Cups to Grams Converter (by Ingredient)

Convert cups, tablespoons, teaspoons and millilitres to grams and ounces for 26 named ingredients, in both directions, using published densities from USDA FoodData Central and King Arthur Baking — with the source of every number on the page, and the 120 g to 160 g spread for a cup of flour stated rather than hidden.

Last updated 24 Sep 2026

Cups to grams, by ingredient

Ingredient + volume ⇄ weight

What do you have?

Which ingredient? (this is the control that matters)Each option carries one published grams-per-cup figure. The source of every one is in the table below.

VolumeHow much, in the unit beside it.

Volume unitA cup is not one size. The US cup is 236.59 mL, the metric cup 250 mL.

Weight

Weight unit

Two measuring cups in section, not a circuit. Both are filled to the same line, so both hold the same VOLUME — and that is the only thing they share. The left one holds the ingredient you chose, the right one the same volume of water at 20 °C for comparison, and the weights beneath them are computed from the density in the table below. The proportions of the vessels are illustrative; the fill line is drawn at the same height in both because that is the whole point.

125.0gExample

1 US cup of plain flour, at USDA’s standard cup measure

Volume, density, mass

m = V × ρ · V = m / ρ · ρ = (grams per US cup) / 236.5882 mL

m: mass, in grams — what the recipe actually wants
V: volume, in millilitres — what the cup measures
ρ: bulk density of THIS ingredient, packed THIS way. The published figure, its source and its spread are in the table below
1 US cup: 236.5882 mL, being a sixteenth of a US gallon of 231 cubic inches exactly

Worked example

1 US cup of plain flour, at USDA's standard cup measure
A US cup is 236.5882 mL — a sixteenth of a gallon of 231 cubic inches
USDA FoodData Central 168894 gives one cup of all-purpose flour as 125 g, so the bulk density is 0.5283 g/mL
m = 236.5882 mL × 0.5283 g/mL = 125.0 g
Filled King Arthur's way instead, the same cup holds 120 g; packed down, 160 g. That is the range a recipe written in cups is silent about
The same cup of honey would be 339 g — 2.71 times as much

Grams in one US cup (236.59 mL), and where each figure comes from

Every figure in the first column is published, not estimated. “USDA nnnnnn” is the FoodData Central id of that food, whose portion list gives the gram weight of one cup; FoodData Central is a work of the US Government and is in the public domain. “KAB” is the King Arthur Baking ingredient weight chart, a maker’s chart used where USDA publishes no cup measure or where a British ingredient has no USDA entry. The tablespoon and g/mL columns are this page’s own arithmetic from the cup figure. Desiccated coconut is the one ingredient here that USDA carries as a food (170170) but publishes no cup portion for, so King Arthur’s figure is used and said so.
Ingredient	g per US cup	g per US tbsp	g/mL	Source	Notes
Plain / all-purpose flour — spooned in and levelled	120	7.50	0.5072	KAB	King Arthur’s own method: fluff the flour, spoon it in, level it off.
Plain / all-purpose flour — USDA standard measure	125	7.81	0.5283	USDA 168894	Wheat flour, white, all-purpose, enriched, bleached: 1 cup.
Plain / all-purpose flour — scooped and packed	160	10.00	0.6763	KAB	The same cup filled by dipping it into the bag and pressing down.
Bread / strong white flour	137	8.56	0.5791	USDA 168896	Wheat flour, white, bread, enriched: 1 cup. King Arthur’s chart says 120 g.
Wholemeal / whole-wheat flour	120	7.50	0.5072	USDA 168893	Wheat flour, whole-grain: 1 cup.
Cake flour — unsifted, dipped	137	8.56	0.5791	USDA 169723	Wheat flour, white, cake, enriched: 1 cup unsifted, dipped.
Cake flour — King Arthur’s chart	120	7.50	0.5072	KAB	The same flour, their own blend and their own measuring method.
Cornflour / cornstarch	128	8.00	0.5410	USDA 169698	Cornstarch: 1 cup.
Granulated white sugar	200	12.50	0.8454	USDA 169655	Sugars, granulated: 1 cup. The same food’s 1 tsp portion is 4 g.
Caster / superfine sugar	190	11.88	0.8031	KAB	King Arthur Baker’s Special Sugar. USDA carries no separate caster sugar.
Icing / confectioners’ sugar — unsifted	113	7.06	0.4776	KAB	Sifting it drops the weight of a cup further; weigh it instead.
Brown sugar — packed	220	13.75	0.9299	USDA 168833	Sugars, brown: 1 cup packed. Packed is the convention in recipes.
Brown sugar — spooned in loosely	145	9.06	0.6129	USDA 168833	Sugars, brown: 1 cup unpacked. A third less than the packed cup.
Butter	227	14.19	0.9595	USDA 173410	Butter, salted: 1 cup. This is two sticks, a defined quantity, not a density.
Milk, whole	244	15.25	1.0313	USDA 171265	Milk, whole, 3.25% milkfat: 1 cup. The same food’s 1 quart portion is 976 g.
Water, 20 degC	236	14.75	0.9975	NIST	236.588 mL at 0.998203 g/mL. The kitchen shorthand 1 mL = 1 g is 0.2% high.
Honey	339	21.19	1.4329	USDA 169640	Honey: 1 cup. The same food’s 1 tbsp portion is 21 g.
Vegetable oil (canola)	218	13.63	0.9214	USDA 172336	Oil, canola: 1 cup. Other oils differ by a per cent or two.
Rice, long-grain white, raw	185	11.56	0.7819	USDA 168877	Rice, white, long-grain, regular, raw, enriched: 1 cup.
Rolled oats	81	5.06	0.3424	USDA 173904	Cereals, oats, regular and quick, not fortified, dry: 1 cup.
Cocoa powder, unsweetened	86	5.38	0.3635	USDA 169593	Cocoa, dry powder, unsweetened: 1 cup. The same food’s 1 tbsp portion is 5 g.
Desiccated coconut, unsweetened	53	3.31	0.2240	KAB	USDA carries the food (170170) but publishes no cup portion for it.
Walnuts, chopped	117	7.31	0.4945	USDA 170187	Nuts, walnuts, english: 1 cup, chopped. Ground is 80 g, pieces 120 g.
Cheddar, grated or shredded	113	7.06	0.4776	USDA 173414	Cheese, cheddar: 1 cup, shredded. Diced is 132 g; melted is 244 g.
Dry breadcrumbs	108	6.75	0.4565	USDA 174928	Bread, crumbs, dry, grated, plain: 1 cup.
Table salt	292	18.25	1.2342	USDA 173468	Salt, table: 1 cup. The same food’s 1 tsp portion is 6 g and 1 tbsp is 18 g.

The same cup of flour, filled four ways

This is the single commonest reason a cake comes out dry, and it is why this page exists. King Arthur publish both ends: a cup holds around 120 g if you fluff the flour, spoon it in and level it, and up to 160 g if it is densely packed. That is a third more flour in the same cup. USDA’s 125 g sits between. The sifted row is deliberately blank: USDA publishes a sifted portion for cake flour but not for all-purpose flour, and this page does not invent one. A scale removes the whole question.
How the cup was filled	Grams	Against spooned and levelled	Source
Spooned in and levelled off	120	—	King Arthur Baking
USDA’s standard cup measure	125	+4%	USDA FoodData Central 168894
Sifted first	under 120	less, by an amount nobody has published for all-purpose flour	—
Dipped into the bag and packed down	160	+33%	King Arthur Baking

Which cup does the recipe mean?

Computed from the definitions in NIST Handbook 44 Appendix C: the US gallon is 231 cubic inches exactly and the imperial gallon is 4.546 09 litres exactly. The last row needs a word of warning. The “imperial cup” is not a unit anybody legislated; British recipes went metric in the 1970s and give grams and millilitres. Where a chart does quote one it usually means half an imperial pint, 284.13 mL, but 6 imperial fluid ounces (170.48 mL) and 8 imperial fluid ounces (227.30 mL, the Canadian cup) are both in print too. If a British or Canadian recipe says cup, find out which one before you trust it.
Cup	Millilitres	Where it is used
US customary cup	236.5882	US recipes and cookbooks; half a US liquid pint
US legal cup	240	US nutrition labels only, defined in 21 CFR 101.9(b)(5)(viii)
Metric cup	250	Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa
Canadian cup	227.3045	Older Canadian recipes: 8 imperial fluid ounces
Japanese cup	200	Japanese recipes
Half an imperial pint	284.1306	What British conversion charts usually mean by a cup. There is no legally defined imperial cup

Why one cup has no one weight

A cup is a volume. A recipe wants a mass. That one sentence is the whole page. A measuring cup holds 236.59 millilitres of whatever you put in it, and what that weighs depends entirely on the ingredient. A US cup of plain flour is about 125 g. The same cup of honey is 339 g — 2.71 times as much. Cocoa powder in that cup is 86 g and rolled oats 81 g, a third of the flour. There is no general answer to “how many grams in a cup”, which is exactly why a search engine’s unit widget cannot give you one.

Flour is the one that ruins bakes. Every other ingredient on this page has a fairly settled density. Flour does not, because flour compacts. King Arthur Baking publish 120 g for a cup filled by fluffing the flour, spooning it in and levelling it off, and up to 160 g for a cup dipped into the bag and pressed down — a third more flour in the same cup, from the same bag, on the same day. USDA’s standard measure of 125 g sits between the two. If a cake is dry, tough or domed, this is usually where it went wrong, and no amount of careful oven work will undo it.

Which cup, and whose tablespoon. The unit dropdown says which cup it means because there are at least six. The US customary cup is 236.5882 mL, half a US liquid pint. The metric cup used in Australia, New Zealand and Canada is 250 mL. US nutrition labels use a 240 mL legal cup. Older Canadian recipes use 8 imperial fluid ounces, 227.30 mL. Spoons are worse: a tablespoon is 15 mL in Britain and Europe, 14.787 mL in the United States and 20 mL in Australia, which is four teaspoons rather than three. An Australian recipe asking for two tablespoons of a raising agent means a third more than a British one. The US, UK and metric measures converter does nothing but that.

Where the numbers come from. Every density in the table below is published and attributed in its own row. Most come from USDA FoodData Central, which lists the gram weight of common household measures for each food and is a work of the US Government in the public domain; the FDC id is given so you can check it. Where USDA has no cup measure for a food — desiccated coconut is the clearest case — or where the ingredient is a British one USDA does not carry, the figure is King Arthur Baking’s, and the row says so. Nothing here is interpolated or averaged. Where two sources disagree, both are in the table: bread flour is 137 g per cup in USDA’s list and 120 g in King Arthur’s, and that 14% is a real disagreement about a real ingredient, not an error to be tidied away.

What this page cannot tell you. A bulk density is not a property of a substance, it is a property of a substance in a container. Grind, moisture, temperature, how long the bag has sat in a cupboard and how you hold the spoon all move it. Outside flour, the figures here should be good to a few per cent, which is fine for stock, custard and bread and not fine for a macaron. Salt deserves its own page because the spread there reaches a factor of two: see the salt conversion calculator. For the other half of a transatlantic recipe, the oven temperature converter turns gas marks and fan settings into something your oven can be set to, and the recipe scaling calculator handles a different tin.

Frequently asked questions

How many grams is one cup of flour?

Between 120 g and 160 g, and which one depends on how you filled the cup. King Arthur Baking publish 120 g for flour spooned in and levelled off and up to 160 g for flour packed down; USDA FoodData Central gives 125 g for its standard cup measure. Most modern recipes written in grams assume about 120 g. That spread is a third of the flour in the recipe, which is why bakers weigh.

Why can Google not answer cups to grams?

Because a cup is a volume and a recipe wants a mass, and the number that connects them is the ingredient’s density. A cup of honey weighs 339 g and a cup of flour 125 g — 2.71 times as much. Without knowing which ingredient you mean, there is no answer to give.

Is a cup of butter 227 g or 250 g?

227 g. A US cup of butter is two sticks, and a stick is a quarter pound, so the cup is half a pound: 226.80 g, which USDA rounds to 227 g. The 250 g figure is the European block, which is a different thing. The butter converter handles sticks, blocks and wrapper markings.

What is the difference between a US cup and a metric cup?

About 5.4%. The US customary cup is 236.59 mL and the metric cup used in Australia, New Zealand and Canada is 250 mL. Ignore it in a cake and you are out by a heaped tablespoon in every cup. The US, UK and metric measures converter covers every one of them.

Should brown sugar be packed?

Yes, unless the recipe says otherwise — packed is the convention, and USDA publishes both: 220 g for a packed cup and 145 g for a loose one. That is a difference of half again. If a recipe just says “1 cup brown sugar”, press it into the cup with the back of a spoon.

Are these densities exact?

No, and they are not meant to be. They are published bulk densities for a loosely filled measure, and a bulk density depends on the grind, the moisture and the hand holding the spoon. Treat them as good to a few per cent, except for flour, where the spread is much wider and the table says so.

Related calculators

References

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, SR Legacy. fdc.nal.usda.gov. A work of the United States Government and in the public domain. The gram weights for household measures used on this page are the food portions USDA publishes with each food, and the FDC id of each is given in the table.
King Arthur Baking Company. Ingredient Weight Chart, and How to measure flour the right way (13 October 2023). kingarthurbaking.com. A maker’s published chart, not a standard.
National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST Handbook 44 (2026 edition), Appendix C, General Tables of Units of Measurement. The US liquid gallon is 231 cubic inches exactly and the British imperial gallon is 4.546 09 L exactly; every volume on this page is derived from those two definitions and the exact inch.
Harvey AH, Span R, Fujii K, Tanaka M, Davis RS. Roles of CIPM and IAPWS Standards for the Density of Water. NIST. The density of liquid water at 20 °C is 0.998 203 g/mL, which is why a US cup of water weighs 236 g and not 237 g.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Nutritive Value of Foods, Home and Garden Bulletin No. 72. Table 9 gives household measures and gram weights; it is the printed ancestor of the FoodData Central portion lists and gives grated cheddar as 113 g per cup, the same figure used here.
Code of Federal Regulations, 21 CFR 101.9(b)(5)(viii): the cup used in US nutrition labelling is 240 mL, which is not the US customary cup.