Audit-C Calculator – Am I an Alcoholic?

How to use the AUDIT-C alcohol screening calculator

What this calculator does. AUDIT-C is a three-question screening instrument focused on alcohol consumption during the past year. This calculator assigns the standard 0-4 points to each response, adds them for a total from 0 to 12, and applies the commonly used sex-specific positive-screen threshold: 3 or more for females and 4 or more for males. It also shows low, moderate, high, or severe risk ranges used in clinical and research settings. A score is a screening result, not a medical diagnosis, and it cannot determine by itself whether someone has alcohol use disorder or which treatment, if any, is appropriate. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provides a concise AUDIT-C scoring reference for health care providers with the same three-item scoring structure and sex-specific cutoffs.

When to use it. The calculator is useful when you want to translate AUDIT-C responses into a score before a primary-care visit, when a clinician or health educator needs a quick reproducible screen, when you want to see which of the three consumption questions contributes most to the total, or when you are documenting a screening result for follow-up. It is not designed for emergencies, intoxication assessment, withdrawal assessment, or individualized drinking advice.

How to calculate. The page opens with a complete demonstration: Sex = Female, drinking frequency = 2-4 times a month, average drinking-day amount = 1-2 drinks, and six-or-more occasions = less than monthly. That example produces 2 + 0 + 1 = 3 points, which is in the female moderate-risk range and meets the 3-point positive-screen cutoff. The Excel download is available immediately for that demonstration. To use your own responses:

1. Select Sex. This does not change the three question points; it changes only the positive-screen cutoff and the boundary between low and moderate risk.
2. For How often did you drink alcohol?, select the response that best represents the past year, from Never through 4 or more times a week.
3. For How many drinks did you have on an average drinking day?, count standard drinks and select the matching range. In the United States, a standard drink contains about 14 grams of pure alcohol; the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism standard-drink guide shows common beverage equivalents.
4. For How often did you have 6 or more drinks at once?, choose how often that occurred over the same one-year period.
5. Read the AUDIT-C score, Risk category, Positive cutoff, and Screening result together. The question-by-question table shows the selected response and points for each item.
6. Select Download Excel to export the current validated responses and results. Reset clears the demonstration and all selected responses; after reset, Excel export stays disabled until all four fields are complete again.

Input guide. Sex is a required two-option control in this implementation: Female or Male. Example: Female. It affects the screening cutoff but not the arithmetic score; the common mistake is assuming that selecting sex changes the point value of an answer. How often did you drink alcohol? is required and accepts one listed past-year frequency; its score rises from 0 for Never to 4 for 4 or more times a week. Example: 2-4 times a month = 2 points. How many drinks did you have on an average drinking day? is required and accepts None, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-9, or 10 or more drinks. None and 1-2 both score 0 under the source form; higher categories add more points. Example: 1-2 drinks = 0 points. A common mistake is counting a large or strong beverage as one drink even when it contains more than one standard drink. How often did you have 6 or more drinks at once? is required and ranges from Never = 0 to Daily or almost daily = 4. Example: Less than monthly = 1 point. The most common interpretation error is answering only for a recent week instead of the full past year.

Output guide. AUDIT-C score is the exact sum of the three item scores and runs from 0 to 12; zero means all scored consumption responses are zero, while higher values reflect a pattern associated with greater alcohol-related risk. Risk category uses sex-specific low/moderate boundaries, followed by shared high (6-7) and severe (8-12) ranges. Positive cutoff displays the threshold applied to the selected sex: 3+ for females or 4+ for males. Screening result says Positive when the total meets or exceeds that cutoff and Below cutoff otherwise. Positive does not mean a diagnosis. In the Question-by-question score table, Question names the consumption dimension, Selected response repeats the current answer, and Points shows the 0-4 contribution used in the sum. If all points come only from the first question while the other two score zero, the page adds a note because VA guidance recommends reviewing the drinking history before over-interpreting that pattern.

Worked example. In the first-open example, Female sets the cutoff at 3. Drinking 2-4 times a month contributes 2 points; 1-2 drinks on a typical drinking day contributes 0 points; and having 6 or more drinks less than monthly contributes 1 point. The calculation is therefore 2 + 0 + 1 = 3. The displayed score is 3 / 12, the risk category is Moderate risk, the positive cutoff is 3+, and the screening result is Positive. Changing only Sex to Male leaves the score at 3 but changes the cutoff to 4+, so the screening result becomes Below cutoff and the risk category moves to Low risk. That illustrates why the score and cutoff should be read as separate outputs.