Grams to Cups Converter

How the conversion works

Each ingredient in the list has a known weight per US cup. To go from grams to cups, the converter divides your weight by that number.

cups = grams / grams per cup

All-purpose flour weighs 120 grams per cup, so 300 grams is 300 / 120 = 2.5 cups. Granulated sugar weighs 198 grams per cup, so the same 300 grams is only 300 / 198 = 1.52 cups. Enter ounces or pounds and the weight is first turned into grams (28.35 grams per ounce, 453.6 grams per pound).

Below a quarter cup the result switches to tablespoons, and below one tablespoon to teaspoons, because nobody measures 0.06 of a cup.

Worked example

A British chocolate cake recipe gives everything by weight. Here it is in US cups:

• 250 g all-purpose flour: 250 / 120 = 2.08 cups, or 2 cups plus 4 teaspoons
• 100 g granulated sugar: 100 / 198 = 0.51 cup, which is 1/2 cup
• 125 g butter: 125 / 226 = 0.55 cup, or 1/2 cup plus a scant tablespoon
• 30 g cocoa powder: 30 / 84 = 0.36 cup, or 1/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon

Only the sugar lands on a single measuring cup. That is normal. Recipes written in grams use round weights, and round weights almost never match round cups.

100 grams of common ingredients

A quick reference for the weight that turns up most in metric recipes:

• All-purpose flour: 0.83 cup, or 3/4 cup plus 4 teaspoons
• Granulated sugar: 1/2 cup
• Packed brown sugar: a little under 1/2 cup
• Powdered sugar, unsifted: 0.88 cup, a little under 1 cup
• Butter: 7 tablespoons
• Honey: about 4 3/4 tablespoons
• Rolled oats: 1.12 cups, a little over 1 cup
• Cocoa powder: 1.19 cups, a little under 1 1/4 cups
• Milk or water: 7 tablespoons

The chart above lists every ingredient at 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 grams.

Reading the result

The big number is the exact conversion. The line under it is the nearest fraction you can measure with a standard set of cups, and it says “about” whenever the fraction is not exact. For 100 grams of granulated sugar you will see 0.51 cup, about 1/2 cup. When no fraction is close enough, as with 100 grams of flour at 0.83 cup, only the decimal is shown. Follow the decimal when the recipe is fussy and the fraction when it is not.

The smaller lines give the same amount in tablespoons and teaspoons. For in-between amounts these are often easier: 7 tablespoons of butter is simpler to cut from a stick than 0.44 cup is to find.

Ounces and pounds

American packages are labelled by weight in ounces and pounds, and the converter takes those too. It is a quick way to check whether one bag covers a recipe:

• A 5 pound bag of all-purpose flour is 2,268 grams, or about 19 cups
• A 4 pound bag of granulated sugar is 1,814 grams, or a little over 9 cups
• A 1 pound box of butter is 454 grams: four sticks, or 2 cups
• A 12 ounce bag of chocolate chips is 340 grams, or 2 cups

US cups and metric cups

A US cup holds about 237 milliliters and a metric cup holds 250. The same weight fills fewer of the larger cups: 250 grams of flour is 2.08 US cups and 1.97 metric cups. Set the cup size to match the measuring cups in your drawer, not the country the recipe came from. The choice is saved for your next visit.

Should you convert at all?

If the recipe was written in grams, the most accurate way to follow it is to weigh the ingredients. A cup of flour changes weight with how it is filled, so every conversion to cups adds a little error that the original recipe did not have.

Convert when you have no scale, when you are shopping and need to know if one bag is enough, or when you want to compare a metric recipe with one you already know in cups. For bread, macarons and other recipes where ratios matter, borrow or buy a scale instead.