Cups to Grams Conversion Chart for Common Ingredients
1 cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 125 g (spooned and levelled), 1 cup of granulated sugar about 200 g, 1 cup of butter 227 g, and 1 cup of water about 240 g. There's no single cups-to-grams number, because every ingredient has a different density.
Assumptions used on this page
- Cup size: US cup, 236.6 mL (16 tablespoons). Water in that cup weighs 237 g, which we round to 240 g. If your recipe is Canadian or Australian and uses a 250 mL metric cup, multiply the figures below by about 1.06.
- Dry ingredients: spooned into the cup and levelled with a knife, not scooped or packed, unless the chart says "packed".
- Butter: a US stick is ½ cup, 8 tablespoons, 113 g.
- All weights are rounded to the nearest gram or 5 g, which is well within normal home-kitchen accuracy.
Flours and starches
| Ingredient (1 US cup) | Grams | ½ cup | ¼ cup |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 125 g | 63 g | 31 g |
| Bread flour | 130 g | 65 g | 33 g |
| Cake flour | 115 g | 58 g | 29 g |
| Whole wheat flour | 120 g | 60 g | 30 g |
| Almond flour | 95 g | 48 g | 24 g |
| Cornmeal | 140 g | 70 g | 35 g |
| Cornstarch | 128 g | 64 g | 32 g |
| Cocoa powder | 85 g | 43 g | 21 g |
See cups to grams for flour for a full flour breakdown, including scooped versus spooned.
Sugars and syrups
| Ingredient (1 US cup) | Grams | ½ cup | ¼ cup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Granulated (white) sugar | 200 g | 100 g | 50 g |
| Brown sugar, packed | 220 g | 110 g | 55 g |
| Powdered (icing) sugar, unsifted | 120 g | 60 g | 30 g |
| Honey | 340 g | 170 g | 85 g |
| Maple syrup | 315 g | 158 g | 79 g |
| Corn syrup | 325 g | 163 g | 81 g |
| Molasses | 340 g | 170 g | 85 g |
More types (caster, demerara, coconut sugar) are on the cups to grams for sugar page.
Fats and dairy
| Ingredient (1 US cup) | Grams | ½ cup | ¼ cup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Butter | 227 g | 113 g | 57 g |
| Vegetable oil / olive oil | 218 g | 109 g | 55 g |
| Water | 240 g | 120 g | 60 g |
| Milk | 245 g | 123 g | 61 g |
| Heavy (35%) cream | 240 g | 120 g | 60 g |
| Plain yogurt / sour cream | 240 g | 120 g | 60 g |
| Peanut butter | 260 g | 130 g | 65 g |
| Shredded cheddar, loosely packed | 115 g | 58 g | 29 g |
| Finely grated parmesan | 100 g | 50 g | 25 g |
Grains, nuts and mix-ins
| Ingredient (1 US cup) | Grams |
|---|---|
| Rolled oats | 90 g |
| White rice, uncooked | 185 g |
| Cooked white rice | 160 g |
| Chocolate chips | 170 g |
| Chopped walnuts or pecans | 115 g |
| Whole almonds | 145 g |
| Raisins | 150 g |
| Sweetened shredded coconut | 85 g |
| Dry breadcrumbs | 110 g |
| Panko | 55 g |
Small amounts: spoons to grams
| Ingredient | 1 tsp | 1 tbsp |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 2.6 g | 8 g |
| Granulated sugar | 4 g | 12.5 g |
| Butter | 4.7 g | 14 g |
| Table salt | 6 g | 18 g |
| Morton kosher salt | 5 g | 15 g |
| Diamond Crystal kosher salt | 3 g | 9 g |
| Baking powder | 4 g | 12 g |
| Baking soda | 5 g | 15 g |
| Instant or active dry yeast | 3 g | 9 g |
Salt is the big trap. A teaspoon of table salt weighs about twice a teaspoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt, so swapping one for the other by volume can make food twice as salty.
Why weight beats volume
A cup tells you how much space an ingredient takes up, not how much of it there is. Flour, cocoa and powdered sugar are full of air pockets, and how hard you pack them changes the result. Ask a few people to measure "1 cup of flour" and you can easily get anything from about 115 to 160 g. That's a 40% swing, enough to turn a tender cake into a dry one.
Grams don't care how fluffy the flour is. A digital scale also means fewer dishes: set the bowl on the scale, press tare, and add each ingredient straight in. It makes scaling recipes simple too, because doubling 125 g is easier than doubling ⅓ cup plus 2 tablespoons.
Liquids are the exception. Water, milk and stock measure accurately by volume, so a measuring jug is fine for those.
Chef Fizz says: A kitchen scale costs less than one ruined birthday cake. Tare, pour, done!
Converting a metric-cup recipe
Canadian recipes from before the 2000s, and most Australian ones, use a 250 mL cup. A 250 mL cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 132 g, sugar about 211 g, and butter about 240 g. Use the cups to millilitres chart if you're not sure which cup a recipe uses.
Questions
How many grams are in 1 cup?
It depends on the ingredient, because a cup measures volume and grams measure weight. One US cup of water weighs about 240 g, but the same cup holds about 125 g of all-purpose flour and 200 g of granulated sugar.
Is a cup the same in Canada, the US and the UK?
No. A US cup is 236.6 mL (often rounded to 240 mL), the metric cup used in Canada, Australia and New Zealand is 250 mL, and the old imperial cup is about 284 mL. The charts here use the US cup.
Why do different websites give different grams per cup for flour?
Because flour compresses. Spooning flour into the cup and levelling it gives about 125 g, while scooping straight from the bag packs it down to roughly 140 to 150 g. Always check which method a chart assumes.
How many grams is half a cup?
Half a cup is about 63 g of all-purpose flour, 100 g of granulated sugar, 113 g of butter (one stick) and 120 g of water or milk.