About the Sodium Intake Calculator
This sodium intake calculator adds up the milligrams of sodium in your meals and snacks, converts any salt you add at the table or stove into sodium, and compares the total with official daily limits. It also works in reverse, showing how many grams — and teaspoons — of salt your sodium total is equivalent to.
Use it with nutrition labels or a food-tracking app to check a typical day, plan a lower-sodium diet, or see how much room is left after a restaurant meal. The US and Canadian limit is the 2,300 mg Chronic Disease Risk Reduction intake set by the National Academies in 2019 for everyone 14 and older (lower for children); the World Health Organization recommends under 2,000 mg (5 g of salt) for adults.
Salt is about 39.3% sodium by weight, and the calculator assumes fine table salt at 6 g per level teaspoon. Coarse kosher or flaky salts weigh less per teaspoon, so weigh them in grams for accuracy. If you have kidney disease or heart failure, follow the sodium target your care team gives you.
With the default inputs, the total sodium today is 3,890 mg. Change any value above to recalculate instantly.
How to use the sodium intake calculator
- 1Select the age group and the limit you want to compare against.
- 2Enter the sodium in milligrams for each meal and snacks, from labels or a tracking app.
- 3Add any salt you shake on or cook with yourself, in teaspoons or grams.
- 4Read your total, the share of your limit used and how much room is left.
- 5Use the salt-equivalent figure to picture your intake as teaspoons of salt.
Formula and method
Sodium chloride is 39.34% sodium by mass (sodium 22.99 g/mol ÷ sodium chloride 58.44 g/mol), so each gram of salt supplies about 393 mg of sodium. Teaspoons are converted at 6 g of fine table salt per level teaspoon, giving roughly 2,360 mg of sodium per teaspoon — in line with the FDA’s “about 1 teaspoon equals 2,300 mg”.
Your total is compared with the chosen limit. For anyone 14 or older the US/Canadian limit is 2,300 mg; children use the age-specific Chronic Disease Risk Reduction intakes of 1,200 mg (1–3 y), 1,500 mg (4–8 y) and 1,800 mg (9–13 y), and the lower of the age value and the chosen adult limit is applied.
- 0.3934
- Mass fraction of sodium in sodium chloride
- Σ meals
- Sodium from breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, from food labels (mg)
Worked examples
Typical adult day with a pinch of added salt
Meals and snacks add up to 3,300 mg. A quarter teaspoon of salt (1.5 g) adds 1.5 × 393.4 ≈ 590 mg, for 3,890 mg in total — about 169% of the 2,300 mg limit and equivalent to 9.9 g of salt.
Adult checking against the WHO limit
400 + 700 + 800 + 150 = 2,050 mg with no added salt. Against the WHO limit of 2,000 mg that is 102.5%, just 50 mg over, and it equals about 5.2 g of salt.
6-year-old child
The child’s foods total 1,600 mg. For ages 4–8 the reduction intake is 1,500 mg, so the day is 100 mg over even though it is well under the adult limit. The Adequate Intake for this age is 1,000 mg.
Frequently asked questions
How much sodium should I have per day?+
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the FDA’s Daily Value set a limit of less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day for people 14 and older. The World Health Organization recommends less than 2,000 mg for adults, and many heart-health groups suggest 1,500 mg for people with high blood pressure.
How do I convert salt to sodium?+
Multiply grams of salt by 0.393 to get grams of sodium, or by 393 to get milligrams. For example 5 g of salt contains about 1,970 mg of sodium. To go the other way, multiply sodium by 2.54 to get salt.
How much sodium is in a teaspoon of salt?+
A level teaspoon of fine table salt weighs about 6 g and contains roughly 2,300–2,400 mg of sodium — about a full day’s limit. Coarse kosher salt weighs less per teaspoon, so a teaspoon of it contains less sodium.
How much sodium do people actually eat?+
The FDA reports that Americans eat about 3,400 mg of sodium a day on average, and WHO estimated the global adult average at about 4,300 mg (11 g of salt) in 2021 — roughly double the recommended limit.
Where does most sodium come from?+
More than 70% of the sodium most people eat comes from packaged, processed and restaurant foods rather than the salt shaker. Breads, cured meats, pizza, soups, sandwiches and savory snacks are among the biggest contributors.
What counts as a low-sodium food on a label?+
On the Nutrition Facts label, 5% Daily Value or less of sodium per serving is considered low and 20% DV or more is high. A “low sodium” claim means 140 mg or less per serving.
This tool gives general estimates and is not medical advice. Talk to a doctor or qualified professional about your health, diet or training.