How-to

Cups to grams chart for baking — 50+ common ingredients, checked against King Arthur

Published October 10, 2026 Last checked October 10, 2026

How many grams are in a cup?

It depends on the ingredient. One US cup of all-purpose flour is 120 grams, granulated sugar is 198 grams, packed brown sugar is 213 grams, and butter is 227 grams, per King Arthur Baking’s ingredient weight chart. A cup is a volume, so how much it weighs depends on how dense the ingredient is and how it’s packed. There’s no single cups-to-grams number.

Every figure in the charts below comes from King Arthur’s chart, fetched October 10, 2026. Where King Arthur lists a smaller measure (for example, ½ cup of cocoa or 1 tablespoon of honey), we show their number and multiply it out to a full cup, rounded to the nearest gram. This is a reference chart, desk-researched rather than kitchen-tested. To convert a whole recipe, including oven temperatures and spoon sizes, use our step-by-step cups-to-grams and °F-to-°C guide.

Flours and starches

The ½- and ¼-cup columns are simple divisions of King Arthur’s 1-cup figure, rounded. King Arthur’s chart lists only its own unbleached cake flour, at 120g. Other brands’ cake flours may weigh differently, so if a recipe gives grams, trust the recipe’s own number. Out of one of them? The cake flour substitute uses all-purpose flour and cornstarch, and the self-rising flour substitute adds baking powder and salt.

Sugars and sweeteners

Honey and the other syrups are why cups and grams can’t share one number: a cup of honey weighs nearly three times as much as a cup of flour.

Butter, oils, and dairy

A note on liquids: King Arthur lists water, milk, and most dairy at 8 ounces (227g) per cup. A US cup is 236.6 ml, and water weighs about 1g per ml, so a level cup of water is closer to 237g. That’s why other charts print 236g to 240g. The difference is about 4%, which rarely matters in a batter. What matters more is being consistent: use one source’s numbers for a whole recipe. If you are missing one of these dairy ingredients, the buttermilk substitutes and evaporated milk substitutes give ratios per cup.

Oats, rice, cocoa, and add-ins

King Arthur lists “Oats (King Arthur Rolled)” separately at 113g per cup, heavier than the 89g it gives for generic old-fashioned or quick oats. If your oats are thick-cut, weigh a cup once and note it.

Small measures: leaveners, salt, yeast, eggs

These are where a few grams make the biggest difference, and where measuring spoons are often good enough.

The salt rows are the ones to remember. A tablespoon of Diamond Crystal weighs half as much as a tablespoon of Morton’s, so swapping brands by volume can make a recipe noticeably saltier or blander. If a recipe specifies a brand of kosher salt, follow it or convert by weight. The 50g egg is also what makes halving a recipe with one egg workable: beat it and weigh out 25g.

Why do other charts say 125g or 130g for a cup of flour?

Because they measure differently, not because one of them is wrong. King Arthur explains in its guide to measuring flour that if you fluff, spoon, and level, a cup holds about 120g. Packed down, the same cup can hold up to 160g. America’s Test Kitchen uses 5 ounces (about 142g) as its standard cup of all-purpose flour. It arrived at that by having dozens of volunteers measure a cup and averaging the weights, and it notes the amount can vary by as much as 20 percent depending on the baker (ATK, how to weigh flour). You’ll also see 125g and 130g on many other charts. Those usually reflect a slightly firmer fill, or rounding toward the middle of that range.

The practical rule, which ATK also gives, is to use the weight the recipe’s author used. A King Arthur recipe expects 120g per cup. An ATK or Cook’s Illustrated recipe expects about 142g. If a recipe gives grams, use them and ignore the cup measure. If it gives only cups and no author’s standard, 120–125g per cup of all-purpose flour is a sensible, slightly conservative starting point. Hold back a little extra flour for dough that’s clearly too wet.

How to use this chart without wrecking a recipe

• Weigh the ingredients that carry structure: flour, sugar, butter, and liquids. That’s where cup-to-cup variation ruins cakes and cookies.
• Keep spoons for small amounts. A teaspoon of baking powder is 4g, and many home scales only read in 1g steps, so measuring spoons are fine for leaveners and spices.
• Tare between ingredients. Put the bowl on the scale, zero it, add flour, zero again, and add sugar. It’s quicker than cups and leaves fewer dishes.
• Still check for doneness. Weighing makes a bake more repeatable. It doesn’t change your oven. Check cakes a few minutes early with a toothpick or a light press in the center.

Converting a whole recipe at once

Looking up eight ingredients in a chart works, but it’s easy to miss one, and a half-converted recipe is worse than an unconverted one. If you’d rather not do it line by line, Sous Chef treats US/metric as a setting on the recipe: flip it and every ingredient converts together, instead of being edited one at a time. Changes like “make half” or “I only have salted butter” go through as normal edits on top, with changed lines marked. It’s an iPhone app, free to download and try; heavier AI use may need a subscription later. If you’re curious how a general chatbot handles the same job, we tested it in can ChatGPT convert recipes to metric. For a recipe that also needs resizing, see how to scale a recipe.

Common questions

How many grams is 1 cup of all-purpose flour?

120 grams, per King Arthur Baking, measured by fluffing the flour, spooning it into the cup, and leveling it. Other sources use 125g, 130g, or (America’s Test Kitchen) about 142g, because they fill the cup differently. Use the standard of whoever wrote your recipe.

How many grams is 1 cup of sugar?

198 grams of granulated white sugar, per King Arthur’s chart as of Oct 2026. Many recipes round it to 200g, which makes no practical difference. Packed brown sugar is 213g per cup, and unsifted powdered sugar is 113g.

How many grams is 1 cup of butter?

227 grams, which is two US sticks. One stick (½ cup, 8 tablespoons) is 113g, and one tablespoon is about 14g.

Is a cup of milk 240g or 227g?

Both numbers are in common use. King Arthur lists milk and water at 227g (8 ounces) per cup. A US cup holds 236.6 ml, so water by physical weight is about 237g, and many charts round to 240g. The gap is about 4%, which seldom matters. Stick to one source within a recipe.

Why does a cup of honey weigh so much more than a cup of flour?

Honey is dense and has no air pockets. Flour is mostly air between particles. King Arthur lists honey at 21g per tablespoon, or about 336g per cup, nearly three times a cup of all-purpose flour at 120g.

Do I need to weigh baking powder and salt?

Measuring spoons are fine for small amounts like a teaspoon of baking powder (4g). Kosher salt is the exception: a tablespoon of Diamond Crystal is 8g and a tablespoon of Morton’s is 16g, so check which brand the recipe means or convert by weight.