One tablespoon of avocado oil contains about 120 to 124 calories, with 100 grams coming in at 884 calories. That puts it on par with virtually every other pure cooking oil, since all fats deliver roughly 9 calories per gram regardless of their source. The differences between oils come down to fat composition, smoke point, and what they do for your body beyond raw energy.
Calories by Serving Size
Avocado oil is pure fat, so the calorie math scales in a straight line. Here are the most commonly referenced portions:
- 1 tablespoon (about 14 g): 120–124 calories
- 1 teaspoon (about 5 g): roughly 40 calories
- 100 ml: 813 calories
- 100 g: 884 calories
If you’re drizzling avocado oil over a salad or using it to coat a pan, you’re typically adding one to two tablespoons, so 120 to 250 calories from the oil alone. That’s worth knowing if you’re tracking intake, because liquid fats are easy to over-pour. A quick pour that looks small can easily double what you intended.
How It Compares to Olive Oil
Avocado oil and extra virgin olive oil are nearly identical on the nutrition label. Both provide 120 calories per tablespoon and 2 grams of saturated fat per serving. The remaining fat in both oils is predominantly monounsaturated, the type consistently linked to better heart health markers. If you’re choosing between them purely on calories, there’s no meaningful difference.
Where avocado oil pulls ahead is heat tolerance. Refined avocado oil has a smoke point around 271°C (520°F), which is well above what most home cooking requires. Virgin avocado oil sits lower at roughly 200°C (392°F), and extra virgin varieties land around 250°C (482°F). For comparison, extra virgin olive oil typically smokes between 190°C and 215°C. That higher smoke point makes refined avocado oil a better choice for searing, stir-frying, and roasting at high temperatures, since oils that reach their smoke point break down and develop off flavors.
Cooking at high heat doesn’t change the calorie content of the oil itself. A tablespoon going into the pan still carries the same energy whether you’re using it at a gentle sauté temperature or a screaming-hot sear.
What’s in Those Calories
Every calorie in avocado oil comes from fat. There’s no protein, no carbohydrate, and no fiber. About 70% of the fat is monounsaturated, roughly 12% is polyunsaturated, and the remaining portion is saturated. That monounsaturated-heavy profile is similar to olive oil and is one reason avocado oil is often grouped with “healthy fats.”
Avocado oil also contains small amounts of fat-soluble compounds like vitamin E, but you’d need to consume unrealistic quantities to rely on it as a vitamin source. Its real nutritional advantage is what it does for other foods.
It Helps You Absorb More From Other Foods
Many of the most valuable nutrients in vegetables, particularly carotenoids like beta-carotene, lycopene, and lutein, are fat-soluble. Your body absorbs them far more efficiently when they’re eaten alongside fat. Research published in The Journal of Nutrition found that adding avocado oil to a salad increased absorption of beta-carotene by over 15 times and lutein by about 5 times compared to eating the same salad without any added fat. Lycopene absorption from salsa increased 4.4 times when avocado was included.
The study also compared whole avocado fruit to avocado oil directly and found no significant difference in absorption, meaning the oil works just as well as the whole fruit for this purpose. So while a tablespoon of avocado oil adds 120 calories to your salad, those calories are pulling considerably more nutrition out of the vegetables you’re already eating.
Practical Ways to Manage the Calories
If you use avocado oil regularly and want to keep calories in check, measuring matters more than switching oils. A “glug” from the bottle can easily be two or three tablespoons (240 to 360 calories) when you only needed one. Using a spray bottle or a measured pour spout can cut your actual usage in half without changing the flavor of your food noticeably.
For salad dressings, mixing avocado oil with an acid like lemon juice or vinegar stretches a smaller amount of oil across a larger volume. A two-to-one ratio of oil to acid is standard for vinaigrettes, so one tablespoon of avocado oil plus a half-tablespoon of vinegar coats a full bowl of greens while keeping the fat contribution to a single serving.
For high-heat cooking, you need less oil than you think. A thin, even coat on a hot pan is enough for most searing and roasting. Preheating the pan before adding oil helps it spread more thinly and prevents food from sticking, so you get better results with less.