Ounces to Grams Conversion for Food and Recipes

Most American recipes use ounces (or cups) for dry ingredients. Most European recipes use grams. If you cook across both systems — or you're buying ingredients with metric packaging for an imperial recipe — you'll need this conversion constantly.

1 ounce = 28.3495 grams

That's the avoirdupois ounce, the one used for food and everyday weights. Not the troy ounce (31.1 grams), which is reserved for precious metals. Whenever a recipe says "ounces," it means avoirdupois.

Use the Weight Converter for any conversion, including fractional ounces. The reference tables below cover the amounts that come up most often in food and cooking.

Ounces to Grams Reference Table

A few benchmarks worth committing to memory: 4 oz ≈ 113 g, 8 oz ≈ 227 g, 16 oz = 1 lb ≈ 454 g. These come up constantly when adapting recipes.

Grams to Ounces: Common Food Amounts

Going the other direction — when you have a metric package and need to know what it is in ounces:

The 100-gram baseline is handy: 100 g ≈ 3.5 oz. From there, 200 g ≈ 7 oz, 300 g ≈ 10.5 oz, and so on.

How Food Packaging Uses These Units

In the US, packaged food labels show both ounces and grams for the net weight — this is a federal requirement. A bag of pasta labeled "16 oz (454 g)" is exactly 1 pound. A can of tomatoes labeled "14.5 oz (411 g)" follows the same convention.

European packaging typically shows only grams (or kilograms for larger amounts), though some products sold internationally include ounces. A 200g block of chocolate is about 7 oz. A 500g bag of flour is 17.6 oz, just over 1 pound.

When a US recipe calls for "a 14-ounce can," you're looking for roughly 400g in metric supermarkets. That's close to a standard 400ml can (which, for water-based products like diced tomatoes, is approximately 400g). The match isn't exact, but it's usually close enough.

Fluid Ounces vs Weight Ounces

One source of confusion: fluid ounces measure volume, not weight. They share a name but are different units.

• 1 fluid ounce of water = approximately 29.57 mL = approximately 29.57 g (because water's density is close to 1 g/mL)
• 1 fluid ounce of honey ≈ 42 g (honey is much denser than water)
• 1 fluid ounce of oil ≈ 27 g (oil is less dense than water)

For water and other thin liquids, a fluid ounce is close to a weight ounce in grams — but only approximately, and only for water-like substances. For anything else, the numbers diverge.

Recipes that use fluid ounces for liquid ingredients (milk, cream, stock) are measuring volume. Recipes that use ounces for dry ingredients (flour, cheese, meat) are measuring weight. The Weight Converter handles weight ounces; for fluid ounces, use the Volume Converter.

Converting Ounces in Recipes

When adapting a recipe between US and metric, here's how to approach it:

Flour: US recipes often list cups rather than ounces. If they do give ounces, 1 cup of all-purpose flour ≈ 4.25 oz ≈ 120 g. Bread flour is slightly heavier: 1 cup ≈ 4.5 oz ≈ 127 g.

Butter: US butter sticks are 4 oz / 113 g each, with 8 sticks per pound. European butter is typically sold in 250g blocks. A recipe calling for 2 sticks of butter (8 oz / 227 g) is approximately 1 block of European butter (250g) — close enough for most baking.

Cheese: Recipes often call for "8 oz of shredded cheese." That's 227g. Most European supermarkets sell hard cheeses in 200g or 250g blocks, so you'd use one block either way.

Meat: A 6-oz chicken breast is 170g. An 8-oz steak is 227g (a standard portion). A 12-oz burger patty is 340g — the size many American diners use for their "third-pound" burgers (since ⅓ lb = 5.3 oz, not 12 oz — the 12-oz burger is actually ¾ pound).

The Mental Math Shortcut

If you need a rough conversion in your head without a calculator: multiply ounces by 28 to get grams, or divide grams by 28 to get ounces. That gives you 28 instead of 28.35, which introduces an error of about 1.2%. For a 10-oz piece of fish that's a difference of 3.5 grams — irrelevant in any real cooking context.

The more precise shortcut: multiply by 30 for a slightly high estimate, or use 28.35 for anything that actually matters (portioning medications, portions for dietary tracking, commercial food production).

For any calculation that needs to be right — scaling up a commercial recipe, checking a nutrition label, meeting a specification — use the Weight Converter rather than the mental shortcut.

Ounces, Pounds, and the US Weight System for Food

The US system for food weight uses ounces and pounds, with 16 ounces in a pound. Most packaged food in the US is labeled in ounces for smaller amounts and pounds (or pounds and ounces) for larger amounts.

Common food weights by category:

Proteins: Chicken breasts typically range from 4–8 oz (113–227g) each. A standard ground beef package is 1 lb (454g) or 1.5 lb (680g). Salmon fillets are often 6 oz (170g) per portion.

Dairy: An 8-oz block of cream cheese (what US recipes call "one package") is 227g. A standard US bag of shredded cheese is 8 oz or 16 oz. A pint of sour cream is typically 16 oz (454g).

Packaged goods: A standard loaf of sandwich bread is 20–24 oz. A box of pasta is 12 or 16 oz. A standard can of soup is about 10.5 oz (298g) condensed or 18.8 oz (533g) ready-to-serve.

Knowing these reference points makes it easier to substitute metric quantities when the US package size isn't available. A 500g block of pasta is close enough to 16 oz that you can treat them as equivalent for any recipe.