Practical guide 3 min read
How to convert cups to grams
A cup measures volume and a gram measures weight, so every ingredient converts differently. A reference table, and a faster way to convert a whole recipe.
Why there is no single cups-to-grams number
A cup measures volume: how much space an ingredient takes up. A gram measures weight. A cup of flour and a cup of honey fill the same cup, but the honey weighs well over twice as much.
So every ingredient converts differently. One US cup is about 237 millilitres, and that holds roughly:
- 125 g of all-purpose flour
- 200 g of granulated sugar
- 227 g of butter
- 340 g of honey
That's why a recipe that simply says "1 cup = 250 g" will go wrong for most ingredients.
Cups to grams for common ingredients
These are the weights of one level US cup, and the same figures Batch uses:
| Ingredient | Grams per cup |
|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 125 g |
| Bread flour | 127 g |
| Whole wheat flour | 120 g |
| Almond flour | 96 g |
| Granulated sugar | 200 g |
| Brown sugar, packed | 213 g |
| Powdered (icing) sugar | 120 g |
| Cocoa powder | 85 g |
| Butter | 227 g |
| Vegetable oil | 218 g |
| Milk | 245 g |
| Water | 237 g |
| Honey | 340 g |
| Maple syrup | 315 g |
| Rolled oats | 90 g |
| Chocolate chips | 170 g |
| Table salt | 288 g |
| Baking soda | 230 g |
| Baking powder | 192 g |
For spoons, a cup is 16 tablespoons or 48 teaspoons. So a tablespoon of butter is about 14 g, and a teaspoon of table salt is about 6 g.
Kosher salt varies a lot by brand, because the crystals are different shapes. Some brands weigh nearly twice as much per spoon as others. If a recipe names a brand, weigh it the way the recipe does.
Convert a whole recipe at once
Converting line by line is tedious. Batch converts the whole ingredient list in one go, and can scale it at the same time:
- Paste your ingredient list, one ingredient per line.
- Set Recipe makes and You want, or use Half, Double or Triple. Leave them equal to convert without scaling.
- Tick Show weights in grams where possible.
- Check the scaled list. An ingredient marked with an asterisk has no weight on file, so it is shown in millilitres instead.
- Select Copy list to paste it into your notes.
Batch recognizes cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, fluid ounces, pints, quarts, millilitres and litres, as well as fractions like 2 ¼ or ¾.
Why weighing is more accurate
How you fill a cup changes how much goes in. Flour scooped straight from the bag packs down and can weigh 20% more than flour spooned into the cup and levelled off. Brown sugar is meant to be packed; powdered sugar is not. A kitchen scale takes that guesswork out, which is why many bakers prefer recipes in grams.
The weights above assume the usual method: flour spooned in and levelled, brown sugar packed firmly.
US cups and metric cups
These figures use the US cup of about 237 ml. Recipes from Australia and New Zealand, and many modern Canadian recipes, use a 250 ml metric cup, which holds about 6% more. The difference rarely ruins a dish, but in baking it can be enough to notice. If a recipe lists millilitres beside its cups, go by the millilitres.
Tips for scaling a recipe
- Eggs: Batch scales eggs like any other amount, so 2 eggs × 1.5 becomes 3. For awkward amounts, beat the eggs and weigh them. A large egg out of its shell is about 50 g.
- Pans: a doubled recipe needs a bigger pan or two pans, not the same pan filled twice as deep.
- Baking time: it doesn't scale in step with the ingredients. Start checking early, and go by how the food looks and feels rather than the clock.
- Seasoning: add salt and strong spices gradually when scaling up a lot, and taste as you go.
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