Convert between grams and cups for common cooking and baking ingredients. Different ingredients have different densities, so 1 cup of flour weighs differently than 1 cup of sugar.
One cup is not one cup. A US cup is a volume measurement — 236.6 ml — and what fits inside it depends entirely on what you're measuring. A cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 120 grams; a cup of granulated sugar weighs about 200 grams; a cup of honey weighs about 340 grams. The same "1 cup" tells you almost nothing about the weight, which is why professional baking recipes use grams and home recipes that switch from volume to weight (or vice versa) often fail in subtle but important ways.
This converter handles the density-specific math for common ingredients. Enter grams, pick the ingredient, and get the matching cup volume — or work backwards from cup volume to find the gram weight. The numbers come from standard ingredient density references used by King Arthur Baking, USDA databases, and most published baking books.
Why this matters: flour is the worst offender. A "cup of flour" can vary from 100 to 160 grams depending on whether it's sifted, scooped, or spooned. That 60% spread is enough to ruin bread, mess up cookie textures, and turn cakes into bricks. Switching from "measure by cup" to "weigh in grams" is the single largest accuracy upgrade for any home baker.
**Scenario:** Recipe calls for 250 g flour, 175 g sugar, 100 g butter, 50 g almonds. You only have measuring cups. **Calculation:** Flour: 250/120 = 2.08 cups → 2 cups + ~1 tbsp. Sugar: 175/200 = 0.875 cup → ~7/8 cup or 14 tbsp. Butter: 100/227 = 0.44 cup → about 7 tbsp (close to half a stick). Almonds (≈ 130 g/cup): 50/130 = 0.38 cup → about 3/8 cup or 6 tbsp. **Result:** Volumetric equivalents work for this rustic recipe, but biscotti is more forgiving than puff pastry. For anything where ratios matter precisely (laminated dough, choux, macarons), buy a $15 kitchen scale.
**Scenario:** Sourdough recipe: 500 g bread flour, 350 g water, 10 g salt, 100 g starter. You want to know if this hydration level is right. **Calculation:** Hydration = water mass / flour mass = 350/500 = 70%. (Starter contains 50 g flour + 50 g water at 100% hydration starter, so total flour = 550 g, total water = 400 g, true hydration = 400/550 = 73%.) In cups: 500 g flour = 4.17 cups; 350 g water = 1.48 cups. **Result:** 73% true hydration is moderate — workable for beginners. Volumetric measurements would give "4 cups flour, 1.5 cups water," which sounds the same but could easily be 480–600 g flour and 340–360 g water, drifting the hydration to anywhere from 57% to 75%.
**Scenario:** American recipe: 3 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup butter. Want to halve it. **Calculation:** Half: 1.5 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 0.5 cup butter. In grams: 1.5 × 120 = 180 g flour, 1 × 200 = 200 g sugar, 0.5 × 227 = 113 g butter. Notice butter is sold in 113 g (4 oz) sticks — exactly half a cup. **Result:** Working in grams makes halving and doubling trivial. American cup-based recipes are designed around the stick (113 g) of butter, which is why "half a cup" is a fundamental unit.
**Use this converter when:**
- **Following a European/Australian recipe in a US kitchen**: international recipes use grams; US measuring tools are in cups. - **Following an American recipe in a metric kitchen**: US recipes use cups; metric kitchens have only scales. - **Switching from "measure by scoop" to weighing**: any baker who buys a scale and wants to convert their old favorites. - **Doubling or halving a recipe**: ratios work cleanly in grams; halving "3 cups + 1 tablespoon" of flour is awkward. - **Pricing ingredients for a bakery**: cost-per-batch math is much easier in grams (price per kilo × kilos used). - **Diagnosing a recipe that didn't work**: weight tolerance is ±2%; volumetric flour can vary 30%. If your bread is consistently dense, the cup of flour you're scooping is probably 140 g instead of 120.
**When volume is fine:**
- Liquid measures for water, milk, oils — densities are similar to water, and volumetric is intuitive. - Forgiving recipes — stews, casseroles, dump cakes, smoothies. - Recipes where "a heaping cup" of vegetables doesn't need precision.
**When you absolutely need a scale:**
- Bread, especially sourdough — hydration percentage is the foundational measurement. - Pastry (croissants, puff, choux) — ratios matter to the gram. - Macarons — egg-white to almond-flour to sugar ratios determine whether they crack. - Chocolate tempering and confectionery — sugar percentages by weight govern texture. - Anything you want to reproduce reliably — same answer every time.
**Tools that pay for themselves quickly:**
- Digital kitchen scale (0–5 kg, 1 g resolution): $15–25 - Mini precision scale (0–500 g, 0.1 g resolution): $20 — handy for yeast, salt, spices - Volume bowls used as containers, not measuring tools — saves dishes and improves consistency.
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All-Purpose Flour
1.00 cups
Tablespoons
16.0
Ounces
4.23
Grams Per Cup
120g
for this ingredient
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Cups | 1.000 |
| Tablespoons | 16.0 |
| Teaspoons | 48.0 |
| Ounces (weight) | 4.23 |