Grams to Cups Converter: Flour, Sugar, Butter and More

How to use this tool

Type the weight, leave the unit on grams, and pick the ingredient. The answer appears in cups, and under it in the measuring cups and spoons you would actually reach for, because 0.83 cups is not a thing you can scoop. Kilograms, ounces and pounds work in the same box if that is what your scale or packet says.

For flour and other light, compressible ingredients a third box appears asking how you fill the cup. That is not a detail: spooning flour into the cup and levelling it gives 120 grams, dipping the cup into the bag gives about 144, and sifting first gives about 106. The chart on the page shows the three side by side for whatever you have selected.

The flip button turns the conversion round if you have cups and want grams. Every ingredient is also listed at the bottom with its weight per cup, and each one is a link that opens the converter on it.

How many cups is 100 grams

There is no single answer, and that is the whole problem with converting weight to volume. 100 grams of all purpose flour is 0.833 cups. 100 grams of granulated sugar is 0.505 cups, because sugar is denser and packs tighter. 100 grams of butter is 0.441, honey 0.298, and cocoa powder 1.19, which is more than a cup because cocoa is mostly air.

The spread is roughly four to one between the lightest and heaviest things a recipe puts in a cup. A cup of cocoa powder weighs 84 grams; a cup of honey weighs 336. Any page that gives you one number for grams to cups is quietly assuming an ingredient, and if it is not yours, the answer is wrong by as much as the difference between those two.

Grams to cups for the ingredients people convert most

Weights per US cup from the King Arthur Baking ingredient weight chart, which is the most widely used published reference and the one most American recipe writers work from. Flours are spooned and levelled.

Weights per US cup from the King Arthur Baking ingredient weight chart, flours spooned and levelled. Every row is a link.

The same weights, ingredient by ingredient

Read down the column for the ingredient you have. The differences between columns are the point.

All figures in US cups. The first column opens the converter on that amount of flour; change the ingredient once it is open.

The flour problem

Flour is where grams to cups goes wrong most often, and it is not the arithmetic. It is that a cup of flour is not a fixed weight. Spoon it in loosely and level the top and you get about 120 grams. Dip the cup into the bag and sweep it and you compact the flour to about 144, a fifth more. Sift first and you get about 106. So 250 grams of flour is 2.08 cups if you spoon it and 1.74 if you scoop it.

A fifth more flour in a cake is the difference between tender and tough, which is why most serious recipe writers have moved to grams and why the ones who still use cups specify the method. If your recipe does not say, spooned and levelled is the safer assumption, because that is what the standard charts are built on.

None of this applies to sugar, butter, honey or liquids, which are not compressible in any way that matters. For those, a cup is a cup.

From grams to something you can actually scoop

A decimal answer is not much use standing at the counter. 0.833 cups of flour is 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup in a standard US set, and 2.08 cups is 2 cups + 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon. The page works this out for every conversion, using a set of 1, 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4 cups plus tablespoon and teaspoon measures, with sixteen tablespoons to a cup and three teaspoons to a tablespoon.

If you have a scale, use it instead. Weighing is faster than levelling four cup measures, it uses one bowl instead of several, and it removes the packing question entirely. The reason to convert to cups at all is that you do not have a scale, or the recipe is in cups and your ingredients are in a 500 gram bag.

A worked check you can repeat on paper

Take 200 grams of granulated sugar. The chart puts sugar at 198 grams a US cup, so 200 divided by 198 is 1.0101 cups, shown as 1.01. In measuring cups that is 1 cup, which is close enough that most bakers would just use one cup.

Now 200 grams of flour at 120 grams a cup: 1.6667 cups, or 1 cup + 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons. The same weight of two white powders differs by two thirds of a cup, which is the clearest illustration there is that weight and volume are not interchangeable.

Mistakes that catch people out

Using one conversion for everything. There is no universal grams to cups factor. Flour, sugar and cocoa are all dry white powders and all three differ by more than a third.

Assuming a cup is 250 grams. The 250 is millilitres, and it is the metric cup, not the US one. A US cup is 236.59 ml, and its weight changes with the contents.

Ignoring how the cup was filled. For flour, cocoa, powdered sugar and oats, scooping instead of spooning adds about a fifth. The selector on this page shows the difference rather than hiding it.

Measuring sticky things in cups. Honey, syrup and peanut butter leave a fifth of themselves in the cup. Weigh them, or oil the cup first.

Converting a recipe halfway. If you are going to weigh, weigh everything. Half in grams and half in cups is where mistakes hide.

Popular conversions

Each opens the converter on that weight and ingredient with its own address, and every value can be changed once it is open.

Flour

Sugar

Brown sugar, icing sugar and honey

Butter, oil and peanut butter

Water, milk and cream

Oats, cocoa and other flours

Kilograms, ounces and pounds

How this was checked

The ingredient weights come from a single published chart rather than from an average of what other converter pages say, and each one is shown on the page with its conversion so nothing is hidden behind the answer. The arithmetic was tested in Node across every ingredient, every unit and amounts from a gram to ten kilograms, converting weight to volume and back, and every round trip returns the starting figure to twelve significant figures.

The measuring cup breakdown was checked against every conversion in the lists above to confirm the pieces add back to the stated number of cups, with the remainder always under an eighth of a teaspoon. The flour packing factors were applied only to the ingredients that compress, and the spooned figure is used everywhere as the default, which is the assumption the source chart states. Every address linked above was then opened and checked for a distinct title, the right answer, charts that render, and clean CSV, image and print output containing only that conversion, at desktop, tablet and phone widths.

Common questions

How many cups is 100 grams?

It depends entirely on what the 100 grams is. For all purpose flour it is 0.833 cups, which in measuring cups comes to 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup. For granulated sugar it is 0.505 cups, for butter 0.441, for honey 0.298 and for cocoa powder 1.19. A gram is a weight and a cup is a volume, so the conversion needs the density of the ingredient.

How many cups is 250 grams of flour?

2.08 cups, at the standard 120 grams per cup for spooned and levelled all purpose flour. In measuring cups that is 2 cups + 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon. If you scoop the flour straight from the bag instead, a cup holds about 144 grams and 250 grams becomes 1.74 cups.

Is one cup 250 grams?

Only for something that happens to weigh 250 grams a cup, which is not flour, sugar or butter. The 250 that people remember is millilitres: a metric cup is 250 ml. A US cup is 236.59 ml, and what it weighs depends on the ingredient, from 84 grams for cocoa powder to 336 for honey.

How many grams in a cup of flour?

120 grams for all purpose flour spooned into the cup and levelled off, which is what the King Arthur Baking chart uses and what most recipes assume. Scooping the cup through the bag compacts the flour and gives about 144 grams, a fifth more. Sifting first gives about 106. This is the single biggest source of disagreement between recipes.

Can I convert grams to cups without knowing the ingredient?

Not accurately. The nearest thing to a general answer is water, where 1 gram is 1 millilitre, so a US cup of water is 236.6 grams and 100 grams is 0.424 cups. Anything lighter than water, which is most dry ingredients, gives more cups per 100 grams, and anything heavier, such as honey or syrup, gives fewer.

Why do different websites give different grams per cup?

Because they use different reference charts and different assumptions about packing. A cup of flour is quoted anywhere from 120 to 150 grams depending on whether the writer spooned it or scooped it. This page uses one published chart throughout, states the figure it used for every conversion, and lets you switch between spooned, scooped and sifted so you can see the size of the difference rather than guessing at it.

Related Calculators and Reference

• Tablespoons to Cups Converter: for the spoon counts, with 16 tablespoons to a cup and 3 teaspoons to a tablespoon.
• Cups to Grams Converter: the same chart the other way round, for when the recipe is in cups and your scale is in grams.
• ML to Cups Converter: for liquids, where the conversion is volume to volume and the only question is which cup.
• Oz to ML Converter: fluid ounces to millilitres, and the ounce of weight kept separate.
• Grams to Ounces Converter: pure weight, including sticks of butter and troy ounces.
• Unit Price Comparison Calculator: for comparing two packet sizes once the weights match.
• Cups to Ounces Converter: fluid ounces and ounces by weight for any cup.
• King Arthur Baking ingredient weight chart: the source of the weights used here.