The world’s largest consumer of oxycodone is the United States with hydrocodone with acetaminophen being the most frequently prescribed drug according to SAMSHA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. This being the case, many people want to know how long these drugs will stay in your system. The truth is that there are no exact timetables that will give you a definitive answer. However, there are some general guidelines that may help.

There are a couple of factors that determine the duration of a drugs’ presence in the body. Firstly is metabolism. The quicker your body processes what you ingest, the quicker it also leaves the system. Second is hydration and body mass. Fatty tissue has a tendency to store chemicals longer then lean tissue and staying hydrated means less fluid retention. Finally, there is the amount and frequency of use. A first time user can pass a drug through their system generally quicker than a frequent user whose body has built up a tolerance to the drug. Similarly, someone who takes a lower dosage of the drug will test lower sooner than someone who took a higher dosage.

Different types of tests call for different detection times. Oxycodone is detectable in blood tests for roughly 24 hours, in saliva tests for 1-4 days, urine tests 3-4 days and hair tests up to 90 days. This is backed up by findings done in a 2014 study by Ron R. Flegal for SAMSHA.

The study took two groups of 12 healthy, drug-free people and gave one group a single 20mg dose oxycodone and the other group a single two tablet dose of 10mg hydrocodone with 325mg acetaminophen each. They then measured the detection times of the dose through blood, saliva and urine tests over a 50 hour time period. The results show that both oxycodone and hydrocodone showed up in blood and saliva within 15-30 minutes and showed positive in urine within 0-2 hours. For the blood test, the two drugs were out of the detection range in under 25 hours and out of detection range on the saliva test in roughly 35-50 hours. The urine test took the longest as the drugs were detectable up to hour 50.

It is extremely important to note that these are not guarantees that oxycodone will be out of your system in the time frames mentioned. The only way to know for sure is to be tested.