How to Convert Cups to Grams for Baking — Reference Tables for Common Ingredients
A cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 100 grams to 160 grams depending on how you measure it. That's a 60% difference from the same unit. If you're following a recipe that says "2 cups of flour" and you end up with dense, dry bread or a cake that doesn't rise, the measuring method is usually the first thing to investigate.
Use the Cooking Unit Converter to convert between cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, milliliters, and grams for common ingredients. This article covers the reference tables you'll need and explains why cup-to-gram conversion matters more than most people realize.
Why Cups Are Unreliable for Dry Ingredients
A cup is a volume measurement. Dry ingredients like flour, sugar, and oats are not liquids — they have irregular shapes, and they compress or aerate differently depending on how they're handled.
There are three common ways people measure flour into a cup:
The scoop method: You push the measuring cup directly into the flour bag and scoop it out. This compacts the flour, and you can end up with 150–160 g in what the recipe calls "1 cup."
The spoon-and-level method: You spoon flour into the measuring cup and level off the top with a straight edge. This is the standard most US recipes assume. It gives roughly 125 g per cup.
Sifted flour: You sift flour into the measuring cup. This aerates it, and a "cup of sifted flour" weighs about 100 g.
The recipe writer probably used one of these methods. You may use another. The result is 25–60 g of flour per cup that nobody accounted for.
For casual cooking, this doesn't matter much. For bread, croissants, macarons, puff pastry, or any recipe where precision affects the final texture, it matters a lot.
Cup to Gram Conversion Table for Common Baking Ingredients
These values use the spooned-and-levelled standard — the most common US recipe convention — unless otherwise noted.
Flours
| Ingredient | 1 cup | ¾ cup | ½ cup | ¼ cup | 1 tbsp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 125 g | 94 g | 63 g | 31 g | 8 g |
| Bread flour | 130 g | 98 g | 65 g | 33 g | 8 g |
| Cake flour | 100 g | 75 g | 50 g | 25 g | 6 g |
| Whole wheat flour | 120 g | 90 g | 60 g | 30 g | 8 g |
| Almond flour | 96 g | 72 g | 48 g | 24 g | 6 g |
| Coconut flour | 112 g | 84 g | 56 g | 28 g | 7 g |
| Rice flour | 158 g | 119 g | 79 g | 40 g | 10 g |
| Oat flour | 92 g | 69 g | 46 g | 23 g | 6 g |
Sugars
| Ingredient | 1 cup | ¾ cup | ½ cup | ¼ cup | 1 tbsp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Granulated white sugar | 200 g | 150 g | 100 g | 50 g | 13 g |
| Brown sugar (packed) | 220 g | 165 g | 110 g | 55 g | 14 g |
| Brown sugar (loosely filled) | 160 g | 120 g | 80 g | 40 g | 10 g |
| Powdered / icing sugar | 120 g | 90 g | 60 g | 30 g | 8 g |
| Caster sugar | 200 g | 150 g | 100 g | 50 g | 13 g |
| Coconut sugar | 180 g | 135 g | 90 g | 45 g | 11 g |
Fats
| Ingredient | 1 cup | ¾ cup | ½ cup | ¼ cup | 1 tbsp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Butter (softened) | 227 g | 170 g | 114 g | 57 g | 14 g |
| Butter (melted) | 227 g | 170 g | 114 g | 57 g | 14 g |
| Coconut oil (solid) | 218 g | 163 g | 109 g | 54 g | 14 g |
| Vegetable oil | 218 g | 163 g | 109 g | 54 g | 14 g |
| Olive oil | 216 g | 162 g | 108 g | 54 g | 14 g |
Dairy and Eggs
| Ingredient | 1 cup | ¾ cup | ½ cup | ¼ cup | 1 tbsp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milk (whole) | 245 g | 184 g | 123 g | 61 g | 15 g |
| Buttermilk | 245 g | 184 g | 123 g | 61 g | 15 g |
| Heavy cream | 238 g | 179 g | 119 g | 60 g | 15 g |
| Sour cream | 230 g | 173 g | 115 g | 58 g | 14 g |
| Greek yogurt | 245 g | 184 g | 123 g | 61 g | 15 g |
Other Common Baking Ingredients
| Ingredient | 1 cup | ¾ cup | ½ cup | ¼ cup | 1 tbsp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rolled oats | 90 g | 68 g | 45 g | 23 g | 6 g |
| Cocoa powder | 85 g | 64 g | 43 g | 21 g | 5 g |
| Honey | 340 g | 255 g | 170 g | 85 g | 21 g |
| Maple syrup | 322 g | 241 g | 161 g | 80 g | 20 g |
| Peanut butter | 258 g | 194 g | 129 g | 64 g | 16 g |
| Chocolate chips | 170 g | 128 g | 85 g | 43 g | 11 g |
| Shredded coconut | 93 g | 70 g | 46 g | 23 g | 6 g |
| Chopped walnuts | 117 g | 88 g | 58 g | 29 g | 7 g |
| Raisins | 165 g | 124 g | 83 g | 41 g | 10 g |
Common Spoon Measurements in Grams
Small amounts of leavening agents, salt, and spices are typically measured in teaspoons and tablespoons. The converter can handle these, but here are the most common ones:
| Ingredient | 1 tsp | ½ tsp | ¼ tsp |
|---|---|---|---|
| Table salt | 6 g | 3 g | 1.5 g |
| Kosher salt (Morton) | 5 g | 2.5 g | 1.25 g |
| Baking soda | 6 g | 3 g | 1.5 g |
| Baking powder | 4 g | 2 g | 1 g |
| Instant yeast | 3 g | 1.5 g | 0.75 g |
| Active dry yeast | 3 g | 1.5 g | 0.75 g |
| Cinnamon | 2.6 g | 1.3 g | 0.65 g |
| Vanilla extract | 4 g | 2 g | 1 g |
How to Actually Weigh Ingredients
You need a kitchen scale that measures in grams. Most decent kitchen scales cost $10–25 and are accurate to 1–2 grams, which is more than precise enough for home baking.
The workflow is simple:
1. Put your mixing bowl on the scale. 2. Tare (zero) the scale. 3. Add the first ingredient until you reach the target gram weight. 4. Tare again. 5. Add the next ingredient.
This is faster than measuring cups because you're not washing spoons and cups between ingredients. One bowl, one scale, no mess.
For very small quantities — less than 5 grams — a standard kitchen scale may not be accurate enough. A teaspoon of baking powder is only 4 grams; a scale that rounds to the nearest 2 grams might show 2 g or 4 g depending on which way it rounds. For leavening agents in small quantities, a jeweler's scale (accurate to 0.1 g) or simply using your measuring spoon is more reliable.
UK and Australian Recipes: The Cup Size Difference
US recipes use a 240 mL cup as the practical working standard (the true US cup is 236.6 mL, but 240 mL is what most US measuring cups actually hold).
Australian and Canadian measuring cups hold 250 mL. That's 10 mL more per cup — about 4% larger. For most recipes this doesn't matter. For bread or pastry where the flour-to-liquid ratio is critical, it can.
If you're following a US recipe with Australian cups, you're adding slightly more of every ingredient than the recipe intended. For a 2-cup recipe, you're adding 20 mL extra liquid, which is about 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon. In bread baking, that might be enough to change the dough consistency noticeably.
UK recipes that use cups are also usually based on a 250 mL cup, matching the Australian standard rather than the US.
The safest approach for any recipe where precision matters: convert everything to grams using the Cooking Unit Converter and weigh your ingredients. The cup size becomes irrelevant.
When Volume Measurements Are Fine
Not every recipe needs gram precision. Volume measurements work well for:
- Liquids like water, milk, oil, and broth — these don't compress, so a cup is a cup
- Recipes with a wide tolerance for variation, like soups, stews, and casseroles
- Rough recipes where the result is forgiving — cookies, most muffins, pancakes
Save the gram conversion for bread, pastry, cake layers, and anything where texture and rise are the point of the recipe. Those are the situations where the 25–60 gram difference per cup actually changes the outcome you get.
