Esters, most commonly methyl esters, of vegetable oils or animal fats or other lipid feedstocks have found increasing use as an alternative diesel fuel known as biodiesel. However, biodiesel also has good solvent properties, a feature rendered additionally attractive by its biodegradability, low toxicity, and low content of volatile organic compounds. The kauri-butanol (KB) value is a parameter used for describing the solvent strength of a liquid. In this work, the KB values of individual fatty acid alkyl esters were determined. The KB values of fatty esters depend on chain length, including the alcohol moiety, and unsaturation, a phenomenon observed similarly in hydrocarbons. The KB values of fatty acid methyl esters range from well over 100 for short-chain esters to the 40-60 range for C18 esters with a maximum being attained for methyl esters of C-4-C-5 acids. For the sake of comparison, the KB values of dimethyl diesters and hydrocarbons (alkanes) were also determined as well as those of some standard solvents. Compounds with eight carbons were selected to compare the influence of various functional groups on solvent strength as documented by the KB value. KB values can be determined with good accuracy by reducing the amount of KB solution from 20 to 5 g, thus using correspondingly less solvent sample.