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Blood Test Tracker

Urine Glucose (Dipstick)

A dipstick check for sugar in your urine. Healthy kidneys keep almost all glucose out of urine, so the usual result is negative.

AI-verified against cited sources. Awaiting expert reviewLOINC 25428-4

What it is

Glucose is a sugar your body uses for energy. Your kidneys filter it from your blood and then take almost all of it back, so little or no glucose reaches your urine. A pad on the dipstick changes color when glucose is present. Results are reported as negative, trace, or 1+ to 4+, and some analyzers print a number in mg/dL. The test is usually part of a routine urinalysis.

Why it matters

Glucose spills into urine when blood sugar rises above what the kidneys can take back, which is around 180 to 200 mg/dL, or when the kidneys let glucose through at normal blood sugar. So urine glucose can be a clue about blood sugar. It is a weak test, though. Urine glucose can be negative when blood sugar is high, so it can't rule out diabetes, and blood tests such as glucose and A1C are now the usual way to check. Some diabetes medicines (SGLT2 inhibitors) cause a positive result on purpose.

If it’s high

Glucose in the urine (glucosuria or glycosuria) means more sugar is leaving your body in urine than usual. It has several possible explanations, and a single positive dipstick doesn't tell your clinician which one applies. They will usually follow up with a blood glucose test.

Common causes

  • Taking an SGLT2 inhibitor, which moves glucose into urine by design
  • Pregnancy, when a small amount of glucose in urine is common
  • Eating a large meal shortly before the sample
  • High blood sugar from diabetes, including diabetes that isn't well controlled
  • Gestational diabetes, if glucose keeps showing up in pregnancy
  • Inherited or acquired kidney conditions that let glucose through at normal blood sugar, such as familial renal glucosuria or Fanconi syndrome
  • Less often, hormone, liver or pancreas conditions

What can help

  • Ask your clinician whether a blood glucose or A1C test is the right next step
  • Mention any diabetes medicines you take, especially SGLT2 inhibitors, when you share your result
  • If you have diabetes, keep following the blood sugar monitoring plan from your care team, since urine glucose is not a substitute for it

What can affect your result

  • Medicines: SGLT2 inhibitors cause glucose in urine by design
  • Blood sugar level: glucose generally spills into urine when blood sugar is above about 180 to 200 mg/dL
  • Pregnancy: a small amount of glucose in urine is common
  • A recent large meal
  • Vitamin C supplements in high doses can hide glucose
  • Very concentrated urine can make the reading lower than the true amount
  • Strip brand and reader: the mg/dL value behind each step differs between brands, and reading by eye versus an analyzer can differ
  • SGLT2 inhibitors (diabetes, heart and kidney medicines such as empagliflozin, dapagliflozin and canagliflozin) make the kidneys pass glucose into urine on purpose, so a positive result is expected while taking them.
  • High-dose vitamin C can make the dipstick read lower than the true amount of glucose.
  • A large meal shortly before the sample can affect the result.
  • Levodopa and ketones can cause false-positive dipstick results; very concentrated urine and uric acid can cause false-negative results.
  • Strongly colored urine, such as from phenazopyridine, can interfere with the color pads.

Any time. A midstream clean-catch sample is preferred, and the sample should be examined within about two hours or kept refrigerated. Shows glucose that passed into urine since your bladder was last emptied, so it reflects the last few hours, not weeks.

When to talk to a clinician

Contact a clinician if glucose appears in your urine along with signs of high blood sugar, such as unusual thirst, passing urine more often, blurred vision or losing weight without trying, or if a positive result is new and has no clear explanation. If you have diabetes and feel very unwell, with vomiting, belly pain, confusion or trouble breathing, get urgent medical help.

Questions you could ask

  • Is urine glucose useful for me, or should I rely on blood tests?
  • Do I need a blood glucose or A1C test to follow this up?
  • Could a medicine I take explain glucose in my urine?
  • Should we repeat the urine test, and if so, when?

Questions people ask

Does glucose in my urine mean I have diabetes?

Not necessarily. Diabetes is a common cause, but pregnancy, a large meal, some medicines and some inherited kidney conditions can also cause it. A negative urine result doesn't rule diabetes out either, because urine can be negative when blood sugar is high. A blood glucose or A1C test is the usual way to check.

I take an SGLT2 inhibitor. Is a positive result a problem?

These medicines work partly by moving extra glucose from your blood into your urine, so a positive dipstick is expected. The prescribing information for this medicine class says urine glucose tests shouldn't be used to track blood sugar control while you take them. Mention the medicine to whoever reads your result, and ask your clinician how to monitor your blood sugar.

Why was my urine glucose positive during pregnancy?

A small amount of glucose in urine is common in pregnancy. If it keeps appearing, or the amount is high, your clinician may look into it further.

Can vitamin C change my result?

Yes. High doses of vitamin C can make the dipstick under-read glucose, so a result may look negative even if some glucose is present. Tell your clinician or the lab about supplements you take.

What do trace and 1+ mean?

They are steps on the strip's color scale, from trace (the faintest color) up to 4+. The mg/dL value behind each step differs between strip brands, so when you can, compare results that came from the same lab.

Show the science and sources

Units

  • 1 mg/dL = 1 mg/dL
  • 1 mg/dL = 0.05551 mmol/L
  • 1 mg/dL = 0.01 g/L
  • 1 mg/dL = 0.001 g/dL

For clinicians and researchers

The pad uses an enzyme-based color reaction and reports semi-quantitative grades. Glucose is filtered at the glomerulus and almost completely reabsorbed in the proximal tubule; glycosuria occurs when the filtered load exceeds tubular capacity, at a plasma glucose of roughly 180 to 200 mg/dL (AAFP). SGLT2 inhibition lowers the renal threshold, and FDA labeling states that SGLT2 inhibitors increase urinary glucose excretion and will lead to positive urine glucose tests, and that urine glucose tests should not be used to monitor glycemic control in patients taking them. Normoglycemic glycosuria occurs in familial renal glucosuria and Fanconi syndrome. Grades are brand specific: on the Siemens Multistix strip read in one 2019 study, the first positive step ('+', small) corresponded to 250 mg/dL (0.25 g/dL), but the mg/dL equivalent of each step differs between manufacturers, so this catalog does not convert grades to numbers. Quest lists 'Negative' as the expected result for Urinalysis, Complete (5463). Labcorp's urinalysis (003772) reports glucose under LOINC 25428-4 (presence) and notes that high vitamin C intake may cause an underestimate of glucosuria. Where an analyzer prints a number, results appear in mg/dL, mmol/L or g/L.

LOINC 25428-4 (primary), 5792-7, 50555-2, 53328-1, 22705-8, 59156-0. Specimen: urine.

Sources

  1. Glucose in Urine Test (MedlinePlus Medical Test), MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine
  2. Urinalysis (MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia), MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine (2025)
  3. Urinalysis: A Comprehensive Review, American Family Physician (2005)
  4. JARDIANCE (empagliflozin) tablets, prescribing information, Boehringer Ingelheim, via DailyMed (U.S. National Library of Medicine) (2026)
  5. Urinalysis, Complete (test code 5463), Quest Diagnostics
  6. Urinalysis, Complete With Microscopic Examination (test 003772), Labcorp
  7. Evaluation of the Clinitek, a point-of-care urinalysis system for the measurement of clinically significant urinary metabolites and detection of haematuria in Schistosoma haematobium infected children in southern Côte d'Ivoire, Parasites & Vectors (2019)
  8. D-Glucose (PubChem compound 5793), PubChem, U.S. National Library of Medicine

AI-verified against cited sources. Awaiting expert review. Last reviewed 2026-10-03. How we build and check these pages.

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