--- title: Are Coffee and Tea Dehydrating? description: Do coffee and tea dehydrate you? Here's what to know about caffeinated beverages, diuretics and hydration. canonical: https://time.com/5192272/coffee-tea-dehydrating/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-16T14:41:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:35:18.976Z article:section: Health og:title: No, Coffee and Tea Aren't Actually Dehydrating og:description: Here's why og:url: https://time.com/5192272/coffee-tea-dehydrating/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3593e90bc67bd19/69892af222fb85b746e25147/coffee.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5472 og:image:height: 3078 og:image:alt: Directly Above Shot Of Coffee On Yellow Background og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: No, Coffee and Tea Aren't Actually Dehydrating twitter:description: Here's why twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3593e90bc67bd19/69892af222fb85b746e25147/coffee.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # No, Coffee and Tea Aren't Actually Dehydrating. Here's Why > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Mar 16, 2018 2:41 PM UTC  Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Mar 16, 2018 2:41 PM UTC When you want to quench your thirst, you probably don’t reach for a steaming cup of coffee or tea. But despite what you’ve heard, coffee and caffeinated tea are not dehydrating, experts say. It’s true that caffeine is a mild diuretic, which means that it causes your kidneys to flush extra sodium and water from the body through urine. If you’re peeing frequently, and thus losing lots of liquid, it’s logical to think you could become dehydrated — but it actually doesn’t work that way, explains Dr. Daniel Vigil, an associate clinical professor of family medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles. “When you drink a cup of coffee or you drink a glass of iced tea, you are necessarily taking in a volume of fluid along with that dose of \[caffeine\],” Vigil says. Even though caffeine is a mild diuretic, Vigil says, you won’t lose more fluid through urine than you take in by drinking a caffeinated beverage. Your body is able to absorb as much fluid as it needs and expel the rest, he says. For that reason, your morning pick-me-up actually helps hydrate you, not the opposite. Vigil says that coffee and tea “can and should” count toward your daily eight-or-so cups of water per day. And if you find yourself with headaches or other symptoms after your morning java, Vigil says dehydration likely is not the culprit. You may just be sensitive to caffeine — or dehydrated for reasons that have nothing to do with your coffee or tea habit. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5192272/coffee-tea-dehydrating/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5192272/coffee-tea-dehydrating/"},"headline":"No, Coffee and Tea Aren't Actually Dehydrating. 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