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Cups to Grams: The Conversion Chart Every Home Cook Needs

·4 min read
*Quick answer: 1 cup of flour = 125g. 1 cup of sugar = 200g. 1 cup of butter = 227g. But every ingredient weighs differently — that's why cup measurements are unreliable for baking.

I used to eyeball everything. Scoop flour into a cup, level it off, done. My cookies were different every time — sometimes flat, sometimes cakey, never consistent.

Then I bought a $12 kitchen scale and started weighing ingredients. Night and day difference. Here's the thing about cups: they measure volume, not weight. A cup of packed brown sugar weighs almost twice as much as a cup of flour. Use cups for cooking. Use grams for baking.

The Conversion Chart

Here are the most common ingredients, measured as 1 US cup (236.6 ml):

Flours & Starches

  • All-purpose flour — 125g
  • Bread flour — 130g
  • Whole wheat flour — 120g
  • Cake flour — 115g
  • Almond flour — 96g
  • Coconut flour — 128g
  • Cornstarch — 128g

Sugars

  • Granulated sugar — 200g
  • Brown sugar (packed) — 220g
  • Powdered sugar — 120g
  • Honey — 340g
  • Maple syrup — 315g

Fats & Dairy

  • Butter — 227g (2 sticks)
  • Vegetable oil — 218g
  • Heavy cream — 238g
  • Milk — 244g
  • Greek yogurt — 245g
  • Cream cheese — 232g

Other

  • Rice (uncooked) — 185g
  • Oats (rolled) — 90g
  • Cocoa powder — 86g
  • Peanut butter — 258g
  • Chocolate chips — 170g
  • Salt (table)* — 288g
Don't want to memorize all this? Use our unit converter — it handles cups, grams, ounces, ml, and more.

Why Cups Are Unreliable for Baking

Here's an experiment I did: I measured 1 cup of flour five times using the scoop-and-level method. The weights ranged from 120g to 145g. That's a 20% variance from the same cup.

Why? Because flour compacts differently depending on how you scoop it, how long the bag has been sitting, humidity, and whether you sifted it. Sugar is more consistent because the granules don't compress as easily.

For cooking — soup, stir-fry, sauces — cups are fine. Nobody cares if your soup has 10% more broth. But for baking, where ratios matter, 20% more flour turns a moist cake into a dry brick.

How to Measure Flour Properly (If You Must Use Cups)

If you don't have a scale:

    • Fluff the flour in the bag with a fork
    • Spoon it into the measuring cup (don't scoop directly)
    • Level off with a straight edge
This gets you closer to the standard 125g per cup. Scooping directly from the bag packs the flour and gives you 140-150g — way too much.

The $12 Fix

A kitchen scale changed my baking completely. I use the Ozeri Pronto — basic, accurate, $12. Any digital scale that reads in grams will do.

Workflow: put bowl on scale → hit tare → add ingredient until you hit the number → tare again → add next ingredient. One bowl, no measuring cups to wash.

FAQ

Are UK cups the same as US cups?

No. A US cup is 236.6 ml. An Imperial (UK/Australian) cup is 250 ml. Most recipes online use US cups. This chart uses US cups.

How do I convert a recipe from cups to grams?

Use our unit converter for standard liquid conversions. For ingredients like flour and sugar, use the chart above — each ingredient has a different weight per cup.

Is it worth buying a kitchen scale just for baking?

Absolutely. A $12 scale pays for itself the first time you don't waste ingredients on a failed batch. Professional bakers worldwide work in grams, not cups. There's a reason.

How many grams in a tablespoon?

It depends on the ingredient. A tablespoon of sugar is about 12.5g. A tablespoon of butter is about 14g. A tablespoon of flour is about 8g.

Next Steps