Most people get far more sodium than they realize, mainly from packaged and restaurant food rather than the salt shaker. This calculator tracks your daily sodium against the 2,300 mg Dietary Guidelines for Americans limit, converts between salt and sodium using the fixed chemistry ratio, and totals a running food log.

How the Sodium Intake Calculator works

The vs Daily Limit tab divides your entered sodium intake, in milligrams, by the 2,300 mg Dietary Guidelines for Americans / FDA Daily Value limit and reports the result as a percentage, along with the equivalent weight of table salt.

The Salt ↔ Sodium tab applies the fixed molar-mass ratio between sodium and sodium chloride (table salt): sodium makes up 22.99 / 58.44 = 39.3% of salt's mass, so 1 gram of salt contains about 393 mg of sodium. The Food Log tab sums the sodium content of multiple foods and can apply that running total to the Daily Limit tab in one click.

Inputs and what they mean

vs Daily Limit takes your total sodium consumed so far today, in milligrams — the sum of the "Sodium" line across everything you've eaten, not a single food's value.

Salt ↔ Sodium takes either a weight of table salt in grams or a sodium amount in milligrams, depending on the selected conversion direction, and converts using the fixed 393 mg-per-gram ratio.

Food Log takes a food name (optional) and its sodium content in milligrams from a nutrition label, one item at a time, and keeps a running total.

Limits and edge cases

This calculator uses a single flat 2,300 mg limit for all adults. It does not account for individualized sodium restrictions — people with hypertension, heart failure, or chronic kidney disease are often given a stricter 1,500 mg/day goal by their care team, which this tool does not apply automatically. For a dual 1,500 mg / 2,300 mg clinical-target comparison, see the related Sodium in Salt Calculator.

The Salt ↔ Sodium conversion only accounts for sodium contributed by NaCl (table salt); it does not track sodium from other additives (sodium bicarbonate, monosodium glutamate, sodium nitrite, sodium citrate) that make up the majority of sodium in a typical U.S. diet. For a precise daily total, add up the "Sodium" line from nutrition labels directly using the Food Log tab rather than back-calculating from salt weight alone.