How Much Caffeine Is in Matcha? Matcha vs Coffee in Numbers

A bowl of matcha made with 2 g of powder contains about 60–70 mg of caffeine. Japan's Standard Tables of Food Composition put matcha at 3.2 g of caffeine per 100 g, which is 32 mg per gram and 64 mg in a standard 2 g serving. An espresso has about 80 mg, a 200 ml filter coffee about 90 mg. A bowl of matcha therefore has less caffeine than a coffee, but not much less, and a 4 g bowl of thick matcha has more.

Two numbers to keep in mind: 32 mg of caffeine per gram of matcha, and 400 mg per day, the level the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) considers safe for healthy adults. That is about six bowls of usucha, or four filter coffees.

If you want to know how to choose, whisk and store matcha, read our matcha powder guide. This article is only about caffeine: how much is in matcha, how it compares with coffee and other teas, and how much per day stays within the limits.

The short answer

If you swap one coffee for one bowl of matcha, you cut your caffeine by 15–30 mg and change little else. If you are sensitive to caffeine, make a thin bowl with 1 g of powder (about 32 mg) or brew hojicha, a roasted tea with about half the caffeine of a matcha bowl per cup. If you are pregnant, EFSA's limit is 200 mg a day from all sources: up to three 2 g bowls with nothing else, or one bowl plus one coffee.

1. How much caffeine is in matcha?

Matcha is the whole tea leaf, ground to powder and whisked into water. You drink the leaf, not an infusion of it, so the caffeine in the leaf is the caffeine in the cup. The Japanese food composition tables (MEXT, 2020 edition) list matcha at 3.2 g of caffeine per 100 g of powder, or 32 mg per gram. Published laboratory analyses of commercial matcha range from about 14 to 34 mg per gram, depending on harvest, shading and grade, so a 2 g bowl lands between 30 and 70 mg. We use 40–70 mg as the honest range and 64 mg as the reference figure.

What matters more than the leaf is how much of it you use. A bowl of usucha, thin matcha, takes 2 g, about two heaped bamboo scoops or one level teaspoon. Koicha, thick matcha, takes 4 g in half the water, so about 128 mg, more than an espresso. A café latte usually gets 2–3 g; a light home latte with 1 g has about 32 mg. The caffeine scales with the scoop, not with the milk or the water.

2. Does matcha have more caffeine than coffee?

Per serving, no. EFSA's reference values are 80 mg for a 60 ml espresso and 90 mg for a 200 ml filter coffee. A 2 g bowl of matcha at 64 mg is about 20 percent below an espresso and 30 percent below a filter coffee. Serving size, not the plant, decides the cup: a bowl uses only 2 g of leaf.

Against other teas the picture reverses. Sencha, the most common Japanese loose-leaf green tea, brews to about 20 mg per 100 ml, so a 150 ml cup has about 30 mg, half a bowl of matcha. Black tea brews to about 30 mg per 100 ml, roughly 50 mg in a 220 ml mug. Hojicha, roasted green tea, brews to about 20 mg per 100 ml, the same as sencha.

One difference is not about the amount. Matcha contains L-theanine, an amino acid coffee lacks, and small studies report that people experience the caffeine in tea as steadier than the same dose from coffee. The evidence is limited and EFSA has not authorised any health claim for L-theanine, so we make none. Try a bowl and an espresso on different afternoons and judge for yourself.

3. How many bowls of matcha a day is safe?

EFSA's 2015 scientific opinion on caffeine is the reference for Europe. For healthy adults, up to 400 mg a day from all sources does not raise safety concerns, nor does a single dose of up to 200 mg. For pregnant and breastfeeding women the daily limit is 200 mg. For children and adolescents EFSA proposes 3 mg per kilogram of body weight per day, about 90 mg for a 30 kg child.

In matcha terms, 400 mg is six 2 g bowls and 200 mg is three. Most people drink one or two bowls a day and never approach these limits, which leaves room for a coffee as well. The one place to be careful is the evening: EFSA puts the half-life of caffeine in adults at two to eight hours, so a good part of a 16:00 bowl is still in your blood at 21:00. The other side effects that matter, iron absorption and the green tea extract liver warning, are covered in matcha benefits and side effects.

I drink two bowls most days, one when we open at 12:00 and one around 16:00, and no coffee. On the day I tried the same with two double espressos, I understood why so many customers had made the switch before I did. The caffeine was similar on paper. The afternoon was not.

Caffeine in matcha, coffee and tea, per serving

Values from EFSA (2015) for coffee, black tea, energy drink, cola and chocolate, and from the Japanese Standard Tables of Food Composition (MEXT, 2020 edition) for matcha, sencha and hojicha, using a 150 ml cup for the brewed Japanese teas. Checked September 2026.

Drink	Serving	Caffeine	Compared with 2 g matcha
Matcha, thin (usucha)	2 g powder, 70 ml water	64 mg	reference
Matcha, thick (koicha)	4 g powder, 40 ml water	128 mg	2×
Matcha latte, light	1 g powder, 200 ml milk	32 mg	0.5×
Espresso	60 ml	80 mg	1.25×
Filter coffee	200 ml	90 mg	1.4×
Black tea	220 ml	50 mg	0.8×
Sencha, brewed	150 ml	30 mg	0.5×
Hojicha, brewed	150 ml	30 mg	0.5×
Energy drink	250 ml	80 mg	1.25×
Cola	355 ml	40 mg	0.6×
Dark chocolate	50 g	25 mg	0.4×

Matcha sits between brewed tea and coffee, closer to coffee. If you count caffeine, count scoops: a 2 g bowl is a mild coffee, a 4 g koicha a strong one, a light latte a cup of sencha. Brewed hojicha is the low-caffeine option in our range. For hojicha powder, which you drink whole like matcha, we have no laboratory figure and will not print one; as a whole-leaf powder it carries more than a brewed cup of hojicha.