The Scoville Scale
Most Scoville charts publish one tidy number per pepper. Those numbers get copied between sites until nobody can say where they came from. Capsaicin is not a fixed property of a variety — it moves with cultivar, soil, water stress and ripeness, routinely by a factor of two. So every pepper here is a range, and each one says whether it is a typical commercial range or a single verified record.
Showing 27 of 27 peppers
Bell Pepper
C. annuum0 SHUtypical rangeInfinity× milder JalapeñoThe only common Capsicum with a recessive gene that switches capsaicin production off entirely.
Banana Pepper
C. annuum0 – 500 SHUtypical range21.0× milder JalapeñoSweet varieties sit at zero; hot banana peppers reach the low hundreds.
Pimento
C. annuum100 – 500 SHUtypical range17.5× milder JalapeñoThe pepper inside a stuffed olive.
Pepperoncini
C. annuum100 – 500 SHUtypical range17.5× milder JalapeñoUsually eaten pickled, which mutes what little heat there is.
Poblano
C. annuum1,000 – 2,000 SHUtypical range3.5× milder JalapeñoSold dried as the ancho. The chile in chiles rellenos.
Anaheim
C. annuum500 – 2,500 SHUtypical range3.5× milder JalapeñoNew Mexico-grown strains of the same pepper run noticeably hotter than Californian ones.
Guajillo
C. annuum2,500 – 5,000 SHUtypical range1.4× milder JalapeñoDried mirasol. One of the three chiles in a classic mole.
Jalapeño
C. annuum2,500 – 8,000 SHUtypical rangethe baselineThe reference point most people actually have a memory of, which is why this tool compares against it.
Chipotle
C. annuum2,500 – 8,000 SHUtypical range1.0× hotter than JalapeñoA smoked, dried jalapeño — smoking changes the flavour, not the capsaicin.
Serrano
C. annuum10,000 – 23,000 SHUtypical range3.1× hotter than JalapeñoRoughly three to five times a jalapeño, and the usual step up in salsa verde.
Chile de Árbol
C. annuum15,000 – 30,000 SHUtypical range4.3× hotter than JalapeñoKeeps its bright red colour when dried, which is why it ends up in decorative ristras.
Cayenne
C. annuum30,000 – 50,000 SHUtypical range7.6× hotter than JalapeñoThe default "red pepper" in most spice racks and most commercial chili powders.
Tabasco
C. frutescens30,000 – 50,000 SHUtypical range7.6× hotter than JalapeñoThe sauce is far milder than the pepper because it is heavily diluted with vinegar and salt.
Thai Bird's Eye
C. annuum50,000 – 100,000 SHUtypical range14× hotter than JalapeñoSmall, thin-walled and fast — the heat arrives immediately and fades quickly.
Chiltepin
C. annuum50,000 – 100,000 SHUtypical range14× hotter than JalapeñoWild, pea-sized, and the likely ancestor of every domesticated C. annuum.
Habaneroour pepper
C. chinense100,000 – 350,000 SHUtypical range43× hotter than JalapeñoFruity and floral before the heat lands. Commonly cited at around 200,000 SHU — roughly 40 times a jalapeño.
Scotch Bonnet
C. chinense100,000 – 350,000 SHUtypical range43× hotter than JalapeñoSame species and heat band as the habanero, sweeter in flavour. The backbone of Caribbean jerk.
Datil
C. chinense100,000 – 300,000 SHUtypical range38× hotter than JalapeñoGrown almost exclusively around St. Augustine, Florida.
Fatalii
C. chinense125,000 – 400,000 SHUtypical range50× hotter than JalapeñoCentral African. Citrus-forward even by C. chinense standards.
Red Savina Habanero
C. chinense350,000 – 580,000 SHUtypical range89× hotter than JalapeñoA selectively bred habanero cultivar that held the world record from 1994 to 2006.
Ghost Pepper (Bhut Jolokia)
C. chinense800,000 – 1,041,427 SHUverified record180× hotter than JalapeñoThe first pepper confirmed above one million SHU, in 2007. The upper figure is the specific verified measurement.
Naga Viper
C. chinense900,000 – 1,349,000 SHUverified record210× hotter than JalapeñoAn unstable three-way hybrid — seed from one pod does not reliably reproduce the parent.
Trinidad Scorpion Butch T
C. chinense1,000,000 – 1,463,700 SHUverified record230× hotter than JalapeñoRecord holder in 2011. Named for the pointed tail on the pod.
7 Pot Douglah
C. chinense1,000,000 – 1,853,986 SHUverified record270× hotter than JalapeñoChocolate-brown rather than red. Named for a pod being enough to season seven pots of stew.
Trinidad Moruga Scorpion
C. chinense1,200,000 – 2,009,231 SHUverified record310× hotter than JalapeñoTook the record in 2012 as the first pepper measured above two million SHU.
Carolina Reaper
C. chinense1,400,000 – 2,200,000 SHUverified record340× hotter than JalapeñoGuinness record holder 2013–2023 at a 1,641,183 SHU average across tested samples.
Pepper X
C. chinense2,000,000 – 2,693,000 SHUverified record450× hotter than JalapeñoCertified by Guinness in October 2023 at an average of 2,693,000 SHU.
Why this chart uses a logarithmic scale
Pepper X tops out near 2,693,000 SHU. A jalapeño averages about 5,250. On a normal linear axis the jalapeño occupies two tenths of one percent of the chart — it renders as a flat line, indistinguishable from a bell pepper at zero. That is why almost every Scoville graphic you have seen is useless for the range people actually cook in. A logarithmic axis gives each tenfold increase the same width, so the difference between 0 and 8,000 SHU stays readable next to the superhots.
Where the Scoville scale came from
Wilbur Scoville published the test in 1912. An extract of the pepper was diluted in sugar water until a panel of tasters could no longer detect any heat, and the dilution factor became the score. It was subjective by design and it depended on whose tongue was on the panel. Modern figures come from high-performance liquid chromatography, which measures capsaicinoid concentration directly and converts it. The unit survived the change of method, which is a large part of why older published numbers and newer ones disagree about the same pepper.
Sources
- Guinness World Records — "Hottest chilli pepper" (Pepper X, certified October 2023; Carolina Reaper, 2013).
- Scoville, W. L. (1912), "Note on Capsicums", Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association — the original organoleptic dilution test.
- Modern SHU figures are derived from HPLC capsaicinoid assay rather than taste panels; the two methods do not always agree on historical varieties.
- Typical ranges reflect commonly reported commercial values and vary with cultivar, growing conditions and ripeness.
The habanero sits at roughly 200,000 SHU — about forty times a jalapeño. Hot enough to matter, short of the novelty superhots. That is the pepper in the shaker, and nothing else is in there.
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