How to use
Pick an ingredient, a measure and an amount — you’ll see the weight in grams, plus the same amount in other measures below.
Which cup?
- US cup — 236.6 ml (8 fl oz), used in American recipes.
- 240 ml cup — the “legal” cup on US nutrition labels; also used in Latin American recipes.
- Metric cup — 250 ml — Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many European recipes.
- Tablespoon — 15 ml, teaspoon — 5 ml (US spoons are 14.8 and 4.9 ml; the difference is under 2%).
Scooped or spooned?
Flour, cornstarch, cocoa and powdered sugar pack down easily, so for them the calculator asks how the cup is filled. Spooned into the cup and leveled, a cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 120 g; scooped straight from the bag, about 150 g. Most US recipes assume the spoon-and-level method; scooping is how most people measure elsewhere.
Spoons are counted as dipped into the bag and leveled. Sugar, salt and grains barely pack down, so the method doesn’t matter for them. Raisins and coconut are measured loosely, without pressing down.
Examples
- 1 cup all-purpose flour = 120 g, granulated sugar = 198 g, butter = 227 g (2 sticks).
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed = 213 g; powdered sugar = 113 g.
- 1 tablespoon honey = 21 g, salt = 18 g.
- 500 g of flour ≈ 4 ⅙ cups, spooned and leveled.
Where the data comes from
Spooned cups of dry ingredients follow the King Arthur Baking ingredient weight chart. Scooped cups of all-purpose flour, cornstarch and cocoa follow traditional Russian kitchen tables (160, 160 and 120 g per 250 ml cup; America’s Test Kitchen gives a similar 142 g per US cup of scooped flour); whole wheat flour follows Baking Sense (140 g per cup). For rye and almond flour and powdered sugar we found no scooped data: these are estimates, scaled up in the same proportion as all-purpose flour. Liquids use their density. These are averages — a kitchen scale is always more accurate.
FAQ
Heaping or level spoons? Level. A heaping spoon typically holds 1.5–2 times as much.
Why does my cup weigh something else? Grind, moisture and how tightly the cup is filled all matter; 10–20% off is normal.
To make more or less of a recipe, use the recipe scaler.