If you enter Germany from outside the EU, travellers aged 17 or over can use an alcohol exemption covering 4 litres of still wine and 16 litres of beer, plus 1 litre of drinks over 22% ABV or 2 litres at or below 22%, proportionally combined. Bringing ordinary tax-paid purchases from another EU country follows a different personal-use framework. German Customs arrival allowances
This guide helps select the right calculation for accompanied purchases, using official guidance checked on 26 September 2026. The allowance is a tax concession, not the airline's baggage limit.
Start with where the goods come from
German Customs requires non-EU traveller purchases to accompany you and be for personal or household use or gifts, not commercial importation. Goods mailed separately do not become accompanied baggage just because you are also travelling. Special tax territories, including the Canary Islands, need the non-EU allowance check. Arrival scope and conditions
Write “non-EU arrival” or “EU tax-paid personal purchase” at the top of your inventory. Keep the shop location and receipt with it. A German destination on the ticket does not resolve which rules applied at an earlier EU entry point.
If you are bringing stock for a bar, do not run a personal allowance calculation and assume that a small order qualifies. Describe the business purpose to customs before arranging transport.
Non-EU arrival: use three separate lines
Make lines for still wine, beer and the shared stronger/lower-strength category. This keeps a bottle substitution from silently changing the calculation.
Imagine a selection of five 750 mL still wines, eight 500 mL beers, one 700 mL whisky at 40% and one 500 mL fortified wine at 20%:
- Still wine: 5 × 0.75 = 3.75 litres.
- Beer: 8 × 0.5 = 4 litres.
- Whisky share: 0.7 ÷ 1 = 0.70.
- Fortified-wine share: 0.5 ÷ 2 = 0.25.
The shared-category total is 0.95, leaving 5% unused. Each separate total is within its quantity. Adding another 50 mL miniature of the same whisky would use that final 5%; adding a 100 mL miniature would take the share to 1.05.
If you replace one still wine with sparkling wine, move that bottle to the shared category before recalculating. Do not leave it on the still-wine line merely because its size and strength resemble the bottle it replaced.
For a shorter reminder during shopping, see the Germany alcohol reference. Preserve the detailed list for a mixed selection.
EU purchases: reference quantities are evidence, not a shopping entitlement
For qualifying tax-paid goods you carry yourself for personal consumption, German Customs lists reference quantities including 10 litres of spirits, 20 litres of fortified wine, 60 litres of sparkling wine and 110 litres of beer. Above them, you must substantiate private consumption. Germany sets no excise quantity reference for ordinary wine, while other wine-transport rules can still apply. German Customs on intra-EU travel
That is why a generic European “90 litres of wine” chart is not an exact statement of Germany's own position. It is also why “unlimited wine” is an incomplete packing answer: purpose, transport and documentation still matter.
As a volume exercise, four cases containing six 750 mL bottles each hold 18 litres. Write “24 bottles, 18 litres” in the inventory. The two descriptions together are easier to match to the receipts than “four cases”, particularly if a seller uses different case sizes.
Keep a realistic explanation of the intended personal use with a large purchase. Do not manufacture an event or recipient to make the quantity look plausible.
Gifts and routes through Switzerland need care
The German intra-EU page expressly excludes gifts for other people from its personal-use definition, unlike the non-EU passenger page's gift provision. Do not transfer that exception between the two routes. Obtain advice for a gift collection before relying on intra-EU treatment. German Customs personal-use definition
For travel through Switzerland, check Swiss entry requirements too and retain evidence of the EU tax-paid purchase for re-entry. A route planner's fastest road is not necessarily the simplest customs route.
If the purchase is over the non-EU allowance
Tell customs before leaving through the nothing-to-declare route and present your inventory and receipts. German Customs says import duties become payable above the traveller exemption; this guide does not quote a flat charge per extra bottle. Excess-allowance notice
Then make the separate flight decision. The duty-free connection guide and hand-luggage liquids guide address checkpoint questions that a customs litre calculation cannot answer.