How many grams in a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder?

1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder weighs 84 g by King Arthur Baking's chart (42 g per half cup). USDA lists 86 g.

Sources: King Arthur Baking ingredient weight chart, USDA FoodData Central · Checked October 10, 2026

Amount

Unit

84 g 3 oz

Sources range from 84 g to 86 g for 1 cup.

Converting a whole recipe?

Sous Chef converts every ingredient in a recipe to grams and millilitres in one tap, rounded to amounts you would actually weigh.

Cocoa powder cups to grams table

Using 84 g per US cup. A US cup is 236.6 mL; 1 cup is 16 tablespoons.

Cocoa powder cups to grams
US cups	Grams	Ounces	Tablespoons
⅛ cup	11 g	0.4 oz	2
¼ cup	21 g	0.7 oz	4
⅓ cup	28 g	1 oz	5.3
½ cup	42 g	1.5 oz	8
⅔ cup	56 g	2 oz	10.7
¾ cup	63 g	2.2 oz	12
1 cup	84 g	3 oz	16
1½ cups	126 g	4.4 oz	24
2 cups	168 g	5.9 oz	32
3 cups	252 g	8.9 oz	48
4 cups	336 g	11.9 oz	64

Why sources disagree

Cocoa is a light, fine powder, so a cup weighs far less than a cup of flour. The two sources agree within 2 g. Cocoa clumps, so sift or whisk it before measuring by volume.

Source	Listed as	Grams per cup
King Arthur Baking ingredient weight chart Cocoa (unsweetened)	½ cup = 42 g	84 g
USDA FoodData Central Cocoa, dry powder, unsweetened	1 cup = 86 g	86 g

Bold row is the figure the calculator uses. Figures listed for a smaller measure are multiplied up to one cup.

How to measure unsweetened cocoa powder accurately

Cocoa clumps, so spoon it into the cup and level it instead of scooping.
Weigh on a digital scale when you can, since cup scoops vary from cook to cook.
If you use cups, fill the same way every time so your results stay consistent.

Convert the whole recipe, not one line

Converting a recipe one ingredient at a time is where mistakes slip in. Sous Chef imports a recipe from a link or pasted text, then converts every ingredient at once: dry ingredients and butter to grams, liquids to millilitres. Tap again to go back to cups.

US recipe

2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup butter, softened
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
1½ cups milk

In Sous Chef, after "Convert to metric"

275 g all-purpose flour
225 g butter, softened
170 g brown sugar, packed
350 ml milk

Example output. Sous Chef rounds to amounts you would actually weigh, so its numbers can differ by a few grams from the table above.

Common questions

How many grams is half a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder?

Half a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder is about 42 g, using 84 g per cup.

How many grams is 1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder?

1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder is about 5 g, since 1 cup is 16 tablespoons and 84 g per cup divided by 16 is 5 g.

More conversions

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