A grande (16 fl oz) Starbucks Cold Brew has about 205 mg of caffeine. A tall has 155 mg, a venti 310 mg, and a trenta 360 mg (Starbucks).
I checked Starbucks' US menu pages on November 2, 2026. A grande Cold Brew has more caffeine than a grande Iced Coffee (185 mg) and less than a grande hot Pike Place Roast (315 mg).
Cold brew next to nitro and iced coffee
| Drink | Tall 12 fl oz | Grande 16 fl oz | Venti 24 fl oz | Trenta 30 fl oz | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cold Brew | 155 mg | 205 mg | 310 mg | 360 mg | Starbucks |
| Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew | 145 mg | 185 mg | 275 mg | 315 mg | Starbucks |
| Nitro Cold Brew | 215 mg | 280 mg | not sold | not sold | Starbucks |
| Iced Coffee | 135 mg | 185 mg | 265 mg | 320 mg | Starbucks |
Starbucks lists each value as approximate and based on its standard recipe. Extra shots or other changes to the drink change the amount.
A grande Nitro Cold Brew has 280 mg, 75 mg more than a grande Cold Brew. A grande Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew lists 185 mg, 20 mg less than plain Cold Brew, and the same as a grande Iced Coffee.
A venti is 24 fl oz, not 20, so a venti Cold Brew has 310 mg, about 1.5 times a grande. A grande hot Pike Place Roast has 315 mg (Starbucks), about 110 mg more than a grande Cold Brew.
Per fluid ounce, Cold Brew works out to about 12.9 mg in a tall, grande, or venti, and 12.0 mg in a trenta. Nitro is about 17.5 mg per ounce in a grande. Hot Pike Place is about 19.7 mg.
Two venti Cold Brews are 620 mg. The FDA cites 400 mg a day for most healthy adults, and says people differ.
What's left at bedtime
These numbers use the same model as the Onset caffeine calculator: caffeine drops by half every five hours, and anything under 5 mg counts as cleared.
mg left = mg in the drink x 0.5 ^ (hours since you finished it / 5)
I ran one drink at a time, with a 10 pm bedtime. Values are rounded to the nearest mg.
| Drink | Caffeine | Finished noon | 2 pm | 4 pm | 6 pm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cold Brew, tall | 155 mg | 39 | 51 | 67 | 89 |
| Iced Coffee, grande | 185 mg | 46 | 61 | 81 | 106 |
| Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew, grande | 185 mg | 46 | 61 | 81 | 106 |
| Cold Brew, grande | 205 mg | 51 | 68 | 89 | 118 |
| Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew, venti | 275 mg | 69 | 91 | 120 | 158 |
| Nitro Cold Brew, grande | 280 mg | 70 | 92 | 122 | 161 |
| Cold Brew, venti | 310 mg | 78 | 102 | 135 | 178 |
| Pike Place Roast (hot), grande | 315 mg | 79 | 104 | 137 | 181 |
| Cold Brew, trenta | 360 mg | 90 | 119 | 157 | 207 |
A grande Cold Brew finished at 2 pm leaves about 68 mg at 10 pm. A trenta finished at noon leaves about 90 mg, a bit more than a grande finished at 4 pm (89 mg). A tall finished at 6 pm leaves 89 mg at 10 pm, more than a grande finished at 2 pm (68 mg).
If you go to bed at 11, the same 2 pm grande is down to about 59 mg.
A trenta is often sipped over hours. The table counts the time you finish it. If you sip it all afternoon, more of it went in later, so more of it is likely still there at bedtime.
Onset treats a drink as cleared once it drops under 5 mg. For a grande Cold Brew that takes about 26.8 hours, so one finished at 2 pm is still around until about 4:45 pm the next day. A trenta takes about 30.8 hours. If you have one every day, each new cup starts on top of what's left from the last.
Five hours is an adult average. The FDA-approved label for caffeine citrate gives an adult half-life of about 5 hours, and the FDA says sensitivity varies with weight, medications, and health. If that 2 pm grande ran on a 7-hour half-life instead, about 93 mg would be left at 10 pm, not 68. The 7-hour figure is an example for comparison, not a measured rate for any group.
What studies found
I didn't find a study that tested Starbucks cold brew itself. These three used caffeine doses close to one cup.
Gardiner et al. 2023 pooled 24 studies. Its model put the cutoff at 8.8 hours before bed for a 107 mg coffee and 13.2 hours for a 217.5 mg serve of pre-workout, to avoid a reduction in total sleep time (Sleep Med Rev 2023). A grande Cold Brew (205 mg) is closer to the pre-workout dose.
A 2025 randomized crossover trial in SLEEP gave 23 men 100 mg or 400 mg at 12, 8, or 4 hours before bed. 100 mg had no significant effect at those times. 400 mg delayed sleep onset and changed sleep stages when taken within 12 hours of bed (SLEEP, zsae230). A venti plus a tall Cold Brew is 465 mg. The trial did not test 200 mg.
Drake et al. 2013 gave 12 adults 400 mg at bedtime, 3 hours before, or 6 hours before. Even at 6 hours, measured sleep was more than 1 hour shorter than on placebo (J Clin Sleep Med, PMC3805807).
Those studies used fixed doses at fixed times. The tables estimate how much is left. They aren't a cutoff. For timing across more drinks, see how many hours before bed to stop caffeine. For energy drinks, see how much caffeine is in Celsius. For how I checked Onset's other Starbucks numbers, see the Starbucks caffeine audit.
If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or take medication, ask your doctor what applies to you.
The caffeine calculator can add a morning latte to the cold brew and show the day hour by hour. It lists Cold Brew (grande, 205 mg) and Nitro Cold Brew (grande, 280 mg) with Starbucks as the source. Onset is free on the App Store and uses the same model.
This post is for general information and is not medical advice. Estimates use a 5-hour half-life, and your own response varies.
Sources
- Starbucks, Cold Brew (Tall 12 fl oz 155 mg, Grande 16 fl oz 205 mg, Venti 24 fl oz 310 mg, Trenta 30 fl oz 360 mg; 'Caffeine is an approximate value'; each size read from Starbucks' US menu data, checked 2026-11-02)
- Starbucks, Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew (Tall 145, Grande 185, Venti 275, Trenta 315 mg; checked 2026-11-02)
- Starbucks, Nitro Cold Brew (Tall 12 fl oz 215 mg, Grande 16 fl oz 280 mg; no Venti or Trenta listed; checked 2026-11-02)
- Starbucks, Iced Coffee (Tall 135, Grande 185, Venti 265, Trenta 320 mg; checked 2026-11-02)
- Starbucks, Pike Place Roast, hot (Short 155, Tall 235, Grande 315, Venti 20 fl oz 390 mg; checked 2026-11-02)
- FDA, Spilling the Beans: How Much Caffeine is Too Much? (400 mg a day for most adults; 'too much' varies)
- FDA-approved CAFCIT label (2020), adult caffeine half-life about 5 hours
- Gardiner et al. 2023, Sleep Medicine Reviews 69:101764 (meta-analysis; 8.8 h for 107 mg coffee, 13.2 h for 217.5 mg pre-workout)
- 2025 randomized crossover trial, SLEEP zsae230 (100 mg vs 400 mg at 12, 8, 4 h before bed; PubMed abstract)
- Drake et al. 2013, J Clin Sleep Med 9(11):1195-1200 (400 mg at 0, 3, 6 h before bed)
- Onset caffeine model (5-hour half-life, under 5 mg counts as cleared; catalog already lists Cold Brew 205 mg and Nitro 280 mg from Starbucks)
Keep reading
See how much caffeine is in Diet Coke, or learn how caffeine half-life works.