Convert grams to cups
Grams to cups for over 100 ingredients — flour, sugar, butter, rice, cocoa — with a cup-standard selector and honest density notes.
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Fractions are fine — type 1 1/2, 3/4 or 1.5.
Cups are not standardised. Picking the wrong one is a 5–20% error.
Flour, all-purpose (spooned & levelled): 125 g per US cup (236.6 mL) — a density of 0.528 g/mL. Spoon flour into the cup and level it off. Scooping straight from the bag adds up to 20%.
cups = grams ÷ (grams per cup) grams per cup = 125 g × (236.59 mL ÷ 236.6 mL) = 125.00 g cups = 250.00 ÷ 125.00 cups = 2.000
| Grams | Cups | Tablespoons |
|---|---|---|
| 10 g | 1/8 | 1.3 tbsp |
| 25 g | 1/4 | 3.2 tbsp |
| 50 g | 3/8 | 6.4 tbsp |
| 75 g | 5/8 | 9.6 tbsp |
| 100 g | 3/4 | 12.8 tbsp |
| 125 g | 1 | 16.0 tbsp |
| 150 g | 1 1/4 | 19.2 tbsp |
| 200 g | 1 5/8 | 25.6 tbsp |
| 250 g | 2 | 32.0 tbsp |
| 300 g | 2 3/8 | 38.4 tbsp |
| 400 g | 3 1/4 | 51.2 tbsp |
| 500 g | 4 | 64.0 tbsp |
| 750 g | 6 | 96.0 tbsp |
| 1000 g | 8 | 128.0 tbsp |
| Ingredient | Cups | g per cup |
|---|---|---|
| Flour, all-purpose (spooned & levelled) | 2 | 125 g |
| Sugar, granulated (white) | 1 1/4 | 200 g |
| Butter | 1 1/8 | 227 g |
| Water | 1 | 237 g |
| Milk, whole | 1 | 244 g |
| Rice, white (uncooked) | 1 3/8 | 185 g |
| Cocoa powder, unsweetened | 3 | 85 g |
| Honey | 3/4 | 340 g |
Volume measures are an approximation of weight, and always will be. If a recipe matters — bread, pastry, macarons — weigh it. A cheap digital scale removes every source of error on this page in one purchase.
There is no universal grams-per-cup
Search for "how many grams in a cup" and the answer box will tell you 128, or 240, or something else with equal confidence. All of those answers are wrong for almost everything, because a cup measures volume and a gram measures mass. The bridge between them is density, and density is a property of the ingredient.
One US customary cup — 236.6 mL — holds:
- 237 g of water
- 197 g of granulated sugar
- 123 g of spooned all-purpose flour
- 111 g of grated cheddar
- 84 g of cocoa powder
- 30 g of raw spinach leaves
That is a factor of nearly eight between the heaviest and lightest, which is why this converter asks what you are measuring before it answers.
The flour problem
Flour is the ingredient this matters most for, and the variation is not in the flour — it is in how you fill the cup. Spooning flour lightly into the cup and levelling it off gives about 125 g. Dipping the cup straight into the bag compacts it to nearly 145 g. That is a 16% difference in the main structural ingredient of a bake, and it is the single most common reason a recipe that works for its author produces dry cookies for everybody else.
Both versions are listed separately in the ingredient picker. If a recipe does not say which method it used, assume spooned — that is the convention in American food publishing.
Which cup are you holding?
| Cup | Volume | Where |
|---|---|---|
| US customary | 236.588 mL | American recipes, measuring cup sets |
| US legal | 240 mL | Nutrition labelling, some modern cookbooks |
| Metric | 250 mL | Australia, New Zealand, some of Canada |
| Imperial | 284.131 mL | Pre-metric British books |
| Japanese (gou-based) | 200 mL | Japanese rice cookers and recipes |
Smallest to largest is a 20% spread. The selector at the top of the tool changes every number on the page, including the reference tables.
Where the density numbers come from
Each ingredient in the table is stored as grams per 240 mL, which is the reference most published US charts use, and everything else — other cup sizes, tablespoons, teaspoons, millilitres — is derived from that by volume. That keeps the whole page internally consistent: switch to Australian cups and the tablespoon figures move with it.
These are typical values for a normally handled ingredient. Grind, humidity, brand and how firmly you pack the cup all move them, which is why every ingredient with a meaningful handling difference is listed twice.
The honest recommendation
Buy a digital scale. Volume measurement of a solid is an estimate of its weight via an assumed packing density; a scale removes the assumption entirely, uses one bowl instead of five cups, and costs less than a cake tin. This tool exists because recipes are still written in cups, not because cups are a good way to measure anything but liquid.
Questions
How many grams are in a cup?
It depends entirely on the ingredient. A US cup holds 236.6 mL, which is 237 g of water, 125 g of spooned flour, 200 g of granulated sugar and only 85 g of cocoa powder. Any single answer to this question is wrong for everything except water.
Why do flour conversions vary so much between sites?
Because of how the cup is filled. Spooning flour in and levelling it gives about 125 g; dipping the cup into the bag compacts it to nearly 145 g. That 16% difference is the single biggest source of baking failure, and both figures are in the ingredient list here.
Which cup should I choose?
US customary (236.6 mL) for American recipes, metric (250 mL) for Australian and New Zealand ones, and imperial (284 mL) only for pre-metric British books. The selector changes every number on the page.
Is a kitchen scale better?
Yes, and it is not close. Volume measurement of a solid is an estimate of its weight via an assumed packing density. A scale removes the assumption. This tool exists because recipes are still written in cups, not because cups are a good idea.
Does my recipe get uploaded?
No. The density table ships with the page and the arithmetic runs in your browser. Nothing you select or type is sent anywhere.