How long does alcohol actually stay in your system?

Your liver processes alcohol at a roughly steady rate — about one standard drink per hour for most people — regardless of coffee, cold showers, or a big breakfast. None of the common tricks speed it up.

That steady rate is exactly why a personal breathalyser is useful: it tells you where you actually are right now, rather than where you assume you are after a guess at the maths.

What affects the rate

A few things genuinely shift how quickly you feel effects, though not how fast your liver clears alcohol:

• Body weight and composition
• Whether you’ve eaten
• How much you drank and over what period
• Individual differences in metabolism

Why a device beats a guess

Every “rule of thumb” for sobering up assumes an average that may not be your average. A calibrated reading removes the guesswork — replace it with a number.

This article is general information, not medical advice. If you’re planning to drive, the only reliable way to know your reading is to test.