🌶️ Chili Heat Scale
Browse real Scoville Heat Unit ranges for street-food peppers, filter by heat level, and compare any two peppers directly.
🌶️ 20 peppers
| Pepper | Scoville range | Level | Origin | Used in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bell pepper | 0–0 | mild | Central/South America | Fajitas, stir-fries, stuffed peppers — sweet, no heat. |
| Pepperoncini | 100–500 | mild | Italy/Greece | Sandwich toppings and pickled antipasto plates. |
| Poblano | 1,000–2,000 | mild | Mexico | Chiles rellenos and roasted-pepper street tacos. |
| Gochugaru (Korean chili) | 1,500–4,000 | mild | South Korea | Tteokbokki sauce and Korean street-food marinades. |
| Guajillo | 2,500–5,000 | mild | Mexico | Dried-chili sauces and marinades for al pastor. |
| Jalapeño | 2,500–8,000 | medium | Mexico | Taco toppings, nachos, and pickled street-cart garnish. |
| Fresno pepper | 2,500–10,000 | medium | United States | Fresh salsa and taco-truck hot sauces. |
| Chipotle (smoked jalapeño) | 5,000–10,000 | medium | Mexico | Smoky adobo sauces for tacos and tortas. |
| Aleppo pepper | 10,000–10,000 | medium | Syria/Turkey | Sprinkled over kebabs, manakish, and grilled meats. |
| Serrano | 10,000–23,000 | medium | Mexico | Fresh salsa verde on tacos and street-cart bowls. |
| Chile de árbol | 15,000–30,000 | medium | Mexico | Dried-chili table sauces for tacos and tortas. |
| Cayenne | 30,000–50,000 | medium | French Guiana / global | Hot-sauce bases and spice blends for fried street snacks. |
| Thai chili (prik kee noo) | 50,000–100,000 | hot | Thailand | Pad Thai condiments, papaya salad, and dipping sauces. |
| Bird's eye chili | 50,000–175,000 | hot | Southeast Asia/Africa | Southeast Asian noodle stalls and hot dipping sauces. |
| Piri piri | 50,000–175,000 | hot | Southern Africa (via Portugal) | Grilled-chicken street stands and basting sauces. |
| Habanero | 100,000–350,000 | hot | Yucatán, Mexico | Fiery salsas and marinades at Yucatán taco stands. |
| Scotch bonnet | 100,000–350,000 | hot | Caribbean | Jerk marinades for grilled street-cart chicken. |
| Ghost pepper (bhut jolokia) | 800,000–1,041,427 | extreme | Northeast India | Extreme-heat hot sauces and novelty street-food challenges. |
| Trinidad Scorpion | 1,200,000–2,000,000 | extreme | Trinidad and Tobago | Small-batch superhot hot sauces, used sparingly. |
| Carolina Reaper | 1,400,000–2,200,000 | extreme | United States | World's hottest cultivated pepper on record — extract-strength hot sauces. |
Compare two peppers
⚖️ Habanero vs Jalapeño
Comparison uses the midpoint of each pepper’s published Scoville range. Real peppers vary with growing conditions, so treat this as a useful estimate, not an exact multiplier.
Reading the Heat
Chili heat is everywhere in street food, from the barely-there warmth of a guajillo salsa to the sinus-clearing punch of a Scotch bonnet jerk marinade. This reference collects real, published Scoville Heat Unit ranges for the peppers most likely to turn up on a street-food cart, sorted and filterable by how hot they actually are.
The comparison tool underneath answers the question a chart alone can’t: exactly how much hotter is one pepper than another? Pick any two and see the multiplier, worked out from their midpoint Scoville values.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Scoville scale?
It's a measure of a pepper's pungency (heat), expressed in Scoville Heat Units (SHU). Higher numbers mean more capsaicin, the compound responsible for the burning sensation. A bell pepper sits at 0 SHU while the Carolina Reaper, the hottest cultivated pepper on record, can exceed 2,000,000 SHU.
Why are these shown as ranges instead of one number?
A pepper's heat isn't fixed — growing conditions, ripeness, and genetics all shift how hot an individual pepper turns out, even within the same variety. Published references give a range for this reason, and this tool's comparisons use the midpoint of that range as a representative figure.
How does the pepper comparison calculation work?
It divides pepper A's midpoint Scoville value by pepper B's midpoint Scoville value, giving you a straightforward multiplier — a habanero at roughly 225,000 SHU midpoint compared to a jalapeño at roughly 5,250 SHU midpoint comes out to about 42.9 times hotter.
Which peppers actually show up in street food?
Quite a range — mild guajillo and jalapeño in Mexican salsas and tacos, gochugaru in Korean tteokbokki, bird's eye and Thai chilies in Southeast Asian dipping sauces, piri piri in African and Portuguese grilled chicken, and Scotch bonnet in Caribbean jerk marinades, among many others.