Use in adults when converting an established oral benzodiazepine regimen to another oral benzodiazepine, typically to consolidate to a single agent, switch to a longer-acting drug, or support dose reduction and taper planning. Safety and equivalence in children or adolescents are uncertain, so seek specialist advice before applying these conversions in paediatric patients.

Evidence context

Conversion factors are based on the VA/DoD 2021 SUD guideline sedative–hypnotic conversion table, which lists approximate oral doses of alprazolam 1 mg, chlordiazepoxide 25 mg, clonazepam 1 mg, diazepam 10 mg, lorazepam 2 mg, oxazepam 30 mg, temazepam 15 mg and triazolam 0.25 mg as roughly equivalent in withdrawal-suppressing effect to 10 mg oral diazepam.
The 2025 ASAM tapering guideline reproduces these VA/DoD diazepam-equivalent doses alongside Ashton-manual estimates and emphasises that they are approximate and should be individualised rather than treated as precise therapeutic equivalents.
Australian guidance such as the DASSA benzodiazepine equivalents chart and the NSW Alcohol and Other Drugs compendium present similar diazepam-equivalent ranges for oral benzodiazepines available in Australia and highlight differences in duration of action, active metabolites and product availability.

The calculator also classifies total daily diazepam-equivalent dose using the dose bands described in the ASAM tapering guideline:

Category	Diazepam-equivalent dose (per day)	Examples from ASAM
Low	≤10 mg	≤0.5 mg clonazepam, ≤2 mg lorazepam, ≤1 mg alprazolam
Moderate	>10 to 15 mg	0.5–1.5 mg clonazepam, 2–3 mg lorazepam, 1–2 mg alprazolam
High	>15 mg	>1.5 mg clonazepam, >3 mg lorazepam, >2 mg alprazolam

These equivalence tables are consensus tools grounded in pharmacokinetics, clinical experience and withdrawal-dose studies rather than large comparative trials. Actual risk depends on dose, duration of use, half-life, age, medical comorbidities and concurrent CNS depressants, especially opioids and alcohol. Use specialist advice and local protocols for very high doses, complex polypharmacy, pregnancy, significant hepatic or respiratory disease, or where inpatient withdrawal management may be needed.

Benzodiazepine Conversion Calculator