Grams to Cups for Baking: Flour, Sugar, Butter and More
Why a cup of flour and a cup of sugar weigh different amounts, with a conversion chart for common baking ingredients.
Recipes from Europe and most professional bakers list ingredients in grams, while American recipes use cups. Converting between them is not a single number, because grams measure weight and cups measure volume. A cup of flour weighs about 120 g; a cup of sugar about 200 g; a cup of honey about 340 g.
Grams per cup for common ingredients
| Ingredient | 1 cup | ½ cup | 1 tablespoon |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour (spooned and leveled) | 120 g | 60 g | 7.5 g |
| Bread flour | 127 g | 64 g | 8 g |
| Granulated sugar | 200 g | 100 g | 12.5 g |
| Brown sugar (packed) | 220 g | 110 g | 14 g |
| Powdered sugar | 120 g | 60 g | 7.5 g |
| Butter | 227 g | 113 g (1 stick) | 14 g |
| Water | 237 g | 118 g | 15 g |
| Milk | 242 g | 121 g | 15 g |
| Vegetable oil | 218 g | 109 g | 14 g |
| Honey | 340 g | 170 g | 21 g |
| Rolled oats | 90 g | 45 g | 6 g |
| Cocoa powder | 85 g | 43 g | 5 g |
| Chocolate chips | 170 g | 85 g | 11 g |
A US cup is 236.6 ml and holds 16 tablespoons; a tablespoon holds 3 teaspoons. For any other amount, use the cups to grams converter.
Quick answers: 1 cup of flour, 2 cups of flour, 3 cups of flour, 1 cup of sugar, ½ cup of sugar, 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 cup of butter, ½ cup of butter, 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of oats and 1 cup of rice in grams.
How to convert grams to cups
Cups = Grams ÷ grams per cup 250 g flour ÷ 120 = 2.08 cups
The leftover 0.08 cup is about 1⅓ tablespoons (0.08 × 16), so 250 g of flour is a little more than 2 cups: 2 cups plus 1 heaping tablespoon. Going the other way, multiply cups by the weight per cup: ¾ cup sugar × 200 = 150 g.
Why flour is the hardest to get right
Flour compacts. Dipping the cup straight into the bag can pack in 140–150 g, about 20% more than a spooned-and-leveled cup. That is enough to turn a soft cake dry or a cookie dough crumbly. For the most consistent results:
- Fluff the flour, spoon it into the cup and level it with a straight edge, without tapping.
- Better still, use a kitchen scale. A basic digital scale costs less than a set of good measuring cups and removes the guesswork.
- Weigh sticky ingredients like honey and peanut butter directly into the bowl: no scraping out cups.
Liquids: milliliters, grams and cups
For water, 1 ml weighs 1 g, so 240 ml is almost exactly 1 cup. Milk is slightly heavier and oil slightly lighter, but for most recipes treating them like water is close enough. For small amounts in ounces, remember that recipe “fluid ounces” measure volume (1 cup = 8 fl oz), while ounces on a scale measure weight (1 oz = 28.35 g). See the ounces to grams chart.
Scaling a recipe
Weights make scaling simple: multiply every ingredient by the same factor. To make 1.5 times a recipe that calls for 300 g flour, use 450 g. With cups, the math gets awkward quickly, which is why the recipe scaler converts amounts for you.