How much caffeine is in matcha?
Matcha has about 18.9–44.4 mg of caffeine per gram, so a standard 2 g serving (one level teaspoon) contains roughly 38–89 mg. A 3 g matcha latte has about 57–133 mg, and a 4 g bowl of thick koicha 76–178 mg. The per-gram range comes from a 2020 review of matcha chemistry in the journal Molecules. Theanine, EGCG and safe limits are covered in our matcha caffeine and compounds hub.
That’s a wide spread, and it’s honest. Nobody can tell you the exact number for the tin in your cupboard without a lab test. What you can know is the dose you scoop, because caffeine scales directly with grams. Double the powder, double the caffeine.
Healthline’s dietitian-reviewed page rounds the same research to 19–44 mg per gram and quotes 38–176 mg for a 2–4 g serving. It also calls that serving “1/2 to 1 teaspoon,” which implies about 4 g per teaspoon, double Ippodo’s figure of about 2 g per level teaspoon. We use Ippodo’s conversion, so “one teaspoon” on this page means 38–89 mg. The figures below use the unrounded range so you can see where each number comes from.
Matcha caffeine per gram, per teaspoon and per serving style
Here is the range multiplied out for the four ways most people drink matcha. Low uses 18.9 mg/g, high uses 44.4 mg/g, and the middle value uses the midpoint of the range (about 31.7 mg/g). The gram amounts follow Ippodo’s published recipes.
| Serving | Low (mg) | Mid (mg) | High (mg) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per gram of powder | 19 | 32 | 44 |
| 1 level teaspoon (≈2 g) | 38 | 63 | 89 |
| Usucha, thin tea (2 g in 60 ml water) | 38 | 63 | 89 |
| Matcha latte (≈3 g, Ippodo’s 1.5 tsp) | 57 | 95 | 133 |
| Koicha, thick tea (4 g in 30 ml water) | 76 | 127 | 178 |
| Culinary matcha in baking (1 tsp across a batch) | 38 total | — | 89 total |
The teaspoon row assumes a level teaspoon. Ippodo puts one level teaspoon at about 2 g, but a heaped teaspoon can easily hold more, which is where a lot of “matcha hit me harder than I expected” stories begin. If you want your own number, put a teaspoon of your powder on a 0.1 g kitchen scale a few times and average it. Our guide to converting a matcha teaspoon to grams walks through that check.
Water volume doesn’t change the caffeine. You drink the whole leaf with matcha, so 2 g whisked into 60 ml or 200 ml delivers the same milligrams; only the strength of the taste changes. That is why usucha vs koicha is really a question of powder dose, and koicha carries about twice the caffeine of usucha per bowl.
Caffeine in a matcha latte
Milk adds no caffeine and doesn’t cancel any. A latte’s caffeine comes entirely from the matcha scooped into it.
Ippodo’s latte recipe uses about 1.5 teaspoons (≈3 g) of matcha whisked in 100 ml of 80 °C water, then topped with 100 ml of milk. At the published range that is 57–133 mg. Many home recipes use 2 g instead, which drops the range to 38–89 mg; others go to 4 g for a 16 oz iced drink, which pushes it to 76–178 mg.
So the size of the cup tells you very little. A 20 oz iced latte made with 2 g of powder carries less caffeine than an 8 oz latte made with 4 g. Our matcha latte ratio guide covers how much powder to use by cup size, and the matcha latte caffeine calculator does the multiplication for you.
Café drinks are harder to pin down because chains don’t usually publish grams of matcha per drink, and some use a sweetened blend where part of each scoop is sugar. If a café can tell you how many grams go in, multiply by 19–44 mg. If it can’t, treat the number as unknown.
Why matcha caffeine content varies so much
A factor of more than two between the low and high end looks sloppy. It isn’t. Matcha is a whole-leaf agricultural product, and several things shift the caffeine in the leaf before it is ever milled.
- Leaf age and harvest time. The Molecules review notes that caffeine “may be associated with the time of harvest and age of leaves,” and that older leaves contain less. Matcha from young, first-harvest leaves tends to sit higher.
- Grade. A 2025 study in Plants compared three commercial grades and measured about 473 mg of caffeine per 100 g in the top grade versus 260 mg in a food grade, roughly 45% lower (Toniolo et al., 2025). The authors used single samples per grade, so read it as a direction, not a rule.
- Shading. Matcha bushes are covered before harvest. A 2022 study on shaded matcha tea plants reported that shading increased both theanine and caffeine in the leaves (Chen et al., 2022). Other shading studies disagree on caffeine, so this one is a contributing factor rather than a guarantee.
- Cultivar and growing weather. The same review lists tea variety and weather during the growing season as further sources of variation.
Put those together and a cheap culinary powder from late-season leaves may sit near the bottom of the range, while a shaded, first-harvest drinking grade may sit near the top. Our ceremonial vs culinary matcha guide explains what those labels do and don’t promise.
For context, the same review gives 11.3–24.67 mg per gram for green teas in general and 10–12 mg per gram for coffee beans. Matcha is the most caffeine-dense of the three by weight, though you use far less of it per cup.
Why brand caffeine numbers disagree
If you’ve compared matcha brands, you’ve seen single figures stated as fact. None of the three below cites a lab report. They may be accurate for that brand’s current lot, but they aren’t transferable to a different tin.
| Source | Claim | Per gram |
|---|---|---|
| Nio Teas | 68 mg per 2 g cup | 34 mg |
| Matchaful | 128 mg per 4 g drink | 32 mg |
| Chamberlain Coffee | 60–70 mg per 2 g | About 30–35 mg |
| Molecules review (2020) | — | 18.9–44.4 mg |
There is also no neutral reference value to check them against. USDA FoodData Central, the database most US nutrition labels lean on, publishes reference caffeine values for brewed coffee and brewed green tea, but those cover steeped drinks, not powdered tea you drink whole. For matcha, the published research range is the best yardstick available.
Our position: use a range, not a single number, unless the seller publishes a dated lab result for the lot you bought. That is also how our matcha caffeine calculator works. It uses grade estimates of 35 mg/g for ceremonial, 30 mg/g for premium and 25 mg/g for culinary matcha. Those are WhiskMetrics estimates placed inside the published 18.9–44.4 mg/g range, not measured values, and you can override them.
How many cups of matcha is too much caffeine?
The FDA says 400 mg a day is an amount not generally associated with negative effects for most healthy adults. It also says people who are pregnant, trying to become pregnant or breastfeeding should talk with a health care provider, and sensitivity varies from person to person. According to the same FDA page, the American Academy of Pediatrics advises against caffeinated energy drinks for children and teens.
Divide 400 mg by the high end of each serving range for a conservative ceiling:
| Serving | Caffeine Each (mg) | Servings to 400 mg |
|---|---|---|
| Usucha (2 g) | 89 | About 4 bowls |
| Latte (3 g) | 133 | About 3 lattes |
| Koicha (4 g) | 178 | About 2 bowls |
Those are worst-case counts that assume a high-caffeine powder and no other caffeine all day. If you also drink coffee, soda or energy drinks, add them in. Timing matters too: caffeine’s half-life is 3–7 hours in adults, and oral contraceptives tend to double it, according to a 2017 review in Frontiers in Psychiatry, so an afternoon koicha can still be working at bedtime. The caffeine half-life calculator estimates how much is left by a given hour, the matcha before bed calculator checks an evening cup against your bedtime, and our matcha vs coffee caffeine comparison shows how a bowl stacks up against a mug.
Wondering how this stacks up against your usual coffee? The matcha vs coffee caffeine comparison puts the two side by side on an equal-serving basis.