Lortab strengths explained (5/325, 7.5/325, 10/325)

Medically reviewed by [Reviewer name, credentials] · Last updated October 17, 2026

You look at the pharmacy label and see “10/325.” It reads like a fraction, a sports score, or a date. It is none of those. Lortab strengths are written as two numbers separated by a slash, and once you know what each number stands for, the whole system makes sense.

The first number is the milligrams of hydrocodone, the opioid that eases pain. The second number is the milligrams of acetaminophen, the same ingredient found in Tylenol. So 10/325 means 10 mg of hydrocodone and 325 mg of acetaminophen in a single tablet. That is the entire code.

This guide walks through every current strength, the label limits for each, the acetaminophen math that often gets overlooked, the older strengths you may still see mentioned online, and the liquid forms. It also explains why moving from one strength to another is a decision for your prescriber, not something to work out at home.

Lortab strengths at a glance: the master table

The table below lines up all three current Lortab strengths side by side. The dosing columns come from the brand Lortab tablet label as summarized by Drugs.com’s Lortab dosage page. The last two columns show what you would take in a full day if you reached the label maximum, which is a ceiling, not a goal.

Strength	Hydrocodone per tablet	Acetaminophen per tablet	Usual adult label dose	Label daily cap	Totals at the cap
5/325	5 mg	325 mg	1 to 2 tablets every 4 to 6 hours as needed	12 tablets	60 mg hydrocodone, 3,900 mg acetaminophen
7.5/325	7.5 mg	325 mg	1 tablet every 4 to 6 hours as needed	6 tablets	45 mg hydrocodone, 1,950 mg acetaminophen
10/325	10 mg	325 mg	1 tablet every 4 to 6 hours as needed	6 tablets	60 mg hydrocodone, 1,950 mg acetaminophen

Two details jump out. First, the 5/325 tablet allows up to 12 a day on the brand label, which puts the acetaminophen total right under the 4,000 mg adult ceiling. Second, the 7.5 and 10 mg tablets have a lower tablet cap, so the acetaminophen total stays much lower even though the opioid dose is the same or higher.

Your own prescription may set a lower cap than the brand label. Some generic hydrocodone and acetaminophen labels, for example, limit 5/325 to 8 tablets a day. The instructions printed on your bottle, and what your prescriber told you, are what count. Many people never get close to any of these maximums, and short courses after surgery or an injury often use far less.

Strength-by-strength profiles

Each tablet strength tends to show up in slightly different situations. These are general patterns, not rules. A prescriber chooses a strength based on your pain, your history with opioids, your weight and age, your liver and kidney health, and the other medicines you take.

Lortab 5/325: the lowest tablet strength

Lortab 5/325 holds 5 mg of hydrocodone. It is often the starting point for someone who has not taken opioids before, for older adults, or for pain expected to ease within a few days. Because the label allows one or two tablets per dose, it also gives a prescriber some flexibility without changing the prescription.

That flexibility has a catch. Two 5/325 tablets equal 10 mg of hydrocodone, but they also deliver 650 mg of acetaminophen. If you take two tablets at every dose, the acetaminophen adds up faster than with any other strength. We come back to this point later because it surprises a lot of people.

Lortab 7.5/325: the middle step

Lortab 7.5/325 holds 7.5 mg of hydrocodone. It sits between the other two and is commonly used when 5 mg does not control pain well enough, or when a prescriber wants a single-tablet dose rather than two of the lowest strength. The label calls for one tablet per dose, up to 6 tablets a day.

Some people go straight to this strength after a moderately painful procedure. Others reach it after starting lower. Either path is normal, and the choice depends on how your pain responds and how you tolerate side effects like drowsiness and nausea.

Lortab 10/325: the strongest Lortab tablet

Lortab 10/325 is the strongest Lortab tablet currently made, with 10 mg of hydrocodone. The label again calls for one tablet per dose, up to 6 a day. It tends to be used for more severe pain, or for people who have taken opioids before and have some tolerance.

“Strongest” here only refers to the hydrocodone content. The acetaminophen is identical across all three tablets. Stronger also means a higher chance of side effects such as sleepiness, slowed breathing, and constipation, especially when combined with alcohol or sedating medicines. If you are curious how this compares with other opioid brands, our guide to Lortab vs oxycodone covers the differences.

Why the second number never changes

If you shop around for Lortab strengths today, you will notice that the acetaminophen number is stuck at 325. That is no accident. It is the result of a deliberate federal policy.

In January 2011, the FDA asked drug makers to cap acetaminophen at 325 mg per tablet or capsule in prescription combination products. The deadline was January 14, 2014. On that date, the agency went a step further and asked prescribers and pharmacists to stop prescribing and dispensing combination products with more than 325 mg per unit.

The reasoning was simple. The FDA found no evidence that more than 325 mg per tablet gave enough extra pain relief to justify the added risk of liver injury. Most cases of acetaminophen liver damage involved people who took more than 4,000 mg in a day, often by combining more than one acetaminophen product. In the agency’s 2014 statement, unintended overdoses from prescription combination products made up about half of acetaminophen-related liver failure cases in the United States.

Lowering the per-tablet amount gave everyone more room before reaching a dangerous total. It also made the math easier. With a fixed 325 mg in every tablet, you can multiply the number of tablets you take by 325 and know exactly how much acetaminophen came from your prescription. Our article on the Lortab acetaminophen limit shows how to keep a daily tally that also includes over-the-counter products.

A second change came the same year. The DEA moved all hydrocodone combination products from Schedule III to Schedule II, effective October 6, 2014, according to the final rule in the Federal Register. Schedule II medicines cannot be refilled. Each new supply requires a new prescription, no matter which strength you take.

Retired strengths: Lortab 10/500 and the 500 mg era

Search results and old forum posts still mention Lortab 10/500, 7.5/500, and 5/500. Those numbers come from an earlier version of the brand, when each tablet carried 500 mg of acetaminophen. During that same period, Norco used 325 mg, which was one of the few real differences between the two brands. Our comparison of hydrocodone vs Norco covers that history in more detail.

All of the strengths below are discontinued. You should not expect to receive them, and if an old bottle turns up in a drawer, it belongs at a drug take-back site, not in your pill organizer.

Former strength	Hydrocodone	Acetaminophen	Status
Lortab 5/500 tablet	5 mg	500 mg	Discontinued
Lortab 7.5/500 tablet	7.5 mg	500 mg	Discontinued
Lortab 10/500 tablet	10 mg	500 mg	Discontinued
Older Lortab Elixir	7.5 mg per 15 mL	500 mg per 15 mL (with 7% alcohol)	Discontinued

Why does this history matter today? Because online dosing advice written before 2014 may assume 500 mg tablets. Mixing that old advice with your 325 mg tablets can lead to confusing numbers. Always go by the label on the bottle you have now.

It also explains why some people remember Lortab as “harder on the stomach” or “different” from Norco. Back then, the acetaminophen content really was different. Today, a Lortab vs Vicodin or Lortab vs Norco comparison at the same strength comes down to the same two ingredients in the same amounts.

Liquid strengths: when the dose comes in milliliters

Hydrocodone and acetaminophen also come as a liquid, which helps people who cannot swallow tablets or who need finer dose adjustments. Liquid strengths are written per volume, usually per 15 mL (one tablespoon), instead of per tablet.

Liquid product	Hydrocodone	Acetaminophen	Notes
Lortab Elixir (2015 label)	10 mg per 15 mL	300 mg per 15 mL	Schedule II; label adult max of 67.5 mL a day
Generic oral solution	7.5 mg per 15 mL	325 mg per 15 mL	Different concentration from the elixir
Generic oral solution	10 mg per 15 mL	325 mg per 15 mL	Different concentration from the elixir

Notice that the newer Lortab Elixir uses 300 mg of acetaminophen per 15 mL, not 325. That works out to about 3.33 mg of hydrocodone and 100 mg of acetaminophen in every 5 mL. At the label maximum of 67.5 mL a day, an adult would take 45 mg of hydrocodone and 1,350 mg of acetaminophen.

Liquids carry a risk that tablets do not: measuring errors. The label warns that confusing milligrams with milliliters, or mixing up products of different concentrations, has led to accidental overdoses and deaths. Even one dose swallowed by a child can be fatal. Always use the oral syringe or dosing cup from the pharmacy, never a kitchen spoon. Our full guide to Lortab elixir covers measuring routines, storage, and disposal.

Is 10/325 twice as strong as 5/325?

This is one of the most common questions about Lortab strengths, and the answer depends on which ingredient you are looking at. Think of each tablet as carrying two separate loads. One load is opioid. The other is acetaminophen. They scale differently.

The opioid math

On the opioid side, yes, 10/325 has twice the hydrocodone of 5/325. Doctors sometimes compare opioids using morphine milligram equivalents, or MME. In the CDC’s 2022 opioid prescribing guideline, hydrocodone has a conversion factor of 1. That means each milligram of hydrocodone counts as roughly one morphine milligram equivalent.

• One 5/325 tablet: about 5 MME
• One 7.5/325 tablet: about 7.5 MME
• One 10/325 tablet: about 10 MME

For comparison, oxycodone has a factor of 1.5, so it is about one and a half times as potent milligram for milligram. That is why a Lortab vs Percocet comparison at the same printed strength is not an even match. MME is a population tool for safety planning, not a precise measure of how you personally will feel. People vary a great deal in how they respond to the same dose.

The acetaminophen math

On the acetaminophen side, every tablet is the same. So one 10/325 tablet and one 5/325 tablet deliver identical acetaminophen. But two 5/325 tablets, which equal one 10/325 tablet in hydrocodone, deliver twice the acetaminophen.

Way to reach 10 mg hydrocodone	Acetaminophen per dose	Acetaminophen after 4 doses
One 10/325 tablet	325 mg	1,300 mg
Two 5/325 tablets	650 mg	2,600 mg

Both routes give the same opioid dose, yet one doubles the load on your liver. Add a few over-the-counter cold or sleep medicines that also contain acetaminophen and the higher route can creep toward the 4,000 mg adult daily limit. This is one reason prescribers sometimes move a person to a single higher-strength tablet rather than having them take two lower ones. For a broader look at how the two ingredients compare on their own, see hydrocodone vs acetaminophen.

How long each dose lasts

Strength changes how much medicine you get, not how long it works. Hydrocodone has a half-life of about 4 hours, and immediate-release tablets of every strength usually give pain relief for roughly 4 to 6 hours. That matches the “every 4 to 6 hours” spacing on the label. Our answer on how long hydrocodone lasts explains the timing in more detail.

Switching Lortab strengths safely

Maybe your pain is worse than expected. Maybe it is better, and you wonder whether you could step down. Either way, changing strength is a prescription decision. Here is why, and how to go about it.

Why you should not adjust on your own

• Breathing risk rises with dose. The label carries a boxed warning about life-threatening slowed breathing. The risk is highest when starting, after a dose increase, and when an opioid is combined with alcohol, benzodiazepines, or other sedatives.
• Interactions change the picture. Hydrocodone is broken down mainly by the liver enzyme CYP3A4, with CYP2D6 also playing a role. Some antibiotics like clarithromycin, azole antifungals, certain HIV drugs, and grapefruit can block CYP3A4 and raise hydrocodone levels.
• Acetaminophen adds up quietly. Doubling up tablets doubles acetaminophen too.
• Schedule II rules apply. Running out early because you took more than prescribed cannot be fixed with a refill.

Do not cut, crush, or combine tablets unless told to

Some people try to make their own in-between strengths by splitting tablets or mixing two different strengths. Please do not do this without explicit instructions from your prescriber or pharmacist. Some tablets are scored and can be split when directed, but splitting changes how carefully you must track both ingredients. Crushing or chewing a tablet to make it work faster is a misuse pattern that raises overdose risk.

How to ask for a change

1. Keep a short log for two or three days: the time of each dose, how many tablets, your pain level before and an hour after, and any side effects.
2. Write down every other medicine and supplement you take, including over-the-counter pain, cold, and sleep products.
3. Call your prescriber’s office and describe what is and is not working. Mention if pain is waking you up or if you feel too drowsy.
4. Ask whether a different strength, a different schedule, or a non-opioid add-on makes more sense. Ibuprofen or other non-opioid options are sometimes paired with hydrocodone for better relief at a lower opioid dose.
5. When you pick up the new strength, ask the pharmacist to compare it with the old one and to take back or explain how to dispose of leftover tablets.

Lowering the dose matters just as much as raising it. If you have taken hydrocodone daily for more than a few weeks, stopping suddenly can trigger withdrawal. Your prescriber can plan a gradual step-down. For a wider look at dose ranges across all hydrocodone products, see our hydrocodone dosage guide.

Questions worth asking your pharmacist

• What does the imprint on my tablet mean, and which strength is it?
• How much acetaminophen am I getting in a full day at the dose I was prescribed?
• Do any of my other medicines interact with hydrocodone?
• Should I have naloxone at home?
• Where is the closest drug take-back location for leftover tablets?

How prescribers choose between Lortab strengths

You might wonder why a friend got 10/325 for the same surgery that earned you 5/325. Strength selection is personal. Prescribers weigh several factors:

• Opioid history. Someone who has never taken opioids usually starts low. Someone already tolerant may need more for the same relief.
• Type and expected length of pain. A tooth extraction and a major joint surgery call for different plans.
• Age and body size. Older adults often clear medicines more slowly and are more sensitive to sedation and falls.
• Liver and kidney function. These affect how both ingredients are processed.
• Breathing conditions. Sleep apnea, COPD, and severe asthma increase the risk of slowed breathing.
• Other medicines. Sedatives, gabapentinoids, and CYP3A4 inhibitors may push a prescriber toward a lower strength or a different medicine entirely.

Children are a special case. Pediatric dosing of hydrocodone and acetaminophen is weight-based and set only by the prescriber. Do not use any adult numbers in this article to dose a child.

The full prescribing details are available on DailyMed. You can read the hydrocodone bitartrate and acetaminophen tablets label to see the boxed warnings and dosing sections in the manufacturer’s own words. For background on the brand itself, our guide to what Lortab is covers how the two ingredients work together.

Lortab strengths: frequently asked questions

What does 10/325 mean on a Lortab prescription?

It means each tablet contains 10 mg of hydrocodone and 325 mg of acetaminophen. The first number is always the opioid, and the second is always the acetaminophen. The same format is used for 5/325 and 7.5/325.

What is the strongest Lortab?

The strongest current Lortab tablet is 10/325, which holds 10 mg of hydrocodone. The older 10/500 tablet had the same hydrocodone but more acetaminophen, and it has been discontinued. Your prescriber decides which strength fits your pain and health history.

Is Lortab 10/500 still available?

No. In 2014 the FDA asked prescribers and pharmacists to stop prescribing and dispensing combination products with more than 325 mg of acetaminophen per unit. Lortab 10/500, 7.5/500, and 5/500 are no longer dispensed in the United States. If you have old tablets, take them to a drug take-back site.

Can I take two 5/325 tablets instead of one 10/325?

Only if your prescriber tells you to. Two 5/325 tablets equal 10 mg of hydrocodone but double the acetaminophen to 650 mg per dose. Over a full day that difference can add up quickly, so follow the directions on your label.

How many Lortab 10/325 tablets can I take in a day?

The brand Lortab label lists one tablet every 4 to 6 hours as needed, with no more than 6 tablets in 24 hours. Your own prescription may set a lower limit. Always follow the directions on your bottle and from your prescriber.

Is the Lortab brand discontinued?

According to Drugs.com, the Lortab brand name has been discontinued in the U.S. Generic hydrocodone and acetaminophen tablets with the same strengths are widely available, and Norco is another brand with matching numbers. The medicine is still prescribed, just usually under its generic name.

Does a higher strength last longer?

No. Higher strengths deliver more hydrocodone, but the effect of immediate-release tablets typically lasts about 4 to 6 hours regardless of strength. Taking a stronger tablet does not mean you can space doses further apart unless your prescriber says so.

Why does my generic tablet look different from my last refill?

Different manufacturers make generic hydrocodone and acetaminophen, and each one can choose its own color, shape, and imprint. The active ingredients and strength must match what was prescribed. Ask your pharmacist to confirm any tablet that looks unfamiliar.

The takeaway on Lortab strengths

Lortab strengths follow a simple code: hydrocodone first, acetaminophen second. Today’s tablets come in 5/325, 7.5/325, and 10/325, and the 325 never changes because of the FDA’s 2014 limit. The older 500 mg versions are gone. Liquid forms use a per-15 mL format and need careful measuring.

The most useful habit is to think about both numbers at once. A stronger tablet means more opioid, while more tablets means more acetaminophen. Keep a simple log, count every acetaminophen source, and bring any change in strength to your prescriber before you make it.

This article is for education only and is not medical advice. Do not start, stop, or change any medicine without talking to your prescriber. Hydrocodone and acetaminophen is a Schedule II controlled substance that should only be used with a valid prescription, exactly as directed. If someone may have overdosed, call 911 right away. For questions about acetaminophen overdose, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222. If you or someone you love is struggling with substance use, call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357, free and confidential, 24/7.

Sources

• Drugs.com: Lortab (brand discontinued note)
• Drugs.com: Lortab dosage
• DailyMed: Hydrocodone bitartrate and acetaminophen tablets label
• Federal Register: Rescheduling of hydrocodone combination products to Schedule II (2014)
• CDC: Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain, 2022
• Poison Control (poison.org)
• SAMHSA National Helpline