Grams to Cups Calculator
Result
Cups
- Tablespoons
- 16.0
- Teaspoons
- 48.0
- Milliliters
- 237
- Grams per cup
- 120.0
A cup is a volume and a gram is a weight, so the answer depends on what is in the cup: 236.6 grams of water, 226.8 grams of butter, 198 grams of granulated sugar, 120 grams of all-purpose flour, 84 grams of cocoa powder. This grams to cups converter picks the right weight per cup for the ingredient you choose and returns the amount as cups, tablespoons, teaspoons and millilitres — the four ways a recipe is likely to ask for it. Type the weight, choose the ingredient, read every form at once.
What one cup of each ingredient weighs, and the smaller measures
| Ingredient | 1 cup (g) | ½ cup (g) | ¼ cup (g) | 1 tbsp (g) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | 236.6 | 118.3 | 59.1 | 14.79 |
| Vegetable oil | 217.7 | 108.8 | 54.4 | 13.6 |
| Butter | 226.8 | 113.4 | 56.7 | 14.17 |
| All-purpose flour | 120 | 60 | 30 | 7.5 |
| Bread flour | 120 | 60 | 30 | 7.5 |
| Whole-wheat flour | 113 | 56.5 | 28.3 | 7.06 |
| Granulated sugar | 198 | 99 | 49.5 | 12.38 |
| Brown sugar | 213 | 106.5 | 53.3 | 13.31 |
| Powdered sugar | 113 | 56.5 | 28.3 | 7.06 |
| Cocoa powder | 84 | 42 | 21 | 5.25 |
| Rolled oats | 89 | 44.5 | 22.3 | 5.56 |
| Almond flour | 96 | 48 | 24 | 6 |
| Cornmeal | 138 | 69 | 34.5 | 8.63 |
| Rice | 198 | 99 | 49.5 | 12.38 |
Every cell is grams, and the three smaller columns are the cup figure divided by 2, 4 and 16 — a US cup being 16 tablespoons is a definition, so those columns are exact. The cup column is the number this page divides your grams by, and it is the same number the result panel reports as "grams per cup". Brown sugar is packed, powdered sugar is unsifted.
Formula
Cups = grams ÷ grams per cup · Tablespoons = cups × 16 · Teaspoons = cups × 48 · Millilitres = cups × 236.5882365
- grams
- The weight you type in
- grams per cup
- Weighing one cup of that ingredient — 120 for all-purpose flour, 198 for granulated sugar, 236.6 for water
- 16
- Tablespoons in a US cup
- 48
- Teaspoons in a US cup
- 236.5882365
- Millilitres in a US cup
Reach for it when the recipe is written in cups and your scale only reads grams, or the other way round — a US baking book asking for 1¾ cups of flour when you would rather weigh it. The ingredient weight chart further down lists all fourteen at a cup, a half, a quarter and a tablespoon, so the reverse direction needs no typing at all. It is also the page to check before trusting any single "1 cup = N grams" figure you find elsewhere, because those figures disagree with each other by up to 25%.
Worked examples
120 grams of all-purpose flour
- All-purpose flour weighs 120 grams per cup, so 120 ÷ 120 = exactly 1 cup
- One cup is 16 tablespoons by definition: 1 × 16 = 16
- One cup is 48 teaspoons: 1 × 48 = 48
- In millilitres: 1 × 236.5882365 = 236.6, shown as 237
This is the one ingredient where the round number and the round cup meet: 120 grams of all-purpose flour is a level cup, and 120 is also the figure most US charts print for it. Cocoa powder needs 84 grams to fill the same cup.
500 grams of water
- Water is the definition case: a cup holds 236.5882365 millilitres and a millilitre of water weighs one gram, so a cup of water is 236.6 grams
- Cups: 500 ÷ 236.5882365 = 2.113
- Tablespoons: 2.113 × 16 = 33.8. Teaspoons: 2.113 × 48 = 101.4
- Millilitres: 2.113 cups × 236.5882365 = 500 — the round trip closes exactly
For water the millilitre column and the gram column are the same number, which is why a metric kitchen can skip this page entirely and just use a jug. The page is here for the eleven ingredients where a jug would be wrong.
Limitations
The eleven chart figures are the numbers King Arthur prints, and every one of them depends on how the cup was filled. Their chart describes a cup of flour that is spooned into the cup and levelled off, which is 120 grams; the same cup scooped straight out of the bag and shaken level can weigh 150 grams, a quarter more. Nothing here compensates for that, so treat a chart figure as the middle of a range rather than a conversion factor — and if a recipe's numbers matter, weigh the flour. Water, vegetable oil and butter are a different kind of number and do not carry that warning: their figures come from a definition or a density rather than from someone filling a cup. One deliberate disagreement with King Arthur is worth naming: for liquids they follow the kitchen convention of eight ounces to a cup, printing 227 grams for water and 198 for vegetable oil, while this page uses the physical density, giving 236.6 and 217.7. The reason is that 217.7 grams per cup is already published on this site's oil-to-butter page, and two pages of the same site must not give two answers for one cup of oil. NIST's own conversion table prints the US cup as 0.24 litres, which is this same 236.588 millilitres rounded to two decimals — the rounding is NIST's, not a disagreement about the size of the cup.
Frequently asked questions
- How many grams are in a cup?
- It depends entirely on the ingredient, and the spread is wide: 236.6 grams of water, 217.7 of vegetable oil, 226.8 of butter, 213 of brown sugar, 198 of granulated sugar or rice, 138 of cornmeal, 120 of all-purpose or bread flour, 113 of whole-wheat flour or powdered sugar, 96 of almond flour, 89 of rolled oats and 84 of cocoa powder. All of those are weights per US cup, which is 236.588 millilitres — nearly a threefold range between the lightest and the heaviest.
- How many grams is a cup of flour?
- 120 grams for all-purpose flour and for bread flour, 113 grams for whole-wheat flour. That assumes the cup was spooned full and levelled; scoop the flour straight out of the bag and shake it level and the same cup holds about 150 grams. Because of that, flour is the one ingredient where a recipe in grams is worth more than a recipe in cups — and the reason this page asks you to pick the ingredient before it answers.
- How do I convert cups to grams?
- Multiply by the weight of one cup of that ingredient: 2 cups of granulated sugar is 2 × 198 = 396 grams, and 1½ cups of butter is 1.5 × 226.8 = 340 grams. The chart on this page gives a cup, a half, a quarter and a tablespoon for each ingredient, so most conversions can be read off it without typing anything. Going the other way, from grams to cups, divide by the same figure.
- Why does a cup of flour weigh 120 grams here and 125 or 142 grams elsewhere?
- Because the three figures describe three different ways of filling the cup. Spooning flour into a cup and levelling it gives about 120 grams, which is the figure King Arthur prints and the one used here. Dipping the cup into the bag and levelling gives about 141 grams, and settling or packing the flour pushes it higher still. The gap between 120 and 142 is 18%, which is more than enough to turn a cake into a brick — pick one method and stay with it.
- Which numbers on this page are exact and which are estimates?
- Water is exact: a US cup is 236.5882365 millilitres and a millilitre of water weighs one gram, so a cup of water is 236.6 grams with no measurement involved. Vegetable oil is a density — 0.92 grams per millilitre, the middle of the range vegetable oils occupy. Butter and the cup, tablespoon and teaspoon relationships are definitions. The remaining eleven rows are chart values, which are averages of how people actually fill a cup, and they carry the ±10% or so that goes with that.
References
- Ingredient Weight Chart — King Arthur Baking Company
- Approximate Conversions from U.S. Customary Measures to Metric — National Institute of Standards and Technology