Sonic does not publish a caffeine number for its cold brew iced coffee. Not for any size, not for either flavor. The chain's official nutrition guide lists calories, fat, sugar and sodium for every cold brew size, but there is no caffeine column anywhere in the document. The only caffeine figure Sonic publishes at all is buried in the fine print, and it is about the Rechargers, not the coffee: "Each Medium SONIC Recharger with Red Bull Contains ~40mg of Caffeine." So if you have seen a site quote an exact milligram count for Sonic cold brew, that number did not come from Sonic.
Why there is no number
Most fast food chains treat caffeine as optional information, and Sonic leans all the way into that. The current nutrition guide covers the Original Cold Brew Iced Coffee and the French Vanilla Cold Brew Iced Coffee in four sizes each, plus a regular 16oz hot coffee, and none of those nine line items carries a caffeine figure. Third party trackers have not filled the gap either. Fastfoodnutrition.org's Sonic cold brew page lists the same calorie numbers as the official guide and nothing on caffeine.
For a rough sense of scale, look at a chain that does publish cold brew numbers. Caffeine Informer's Starbucks cold brew entry, which pulls from the Starbucks menu, lists 155mg for a 12oz tall, 205mg for a 16oz grande, 310mg for a 24oz venti and 360mg for a 30oz trenta. That works out to roughly 13mg per fluid ounce. Cold brew concentrates tend to be strong, which is exactly why baristas get asked about these drinks so often. But Sonic's recipe, dilution and ice fill are its own, so treat the Starbucks figures as context for the drink category, not a stand-in for Sonic's cup. Until Sonic publishes a number, nobody outside the company has one.
What Sonic does publish, size by size
These numbers come from Sonic's official Fall 2025 nutrition guide linked above. Both cold brew flavors come sweetened, and the sugar climbs fast with size.
| Drink | Size | Calories | Sugar | Caffeine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original cold brew iced coffee | Small | 170 | 20g | Not published |
| Original cold brew iced coffee | Medium | 230 | 27g | Not published |
| Original cold brew iced coffee | Large | 360 | 42g | Not published |
| Original cold brew iced coffee | Route 44 | 500 | 58g | Not published |
| French vanilla cold brew iced coffee | Small | 190 | 24g | Not published |
| French vanilla cold brew iced coffee | Medium | 260 | 35g | Not published |
| French vanilla cold brew iced coffee | Large | 410 | 54g | Not published |
| French vanilla cold brew iced coffee | Route 44 | 570 | 75g | Not published |
| Hot coffee, regular | 16oz | 0 | 0g | Not published |
| Recharger with Red Bull | Medium | 220 to 230 | 58g to 59g | ~40mg |
A few things jump out. The black 16oz hot coffee is the only zero calorie coffee on the menu. The Route 44 French vanilla cold brew carries 75g of sugar, which is more sugar than any mini size Sonic Blast ice cream drink in the same guide. And the Recharger row shows the calorie and sugar spread across the three current flavors (Blood Orange, Dragon Fruit and Twisted Lime), since that is the one drink family where Sonic actually states a caffeine figure.
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.
Comparing caffeine? The caffeine comparison tool puts hundreds of drinks side by side, and the caffeine curfew calculator can check your cutoff time for tonight.
Related reading
Some chains are far more forthcoming than Sonic. Chick-fil-A publishes caffeine for every coffee drink on its own support page, which makes for a useful contrast. If you are comparing drive-thru coffee stops, 7 Brew's caffeine numbers cover another fast growing drive-thru chain. And the full caffeine database collects every chain and drink we have verified so far.
FAQ
How much caffeine is in Sonic cold brew? Sonic does not say. The official nutrition guide lists calories and sugar for every cold brew size but includes no caffeine column, and nutrition trackers have no verified figure either. Any exact number you see online for Sonic cold brew is a guess.
What is the only caffeine number Sonic publishes? The fine print of Sonic's nutrition guide states that a medium Recharger with Red Bull contains about 40mg of caffeine. That is the single caffeine figure in the entire document, and it applies to the energy drink slushes, not the coffee.
How much sugar is in Sonic cold brew? Per Sonic's nutrition guide, the Original cold brew runs from 20g of sugar in a small to 58g in a Route 44, and the French vanilla runs from 24g to 75g. There is no unsweetened cold brew listed on the current menu.