Grams vs Cups: How to Measure Ingredients Accurately

A cup measures space and a gram measures weight, so the same cup holds a different weight of different ingredients. On this site, one US cup of all-purpose flour is about 125 g, granulated sugar about 200 g, butter 226.8 g and water about 237 g. A scale takes the guesswork out: 250 g of flour is 250 g whether it is fluffy or compacted. If a recipe gives both grams and cups, go by the grams.

If you only want a number, the Grams to Cups converter and the Cups to Grams converter do the arithmetic for 46 common ingredients. The rest of this page explains why the answers differ from chart to chart, and how to get the most accurate result with the tools you have.

Why a cup of flour is not always the same weight

Flour is the best-known case. It settles in the bag and fluffs up when it is stirred, so a cup dipped straight into the bag packs more flour into the same space than a cup of flour that was fluffed first. King Arthur Baking puts numbers on it: a cup of all-purpose flour that is densely packed can hold up to 160 g, against around 120 g when the flour is fluffed and then leveled off.^[1]

The other published charts fall within that range. Most give 120 to 130 g for a cup of all-purpose flour, and the ones that state a method say spooned and leveled.^[2] One chart that states the dip-and-sweep method, which this site does not use for its figures, lists 140 g.^[3] That is 8 to 17 percent more than the others.

Charts disagree elsewhere too, though their pages do not say why. Among the ones we read, a cup of whole wheat flour runs from 113 to 140 g, brown sugar from 190 to 220 g, and cocoa powder from 84 to 118 g (three of the four cocoa charts sit between 84 and 88 g).^[2] The Ingredient Weight Chart shows the range for every ingredient, flags the ones where the charts disagree by more than 10 percent, and names every source.

Grams per cup for common ingredients

These are the middle values (the medians) of the published charts we read: King Arthur Baking, Baking Like a Chef, Pastry by Saloni, Milk Street, How To Make Dinner and USDA data, read on 8 October 2026.^[2] Butter is the exception, because a stick of butter is defined (see below). The weights are for flour and powders that are spooned in and leveled, not sifted, and for brown sugar that is packed.

Where the charts disagree, treat the number as a close guide. The full list of 46 is on the Ingredient Weight Chart.

How to measure by volume as accurately as you can

If you do not have a scale, this is the method the weights on this site assume.

• Flour and other dry powders (cocoa, powdered sugar, oats): stir or fluff the ingredient first. Spoon it in until it overflows, then level the top with a straight edge. Do not press it down.^[1]
• Sifted flour: by the usual convention, "1 cup sifted flour" means sift first and then measure, while "1 cup flour, sifted" means measure first and then sift. The two hold different amounts of flour, and sifting first gives the least.^[4] The weights on this site are for flour that has not been sifted.
• Granulated sugar: sugar flows and packs less than flour, so a cup of it is usually more predictable. Fill the cup and level it.
• Brown sugar: press it firmly into the cup unless the recipe says otherwise. The weights here are for packed brown sugar.
• Thick ingredients that do not level themselves, such as yogurt, sour cream and peanut butter: use a dry measuring cup and level it off.^[5]
• Liquids: use a liquid measuring cup, set it on a flat surface, and read it at eye level.^[5]
• Spoons: level them off. A heaped spoon can hold much more than a level one.

With a scale, put the bowl on it, press the tare or zero button, and add the ingredient until the display shows the weight you want. Press tare again before the next ingredient.

Cups are not all the same size

A US customary cup is 8 US fluid ounces, which is 236.6 mL.^[6] Other measures are also called a cup:

So a recipe written for a 250 mL metric cup, measured with a US cup, comes out about 5 percent short on every ingredient. That can matter most when the recipe also contains fixed amounts, such as eggs or a set pan size.

If a recipe says which cup it means, use that one. American recipes use the US cup, and Australian, New Zealand and modern Canadian recipes use the 250 mL metric cup. UK recipes rarely use cups at all, and an old British or Canadian recipe may mean a smaller cup.^[8] If you cannot tell which cup a recipe means, weigh the ingredients.

Spoons vary too. A US tablespoon is about 14.8 mL, but an Australian tablespoon is 20 mL, roughly 35 percent larger.^[9]

Converting grams to cups by hand

Divide the grams by the weight of one cup of that ingredient.

• 250 g of flour at 125 g per cup is 2 cups.
• 300 g of sugar at 200 g per cup is 1.5 cups.
• 113 g of butter is half a cup, which is one US stick.

A tablespoon is a sixteenth of a cup and a teaspoon is a forty-eighth, so you can divide the same weights down for small amounts.

Ounces on a kitchen scale measure weight, while fluid ounces measure volume. Eight ounces of flour weighs about 227 g,^[6] which is nearly two cups (about 1.8), not one.

Butter: sticks, cups and grams

A US stick of butter is a quarter-pound. That makes it 4 ounces, 113.4 g, 8 tablespoons or half a cup, and a cup of butter is two sticks, or 226.8 g.^[10] These are definitions rather than measurements, so the charts agree to within rounding (225 to 227 g per cup in the ones we read).^[2] Butter sold in a 250 g block, as it is in many countries,^[11] is a little over two sticks (2.2).^[10] The Butter Converter works between all of these.

Small amounts: leaveners and salt

Teaspoon-sized amounts are where a kitchen scale helps least. A scale that reads whole grams is too coarse for a teaspoon of baking soda: one gram is about a fifth of the 4.6 to 6 g per teaspoon that the charts we read give, and the charts themselves round to whole grams.^[2][12] For leaveners, use level measuring spoons unless your scale reads to 0.1 g.

Salt weighs very differently depending on the type. The 288 g per cup in the table is for fine table salt. Kosher salts weigh less per spoon, and by how much depends on the brand: King Arthur lists 18 g per tablespoon for table salt, 16 g for Morton kosher salt and 8 g for Diamond Crystal. Do not swap one salt for another by volume.^[12]

When weighing matters most

The more a recipe depends on exact proportions of flour, liquid and fat, the more it pays to weigh. Bread, cakes, cookies and pastry are the clearest cases. Soups, stews and most marinades forgive a cup that is a little full or a little short, and a cup is fine there.

Scaling a recipe

To make more or less, multiply every amount by the same factor. The Recipe Scaler does this for a pasted recipe and converts the cups, spoons and butter sticks it recognizes to grams as it goes. Lines it does not recognize are scaled but left as written. It multiplies every amount, including baking powder, baking soda and salt, and it does not change pan size or baking time. Leavening, spices and baking time do not always scale in proportion, so check them against the recipe itself.