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Water intake counter · Free · No sign-up

Water Intake Counter

Short answer

A water intake counter adds up what you drink in a day. Tap the glass, mug or bottle you used and this one logs its volume in millilitres or fluid ounces, shows the total against a daily goal or a fluid limit, paces it over your waking hours, and starts again at the hour you choose.

Free, no app, no sign-up, and nothing leaves this browser.

0 mlof a 2,000 ml goal · 0%The pace line spreads the goal evenly from 07:00 to 22:00.
Today
0 ml
Drinks
0
To go
2,000 ml
Yesterday
—
Last 7 days, average
—
Counting day
—
Today’s drinks (0)
  • Nothing logged yet today.
Last 7 days
Your last seven counting days in this browser
DayTotalDrinksAgainst the day’s figure
Kept in this browser from the first day you count.
Goal or limit, units and the day
Your glasses and bottles

    Tap the container you drank from, or press its number key; Ctrl+Z undoes, outside a field. It counts what you log. It does not tell you how much you need.

    Eight glasses is 1.2 litres in UK advice and 2 litres in most trackers, so this counter logs what you actually drank, by the size of the container, against a figure you choose or a fluid limit you were given. It counts; it does not decide how much you need.

    Water intake is the water a person takes in each day from drinks and from food. Reference values such as the US adequate intakes of 3.7 litres for men and 2.7 for women are total water, food included; drinks supply about 80 percent of it.

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    • Works offline
    • Unlimited counters

    Key facts

    Water intake counter at a glance
    DetailAnswer
    PriceFree, no ads, no sign-up, no app to install
    What a tap logsThe volume of the container tapped: glass 250 ml, US cup 237, mug 300, can 330, bottle 500, ice cube 15
    Your containersAdd up to 12 by name and printed size; number keys 1 to 9 log the first nine
    UnitsMillilitres, US fluid ounces or UK fluid ounces; totals are kept in ml
    Goal or limitCount up to a goal, or against a fluid limit with what is left shown
    Goal presetsDrinks-only figures from UK advice (1.2 L), 8 × 8 (1.89 L), EFSA and NASEM
    PaceYour figure spread evenly over the waking hours you set, against what you have had
    Day boundaryAn hour you choose, 04:00 by default, not midnight
    HistoryToday's drinks with times, and daily totals for the last 60 counting days; 7 shown
    Where data is storedThis browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere

    How to use the water intake counter

    Set the figure once, then tap as you drink.

    1. Choose goal or limit

      Open Goal or limit, units and the day. A goal counts up; a fluid limit, the number your clinical team gave you, counts down to what is left.

    2. Set the figure

      Type it, or pick a published drinks-only figure from the list. The table on this page says what each one means.

    3. Make the buttons match your cups

      Under Your glasses and bottles, add the containers you really use by their printed size, and remove the ones you do not.

    4. Tap as you drink

      Tap the container, or press its number key. For an odd amount, type it under Another amount.

    5. Fix a mistake

      Press Undo, or open Today's drinks and remove the one that was wrong. Clear today can be undone too.

    6. Check the pace

      The line under the bar says whether you are ahead of or behind an even spread through your waking hours.

    Who uses a water intake counter

    Anyone who wants the number rather than a guess, whether the number is a target or a ceiling.

    • Drinking more water

      A goal in litres or ounces and a pace line that says, mid-afternoon, whether the day is on track.

    • A fluid restriction

      Kidney or heart patients counting every drink, ice cube and bowl of soup against the limit their team set.

    • Big reusable bottles

      A 750 ml or 1 litre bottle as one button, so three refills are one look at the total.

    • Pregnancy and breastfeeding

      The NASEM drinks figures of 2.3 and 3.1 litres as goals, checked with your midwife or doctor.

    • Training days

      Drinks logged through a long session to see what you actually took in, without drinking to a schedule.

    • Cutting down on sugary drinks

      Separate buttons for water, juice and soda, and today's log to see the mix.

    • Office and study days

      Number keys on a laptop: a key press per mug, no app on the phone.

    • Carers

      A simple record of what someone drank through the day, with times, to report to a nurse or doctor.

    How much is eight glasses? Between 1.2 and 2 litres

    “Eight glasses a day” is anything from 1.2 to 2 litres, depending on whose glass, and the litre figures printed beside it are a different measure again. The UK advice of six to eight glasses means six 200 ml or eight 150 ml glasses, about 1.2 litres (British Nutrition Foundation). The American “8 × 8” is eight 8-ounce glasses, 1.89 litres. Eight 250 ml glasses, the default of most metric trackers, is 2 litres. The 3.7 and 2.7 litres quoted for men and women are total water, food included:

    What the common daily water figures mean in millilitres, and whether they include food
    FigureWhat it saysTotal, mlFrom drinks, ml
    UK advice (BNF, NHS)6 to 8 glasses of fluid; BNF: 6 × 200 ml or 8 × 150 mlnot givenabout 1,200
    “8 × 8”Eight glasses of 8 US fl oz; no official sourcenot given1,893
    Eight 250 ml glassesThe usual metric reading of “eight glasses”not given2,000
    EFSA 2010, womenAdequate intake, total water, adults and the elderly2,0001,600 at 80%
    EFSA 2010, menAdequate intake, total water2,5002,000 at 80%
    NASEM 2004, women 19+Adequate intake, total water2,7002,200
    NASEM 2004, men 19+Adequate intake, total water3,7003,000
    NASEM 2004, pregnancyAdequate intake, total water3,0002,300
    NASEM 2004, breastfeedingAdequate intake, total water3,8003,100

    A counter only sees what you drink, so the column that matters for it is the last one. The American report puts drinks at about 80 percent of total water and food at the other 20; the British Nutrition Foundation says EFSA assumes the same split, which is how the EFSA rows turn 2.0 and 2.5 litres into 1.6 and 2.0 litres from drinks. The goal setting in the counter offers each of these as a drinks-only figure. Its default is the 2-litre reading of eight glasses because that is what most people mean by it, not because any of the bodies above recommends it.

    None of them recommends eight glasses. The 2004 American report says plainly “We don’t offer any rule of thumb based on how many glasses of water people should drink each day,” and that “the vast majority of healthy people adequately meet their daily hydration needs by letting thirst be their guide.” Its adequate intakes describe what healthy, adequately hydrated people were found to take in; they are not minimums. The physiologist Heinz Valtin, reviewing the evidence for “8 × 8” in 2002, found none, and traced the likeliest origin to a 1945 Food and Nutrition Board allowance of about 2.5 litres a day whose qualifier, that most of it is already contained in prepared food, was dropped in the retelling.

    Sources: British Nutrition Foundation, hydration (reviewed October 2023); NHS, water, drinks and your health; the National Academies’ release of 12 February 2004 and its report, Dietary Reference Intakes for Water, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride, and Sulfate; EFSA, Scientific Opinion on Dietary Reference Values for water (2010); Valtin, American Journal of Physiology, 2002; all read 2026-10-19.

    What counts toward your water intake: coffee, tea, juice and food

    For a daily goal, almost every drink counts, tea and coffee included. The National Academies’ 2004 review found that caffeine’s effect on urine output “may be transient”, saw “no convincing evidence that caffeine leads to cumulative total body water deficits”, and concluded that caffeinated drinks “can contribute as much as noncaffeinated options.” Where the advice differs is on sugar and alcohol:

    Which drinks count toward a daily water figure, by source
    DrinkNASEM 2004 (US)NHS and BNF (UK)
    WaterCountsCounts
    Tea and coffeeCounts, caffeinated or notCounts
    MilkCounts as a beverageCounts; NHS says lower-fat milk
    Fruit juice and smoothiesCounts as a beverageCounts, but NHS says one small glass (150 ml) a day at most, with a meal
    Squash and soft drinksCounts as a beverageCounts; NHS says lower-sugar
    Alcoholic drinksNot addressed in the releaseBNF: do not count
    Water in foodAbout 20% of total water, already inside the 3.7 and 2.7 L“We also get some fluids from the foods we eat”

    So the counter counts whatever you log, and a drinks-only goal from the setting above is the fair figure to count it against. For a water-only number, log only water. For everything, add a button for each container you actually use, a 350 ml coffee cup or a 750 ml bottle, under Your glasses and bottles, so a tap is the right volume rather than a guess at a “glass”.

    Counting against a fluid limit instead of a goal

    The other people who count every drink are on a fluid restriction: kidney dialysis, heart failure and some other conditions, where the clinical team sets a ceiling and the job is to stay under it. Nothing in the search results for a water counter serves them. Choose A fluid limit under Goal or limit and the board turns around: it shows what is left today, says plainly when the total is over, and the pace line tells you whether you are using the allowance faster than an even spread through your waking hours, the “spread your daily fluid through the day” that the leaflets advise.

    A fluid limit counts more than drinks. Cambridge University Hospitals’ leaflet for kidney patients counts all drinks, milk on cereal, ice cubes, drinks taken with medicines, and food that is liquid or melts: soup, gravy, sauces, custard, ice cream, yoghurt, jelly. It gives these volumes:

    Fluid volumes for a fluid restriction, from Cambridge University Hospitals’ leaflet “Restricting your fluid intake”
    ItemCounts as, ml
    Teacup150
    Small glass180
    Mug300
    Can of drink330
    Pint570
    One ice cube, or a tablespoon of sauce15 to 30
    Small bowl of porridge90
    100 g jelly (small carton)85
    100 g ice cream60
    75 g custard60
    125 g yoghurt (small carton)100

    Add any of these under Your glasses and bottles and each becomes one tap: a 150 ml teacup, a 60 ml ice cream, a 15 ml ice cube. The same leaflet suggests a cup that holds no more than 150 ml, sipping slowly, and sucking ice cubes, which it counts as 15 ml each; water used to cook pasta or rice does not count if it is drained. Leaflets differ on details: some count soup and custard as half fluid, and this one leaves the daily figure blank for your renal team to fill in. The figure and the rules for what counts are your clinical team’s; follow theirs where they differ from this page. Source: Cambridge University Hospitals, Restricting your fluid intake (version 4, approved 10 October 2023), read 2026-10-19.

    Glasses, cups and fluid ounces in millilitres

    A cup and a pint are not the same size on the two sides of the Atlantic, which is how two people drinking “eight cups” can be most of a cup apart. The counter keeps every drink in millilitres and converts only for display, so switching units never changes a total:

    Drink measures in millilitres, and how many make 2 litres
    MeasureMillilitresHow many in 2 litres
    US fluid ounce29.5767.6
    UK (imperial) fluid ounce28.4170.4
    US cup, 8 US fl oz236.68.5
    US nutrition-label cup2408.3
    Metric cup or 250 ml glass2508
    US pint, 16 US fl oz473.24.2
    UK pint, 20 UK fl oz568.33.5
    Standard can3306.1
    Common bottle5004

    Sixty-four US fluid ounces, the 8 × 8 figure, is 1,893 ml; 64 UK fluid ounces would be 1,818 ml. Set the unit you think in, and add your own containers by their printed size: a bottle that says 750 ml or 24 oz is exactly that, which is closer than any “glass”.

    What this counter does not do, and why more is not always better

    This counter counts. It does not tell you how much you need, and it is not medical advice. The figures on this page are population reference values for healthy people in temperate climates at moderate activity. Heat, exercise, illness, pregnancy and breastfeeding all change real need, and so do kidney, heart and liver conditions and some medicines, sometimes in the direction of drinking less. Children have their own reference values (NASEM gives 1.2 litres of drinks for ages 4 to 8), and none of the adult figures applies to them.

    More is not automatically better. Drinking far beyond thirst can dilute the blood’s sodium (hyponatraemia), and the international consensus statement on exercise-associated hyponatraemia (2015) advises endurance athletes to drink to thirst rather than to a schedule. A goal on a counter is a prompt, not a quota.

    What the water intake counter does and does not do
    It doesIt does not
    Add up the drinks you log, by the size of the containerWork out how much you should drink
    Show the total against a goal or a fluid limit you setSet or check a fluid limit: that is your clinical team’s
    Spread your figure over your waking hours as a paceRemind you to drink: there are no notifications
    Keep today’s log and the totals of your last 60 counting daysSync between devices or back anything up
    Keep everything in this browserSend anything to a server or to anyone

    Sources: NASEM, Dietary Reference Intakes for Water, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride, and Sulfate (released 2004, published 2005); Hew-Butler and others, Statement of the Third International Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia Consensus Development Conference, 2015 (also in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine 25(4):303-320); read 2026-10-19.

    Online counter vs a clicker, an app, paper and a spreadsheet

    Every counting method trades something away. This is what each one actually costs you.

    Water intake counter compared with the alternatives
    FeatureThis online counterHandheld clickerCounter phone appPen and paperSpreadsheet
    CostFree$5–$15Free with ads, or paidCost of paperSubscription
    Anything to installNoBuy the deviceApp store downloadNoYes, or a web login
    Several counts at onceUnlimitedOne per deviceUsually limitedYes, messyYes
    Fix a miscountUndo and redoStart overSometimesCross it outEdit the cell
    Counts by more than oneAny step sizeOne at a timeSometimesManual mathsYes
    Below zeroYesNoRarelyYesYes
    Keeps the count if you close itSaves automaticallyUntil you reset the dialYesIf you keep the paperYes
    Works with no signalYes, after first loadYesYesYesOften not
    Keyboard and shortcutsFullNoneNoneNonePartial
    Sends your data anywhereNeverNeverOften, for accounts and adsNeverYes, to the cloud

    Other counter types

    The same counter, set up and explained for a specific job. Your counters are shared across all of them.

    Everyday7

    The general-purpose counters: one number, many numbers, or counting on a timer.

    Sport & scores44

    Scoreboards that know the rules of their game, not just two numbers that go up.

    Fitness & health6

    Reps, laps, breaths and daily habits, where the count is part of the activity.

    Work & field5

    Counting that produces a record someone else relies on: stock, occupancy, lab work.

    Faith9

    Counts with their own rules about when a day turns over and what completes a set.

    Frequently asked questions

    How much water should I drink daily?

    There is no single figure, and the counter does not set one. UK advice is 6 to 8 glasses of fluid, about 1.2 litres. The US adequate intakes are 3.7 litres for men and 2.7 for women of total water, about 3.0 and 2.2 litres of it from drinks; EFSA's are 2.5 and 2.0 litres total. Most healthy people meet their needs by drinking to thirst.

    What size is one glass of water?

    It depends on who is counting. The 8 × 8 rule uses 8 US fluid ounces, 237 ml; most metric trackers use 250 ml; the British Nutrition Foundation's six to eight glasses are 200 or 150 ml. That is why this counter logs millilitres from the container you tap, and lets you add your own glasses and bottles by their printed size.

    How many glasses of water is 2 litres?

    Eight glasses of 250 ml, about 8.5 US cups of 8 fluid ounces, ten glasses of 200 ml, or four 500 ml bottles. In fluid ounces, 2 litres is 67.6 US fl oz or 70.4 UK fl oz. The 8 × 8 rule's 64 US fluid ounces is 1,893 ml, a little under 2 litres.

    Does coffee count towards water intake?

    Yes. The US National Academies concluded in 2004 that caffeinated drinks can contribute as much to daily water as non-caffeinated ones, finding no convincing evidence that caffeine causes a cumulative water deficit. The NHS and the British Nutrition Foundation also count tea and coffee. The BNF says alcoholic drinks do not count.

    Is the eight glasses a day rule true?

    There is no scientific evidence for it, according to a 2002 review by the physiologist Heinz Valtin, and the US National Academies say they offer no rule based on glasses. The likeliest origin is a 1945 allowance of about 2.5 litres a day whose qualifier, that most of it comes from food, was dropped. Food supplies about a fifth of total water.

    Can I use it to track a fluid restriction?

    Yes. Choose A fluid limit and enter the figure your clinical team gave you; the board shows what is left and says when you are over. Add buttons for what your leaflet counts, such as a 150 ml teacup or a 15 ml ice cube. The counter keeps the tally only; the limit and what counts are your team's to set.

    When does the water counter reset?

    At the hour you choose, 04:00 by default, read from your device's clock. A drink at half past midnight belongs to the day you are still in. At the boundary, today's total moves into the history and the count starts from zero; a tab left open rolls over by itself within a minute.

    Can I see my history?

    Yes. Today's drinks are listed with their times, and each day's total is kept for 60 counting days, the last seven shown with whether that day's goal was met or its limit kept. It is stored in this browser only, so clearing site data or switching browsers starts from nothing.

    Does it work without an app or an account?

    Yes. It is a web page that keeps everything in your browser's local storage, needs no sign-up and keeps working offline once loaded. On a phone, adding the page to your home screen makes it open like an app. It has no reminders, because a web page cannot notify you without permissions this site does not ask for.

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