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Convert cups to grams, per ingredient

A cup of flour and a cup of sugar weigh very different amounts. Convert by ingredient, and choose how you measure — scooping flour adds a quarter more.

Type into either side — the other updates.

Result

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Per US cup
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Per tablespoon
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Per 100 ml
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In ounces
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Why one number cannot answer "how many grams in a cup"

A cup measures volume; a gram measures weight. Converting between them requires knowing how heavy the thing is for its size — its density — and that varies enormously across a kitchen. A cup of cocoa powder weighs 85 g. A cup of honey weighs 340 g. That is four times the difference, from two things you might measure in the same cup within a minute of each other.

This is why a generic volume converter is worse than useless for cooking. It will happily tell you a cup is 237 g, which is true only for water.

The part most converters leave out

For anything compressible — flour above all — how you fill the cup changes the answer more than you would expect:

Method1 cup all-purpose flourDifference
Sifted, then spooned113 g−6%
Spooned into cup, levelled120 gbaseline
Cup dipped into the bag142 g+18%

Dipping the cup straight into the bag compacts the flour. That is nearly a fifth more flour than the recipe writer intended, which in a cake is roughly the difference between tender and dry. Most recipes assume spoon-and-level without saying so.

When it matters and when it does not

Baking is chemistry with ratios, so a fifth more flour genuinely changes the result. Cooking mostly is not. Nobody has ever ruined a soup by mis-measuring the stock by 20 ml. Weigh for bread, cakes and pastry; use whatever is to hand for everything else.

US cups are not the only cups

CupVolumeUsed in
US customary236.6 mlAmerican recipes and food blogs
Metric250 mlAustralia, New Zealand
Imperial284 mlOlder British recipes

The default here is the US cup, because that is what the overwhelming majority of recipes written in cups actually mean. A metric cup is about 6 percent larger — small enough to ignore in a stew, large enough to notice in a sponge. Both are in the unit list.

Where these weights come from

They follow King Arthur Baking's ingredient weight chart, the reference most English-language recipe writers work from, cross-checked against other published charts. Where sources disagree slightly it is almost always because they assumed a different filling method — which is exactly why that is a setting here rather than a hidden assumption.

Anything compressible is approximate by nature. The spread shown under the result is the real range for that ingredient, not a margin of error in the figures. If you own a scale, weighing one cup of your own flour once and noting the number beats every chart, including this one.

Frequently asked questions

How many grams are in a cup?

There is no single answer, which is why generic converters get this wrong. A cup is a measure of volume and a gram is a measure of weight, so the conversion depends entirely on the density of what you are measuring. A cup of all-purpose flour is about 120 g, a cup of granulated sugar about 200 g, and a cup of honey about 340 g — nearly three times the flour.

Why do different websites give different numbers for flour?

Because how you fill the cup changes the weight more than most people realise. Spooning flour in and levelling it off gives roughly 120 g. Dipping the cup into the bag and sweeping compacts the flour and can give 140 to 150 g — around a quarter more. Neither is wrong; they are different techniques. Pick the one you actually use from the measuring method options and the figure adjusts.

Does that difference actually matter?

In baking, yes. An extra 25 g of flour in a cake is roughly an extra fifth, which is the difference between tender and dry. Bread doughs shift from slack to stiff. In cooking — a soup, a stew, a sauce — it rarely matters at all. Weigh for baking; volume is fine for the rest.

Is a US cup the same as a metric cup?

No. A US customary cup is 236.6 ml, a metric cup used in Australia and New Zealand is 250 ml, and a UK recipe from before metrication may mean an imperial cup of 284 ml. This tool uses the US cup, which is what almost all American recipes and food blogs mean. A metric cup is about 6 percent larger, which matters for baking.

Should I weigh butter or use the wrapper markings?

The wrapper is reliable in the United States, where a stick is 113 g and the markings are printed accurately. Elsewhere butter comes in blocks without markings, so weighing is easier than trying to cut a cup. One US cup of butter is two sticks, or 227 g.

How do I convert brown sugar?

Brown sugar is nearly always measured packed — pressed firmly into the cup so it holds its shape when tipped out. Packed, a cup is about 213 g. Loose, it can be 40 g lighter. If a recipe does not say, assume packed, because that is the convention in almost all published recipes.

Where do these weights come from?

They follow King Arthur Baking's ingredient weight chart, the reference most English-language recipe writers use, cross-checked against other published charts. Weights for anything compressible are approximate by nature — the variance is inherent to volume measuring, not to the numbers.

What if my ingredient is not listed?

Use the closest one by texture rather than by type. Ground almonds behave like almond flour, caster sugar like granulated, and most neutral oils like vegetable oil. If you have a scale, the surest approach is to weigh one cup once and note the figure for next time.

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