Does Aquafina have microplastics?
The short answer
Yes, and this one has actually been measured. Aquafina was one of the eleven brands in the 2018 Mason study, which found microplastic in 93% of the 259 bottles it tested across those brands, averaging 325 particles per litre.
PET plastic bottle format profile
Why Aquafina scores 66
Included in the Mason 2018 tested cohort — this is a measured brand, not an inferred one
One of the most aggressively lightweighted bottles on the US market, so the wall flexes more in handling
Purified municipal water, meaning the source is treated before filling and the polymer is the remaining variable
Very high-volume convenience-store distribution, typically unrefrigerated
Where the 66 comes from
Five components, added. The page renders the parts rather than a stored total, so the number cannot disagree with the reasoning behind it.
- Packaging contact
- 23 / 30
- Use conditions
- 12 / 25
- Measured release
- 22 / 25
- Polymer behaviour
- 6 / 10
- Processing
- 3 / 10
What material touches the contents, over how much surface area, for how long. Glass and steel score near zero here; a film pressed against fatty food scores near the top.
Heat, abrasion, flexing, repeated opening, reuse beyond design life. The same bottle scores differently in a fridge and in a hot car.
What a laboratory actually counted, for this product or its category. A high number here means real particles were measured, not that the material looks suspicious.
How this specific polymer behaves — brittleness, fat solubility of its additives, thermal stability, whether it is a polymer named in existing restrictions.
What happened before you bought it. Retort sterilisation inside the pack, hot-filling, and pressurised brewing all happen at the most migration-favourable moment.
What we don't know
Mason 2018 used Nile-red staining, which reliably resolves particles above roughly 100 μm. It is a floor, not a total: the 2024 PNAS work using Raman microscopy found around 90% of the particle count sits below what the older method could see. Aquafina has not been re-tested with the newer method.
This section is on every page in the database, including the ones where the answer is comfortable. How evidence grades work →
Better options
Ordered by how much they change, not by how much they cost.
Filtered tap water
purified municipal water is what Aquafina is, minus the bottle
Glass-bottled water
when you want it bottled
Aluminium-canned water
no bottle wall, but a thin internal liner instead
Check the one in your hand
This page scores Aquafina as a product. Formulations, packaging and suppliers change, and the specific item you own has its own condition — a scratched pan and a new one are not the same object. Scan yours for a score built from what is actually in front of you.
Scan my drinking waterSources behind this score
Each with the finding we use it for and the limitation that finding carries — because a study quoted without its boundaries is how this subject got so noisy.
- peer-reviewed2018
Mason 2018 — 93% of 259 bottles across 11 international brands contained microplastic; an average of 325 particles per litre across all size classes.
Limitation: Nile-red staining and optical microscopy only reliably resolve particles above ~100 μm, so its counts are a floor, not a total. Lower numbers here do not mean less plastic than the 2024 study — they mean a less sensitive method.
- peer-reviewed2024
PNAS 2024 (Qian) — Counted roughly 240,000 plastic particles per litre in bottled water, about 90% of them nanoplastics that earlier optical methods could not see at all.
Limitation: Three unnamed US brands, small sample. It measured particles, not absorption or any health outcome, and the brands were not disclosed — so it cannot be attributed to a specific label.
- agency2019
WHO 2019 — Concluded that microplastics in drinking water do not appear to pose a health risk at current levels, while calling the underlying evidence limited and urging more research.
Limitation: Predates the nanoplastic detection methods that changed the particle counts by three orders of magnitude. Its conclusion is about what was measurable in 2019.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Aquafina have microplastics?
How was the Aquafina score of 66 calculated?
Is Aquafina safe?
Why is the confidence only 88%?
Deciding between two things?
Bottled water vs filtered tap water
Is bottled water worse than filtering my own?
Canned water vs bottled water
Is water in a can better than water in a plastic bottle?
Tap water vs bottled water
Is bottled water actually cleaner than the tap?