How many grams are in a cup?

It depends entirely on what is in the cup, because a cup measures volume and grams measure mass. All-purpose flour is 120 g, granulated sugar 198 g, butter 226 g, honey 336 g. A page that answers this with one number has answered a different question.

How much does scooping add?

Between about 15% and 33%, and no single figure is honest. King Arthur weighed a cup scooped from the bag at up to 160 g against 120 g spooned, which is a third more; published dip-and-sweep tests come out around 149 g, a quarter more. How hard you push the cup in moves the answer further than any disagreement between charts does.

Why do charts disagree about flour?

Because they measured differently. King Arthur lists 120 g for a spooned and levelled cup; USDA analytical samples come out nearer 125 g because laboratory flour has settled. Both are honest, and the difference between them is smaller than the difference your own hand makes.

Is a cup of water 227 or 237 grams?

The physical answer is 236.6 g, since a US cup is 236.588 ml and water is close to one gram per milliliter. The chart used here says 227 g because bakers round eight fluid ounces to eight ounces of weight, which is a convenience rather than a measurement. The gap is about four per cent, and it matters in a custard and not in a soup.

Does this work for any ingredient?

For the 93 on the list, each with its own measured weight. An ingredient not on the list has no honest conversion here, and guessing at one is how a recipe fails. Weigh it once on a scale and you will know it for good.

Grams to Cups Converter

With amount 1, grams to cups converter comes to 120 — converted. It is reached in 9 steps, the last of which is 120 / 1, and each one is printed on the page with its numbers filled in. The formula is the one published by King Arthur Baking, not an approximation fitted to it.

Cups to grams and back for 93 ingredients, and what the same cup weighs depending on how it was filled.

Formula and sources checked 19 August 2026 · How we check

Amount 1, From Cups, To Grams, Ingredient All-purpose flour

120

Converted for the example below. Editing a field recomputes the calculator below; this figure holds the answer the page was loaded with.

It is written into the HTML rather than drawn by a script, so a search engine reading this page without running JavaScript still finds an answer.

AmountFromToIngredientWeights are the King Arthur Baking chart, the reference most US recipes are written against.How the cup is filledOnly changes flour and other powders, which are the things that pack. There is no single figure: measurements run from roughly 15% to 33% heavier depending on how hard the cup is pushed in.

Converted

120

Chart weight of one cup: 120 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0120 g
Grams in a cup as filled: 120 * 1120 g
Range across filling techniques: 120 * 0.33 * 139.6 g
In grams: 1 * 120 + 0120 g
In cups: 120 / 1201 cups
Converted: 120 / 1120
In ounces: 120 / 28.3495234.233 oz
In tablespoons: 1 * 1616 tbsp
Volume it occupies: 1 * 236.58824236.588 ml

Ask about this in the chat Cups to Grams Chart

Worked example

A cup of all-purpose flour spooned in and levelled is 120 g. Dipped and swept it is nearer 149 g, and scooped and pressed it reaches 160 g. Those three are the same cup and the same flour, and the gap between them is larger than the gap between any two published charts.

How to work it out yourself

1.Pick the ingredient first. A cup of flour is 120 g and a cup of honey is 336 g, so there is no single answer to how many grams are in a cup.
2.Say how the cup was filled. Recipe writers assume spooned and levelled; dipping the cup into the bag adds roughly a quarter, and pressing it in adds a third.
3.Convert in either direction and between any of ten units. Grams to cups is the same relationship read backwards.
4.If the recipe gives grams, use grams. A scale removes this problem entirely, which is why professional recipes are written by weight.

One cup of each, in grams

One cup of each, in grams
Ingredient	Converted	In ounces
All-purpose flour	120	4.23 oz
Granulated sugar	198	6.98 oz
Brown sugar, packed	213	7.51 oz
Confectioners sugar	113.5	4 oz
Butter	226	7.97 oz
Honey	336	11.85 oz
Milk	227	8.01 oz
Water	227	8.01 oz
Cocoa powder, unsweetened	84	2.96 oz
Rolled oats	89	3.14 oz
Chocolate chips	170	6 oz
Table salt	288	10.16 oz

The same cup, twelve different weights. This is why a recipe written in cups is a recipe written in approximations.

The formula

Chart weight of one cup120 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0
Grams in a cup as filled120 * 1
Range across filling techniques120 * 0.33 * 1
In grams1 * 120 + 0
In cups120 / 120
Converted120 / 1
In ounces120 / 28.349523
In tablespoons1 * 16
Volume it occupies1 * 236.58824

Source: King Arthur Baking — ingredient weight chart, NIST Handbook 44 — US customary volume measures, USDA FoodData Central — measured food densities

Questions people actually ask

How many grams are in a cup?: It depends entirely on what is in the cup, because a cup measures volume and grams measure mass. All-purpose flour is 120 g, granulated sugar 198 g, butter 226 g, honey 336 g. A page that answers this with one number has answered a different question.
How much does scooping add?: Between about 15% and 33%, and no single figure is honest. King Arthur weighed a cup scooped from the bag at up to 160 g against 120 g spooned, which is a third more; published dip-and-sweep tests come out around 149 g, a quarter more. How hard you push the cup in moves the answer further than any disagreement between charts does.
Why do charts disagree about flour?: Because they measured differently. King Arthur lists 120 g for a spooned and levelled cup; USDA analytical samples come out nearer 125 g because laboratory flour has settled. Both are honest, and the difference between them is smaller than the difference your own hand makes.
Is a cup of water 227 or 237 grams?: The physical answer is 236.6 g, since a US cup is 236.588 ml and water is close to one gram per milliliter. The chart used here says 227 g because bakers round eight fluid ounces to eight ounces of weight, which is a convenience rather than a measurement. The gap is about four per cent, and it matters in a custard and not in a soup.
Does this work for any ingredient?: For the 93 on the list, each with its own measured weight. An ingredient not on the list has no honest conversion here, and guessing at one is how a recipe fails. Weigh it once on a scale and you will know it for good.

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Cooking from a metric recipe — 5 pages, in the order the questions arrive

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Straight to your case

The control above covers every case. These are the same calculator fixed to one of them, with the formula for that case written out.

Grams of Flour to CupsSpooned or Dipped
Grams of Sugar to Cups198 g a Cup

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