How Many Times a Day Should You Pee?

Featuring Preeti Parikh, MDReviewed by Mera Goodman, MD, FAAP | May 14, 2025

Key takeaways:

Some people have to pee more often than others. But, on average, most adults pee at least four times a day.
How much and how often you pee can vary with age and with what you eat and drink. There can even be differences over a period of days or weeks.
Most changes in how often you pee aren’t caused by anything serious. But sometimes your pee is giving you important clues about your body.

Featuring Preeti Parikh, MDReviewed by Mera Goodman, MD, FAAP | May 14, 2025

Everyone is different in terms of how often they have to pee. Some people can’t get through a movie without running to the bathroom. Meanwhile, others can make it through a long road trip without a rest stop. These differences between people are normal.

But maybe you’ve noticed some changes in how often you pee, and you’re wondering if it’s something to be concerned about.

Let’s take a closer look at common things that affect how often you pee and when you’ll need to seek medical care.

How many times a day is it normal to pee?

On average, adults pee between four and seven times a day. This range is similar for both men and women. Like many functions in the human body, how often you pee can vary. It can also be normal to pee more or less often.

So, what’s peeing too much? Well, you may be peeing too often if you feel like you need to pee right after you’ve just finished using the bathroom. Another sign that you might be peeing too much is if you’re peeing a lot but still feel thirsty throughout the day.

How much should you pee a day?

In a 24-hour period, it’s normal to pee 27 oz to 67 oz of total liquid. That’s somewhere between a standard bottle of wine to a 2 L soda bottle per day. So, if you pee 5 times a day, you may average 5.4 oz to 13.4 oz of urine every time you pee.

A few everyday factors and some health conditions could affect how much and how often you pee. Here’s a closer look.

What can cause frequent urination?

There are several factors that can affect how much you pee, like your age, the amount of fluids you consume, and the types of beverages you drink.

Your age

As you age, the action of the kidneys, bladder, and muscles in the pelvis can change. This can play out in different ways to make you pee more or less often.

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After childbirth, changes in the pelvic floor can make you pee more often. And, in men, changes to the prostate, such as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), affect how easily urine flows from the bladder through the urethra.

How much you drink

When it comes to liquids, what goes in must come out. In general, the more fluids you take in, the more you’ll pee. There aren’t any strict recommendations for how much to drink each day. But it’s important to pay attention to signs like thirst and the color of your pee to make sure you’re getting enough fluids.

What you drink

Featuring Preeti Parikh, MDReviewed by Sanjai Sinha, MD | April 15, 2025

Drinks with caffeine and alcohol can make you pee more. If they irritate your bladder, you might be running more often to the bathroom but peeing in smaller amounts.

Medications

Many medications have side effects that affect how often you pee. Some of the more common medication groups that can do this include:

Certain blood pressure medications (like hydrochlorothiazide)
Diuretics or water pills (like furosemide)
Sedatives (like lorazepam)
Medications for mental health conditions (like lithium or sertraline)

What medical conditions can affect how often you pee?

A range of different medical conditions can make you pee more often and also affect what your pee looks like. Here’s an explanation of what these are and how they can impact your urination:

Urinary tract infections (UTIs): UTIs are a common cause of peeing more often. Some symptoms can be signs that you have a bladder infection. Symptoms of a bladder infection could include feeling a sense of urgency or pain when you pee. Or you may notice a change in the color or smell of your urine.
Diabetes (Type 1 or Type 2): The kidneys try to get rid of extra sugar in the blood through urine. People with high blood sugar may notice that they’re thirstier and need to pee more often.
Diabetes insipidus: This is a different kind of diabetes. In this type, your blood sugar is normal, but your kidneys can’t concentrate the urine. So, people with diabetes insipidus put out lots of pale, water-like urine.
High blood calcium levels: The kidneys get rid of the extra calcium by making more urine. It’s a less common cause of frequent urination though.
Pressure on the bladder: Examples of things that put pressure on your bladder include fibroids, pregnancy, and constipation. Other things are an enlarged prostate and having a body mass index (BMI) over 30.
Overactive bladder: An overactive bladder can also make you pee more often. Possible causes of an overactive bladder include changes in hormones, medications, nerve damage, or weak pelvic muscles.

What does it mean if you can’t hold your pee?

Sometimes, pee leaks out. When you can’t hold your pee, that’s called incontinence. There are a few kinds of incontinence, and they’re treated in different ways:

Stress incontinence: This is when pee leaks out when you cough, sneeze, laugh, or exercise. It’s more common in people with weaker pelvic floor muscles. It’s treated with exercises to strengthen the pelvic muscles or sometimes surgery.
Urge incontinence: This is when you lose urine because you can’t make it to the bathroom on time. It’s treated with medications, exercises, or surgery.
Overflow incontinence: This happens when the bladder doesn’t empty like it should, which can cause some pee to dribble out. It’s managed by treating the condition that’s affecting the bladder or the nerves to the bladder.

Is it normal to wake up at night because you have to pee?

Waking up at night to pee becomes more common as you age. But this can happen at any age if you drink a lot of fluids before bed. This is especially true with caffeine or alcohol. In this case, you might find yourself making a bathroom run in the middle of the night.

If peeing at night is happening more often or seems to be getting worse, it could be a sign of a medical condition. (See the list above for more info on conditions.)

When should you seek medical care for frequent urination or other peeing-related issues?

Talk to a healthcare professional about any symptoms that are new, bothersome, or are getting worse. Some things that you should get care for right away include:

Blood in your pee or a significant change in color, especially if it’s pink, red, or brown
Pain or burning when you pee
New incontinence
Back pain or fever
Urine that’s hard to pass
Discharge from the penis or vagina
New or worsening weakness or fatigue
Unintended weight loss
New or worsening confusion, especially in older adults

Frequently asked questions

There’s a lot of variation in this throughout the day. You might pee a few times in a row after you wake up in the morning — especially if you’ve had a lot of fluids with breakfast. But it’s also common to go 6 to 8 hours without peeing overnight when you’re sleeping.

You should feel like you’ve emptied your bladder after you finish peeing. If you still feel like you need to pee right after you’ve peed, you should see a healthcare professional to find out why. If you have the need to pee right after peeing, it could be a sign of an underlying medical condition, like an overactive bladder or UTI.

It’s normal to go through the night without waking up to pee. But, for some, it’s also normal to wake up once to pee during the night. If you’re waking up two or more times to pee at night, you should let a healthcare professional know.

The bottom line

On average, adults pee four to seven times a day. Lots of things can affect how often and how much you pee, including your age, how much you drink, medications, and certain medical conditions. Most differences between people (and in your own body over time) aren’t anything serious. But a healthcare professional can help you find out if there’s something else going on that’s affecting how much you pee — and the best way to treat it.

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Written by:

Anne Jacobson, MD, MPH

Anne Jacobson, MD, MPH has been a board-certified physician since 1999. She was a full-scope family physician (inpatient, outpatient, obstetrics, and office procedures) in the Cook County Ambulatory Health Network for 15 years.

Edited by:

Alex Eastman, PhD, RN

Alex Eastman, PhD, RN, is a California-based registered nurse and staff medical editor at GoodRx, where he focuses on clinical updates and Latino health.

Reviewed by:

Farzon A. Nahvi, MD

Farzon Nahvi, MD, is an emergency medicine physician and author of “Code Gray: Death, Life, and Uncertainty in the ER.” He works at Concord Hospital in Concord, New Hampshire, and teaches at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

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