rehab (most flavors) | 15.5 fl oz | 160mg | 4g |
| Monster Rehab Green Tea | 15.5 fl oz | 155mg | |
| Java Monster (Loca Moca, Mean Bean, most flavors) | 15 fl oz | 200mg | 35g |
| Java Monster Cold Brew Latte | 15 fl oz | 210mg | 8g |
| Java Monster 300, Killer Brew | 15 fl oz | 300mg | |
| Monster Nitro | 16 fl oz | 160mg | 51g |
| Monster Dragon Tea | 23 fl oz | 60mg |
Sources: Monster Energy, Monster Ultra, Java Monster, Juice Monster, Monster Rehab, and Monster Nitro at Caffeine Informer. Always check your own can, since Monster reformulates and flavor numbers shift.
If you want to compare labels at home, a Monster variety pack on Amazon is the cheap way to line the cans up side by side.
For context, the FDA cites 400mg of caffeine a day as an amount generally not associated with negative effects in healthy adults. How caffeine affects you depends on your own tolerance and health, so treat these numbers as information, not advice.
Note what that means for the high end of the table: one Java Monster 300 is three quarters of that 400mg figure, and two original Monsters put you at 320mg before you have had any coffee.
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How Monster stacks up against other cans
At 160mg per 16oz, Monster is exactly double a standard Red Bull, which carries 80mg in an 8.46oz can per Caffeine Informer, though the per-ounce concentration of the two is nearly identical. Celsius comes in at 200mg in a 12oz can, so it beats a standard Monster both per can and per ounce, matches a standard Java Monster's 200mg per can, and only trails the 300mg Java Monster 300 line. See our Celsius caffeine guide for the full Celsius line. Against actual coffee, Monster is weaker per ounce than you might guess: brewed coffee averages about 163mg per 8oz cup, roughly 20mg per ounce versus Monster's 10. If your baseline is espresso drinks rather than cans, our Starbucks caffeine guide covers where a grande lands against a 16oz Monster.
Looking for a different drink? The full caffeine database has every chain and can we have verified, including Red Bull.
FAQ
Which Monster has the most caffeine? Java Monster 300 and Java Monster Killer Brew, at 300mg per 15oz can. Among the non-coffee cans, Mega Monster is highest at 240mg, but that is a 24oz can, so per ounce it matches the original.
Is Monster Ultra weaker than regular Monster? Slightly. Most Ultra flavors have 150mg versus 160mg in the original, with Ultra Paradise and Ultra Blue at 140mg and Ultra Sunrise and Ultra Black at 155mg. The bigger difference is sugar: 0g in Ultra versus 54g in the original.
Does Monster have more caffeine than coffee? Per ounce, no. Monster runs about 10mg per fluid ounce, while brewed coffee averages around 163mg per 8oz cup, roughly 20mg per ounce. Per serving, a 16oz Monster at 160mg is close to one average 8oz cup of brewed coffee.