Cups to Grams Converter

Convert cups to grams by ingredient — because a cup of flour is 120 g and a cup of honey is 340 g, and no single factor covers both.

Conversion table

Cups	In Grams	In Ounces	Grams per Cup Used
0.5	60 g	2.12 oz	120 g
1	120 g	4.23 oz	120 g
1.5	180 g	6.35 oz	120 g
2	240 g	8.47 oz	120 g
2.5	300 g	10.58 oz	120 g
3	360 g	12.7 oz	120 g
4	480 g	16.93 oz	120 g
5	600 g	21.16 oz	120 g
6	720 g	25.4 oz	120 g
7	840 g	29.63 oz	120 g
8	960 g	33.86 oz	120 g
9	1,080 g	38.1 oz	120 g
10	1,200 g	42.33 oz	120 g
12	1,440 g	50.79 oz	120 g
15	1,800 g	63.49 oz	120 g

📊 One US Cup, By Ingredient

All-purpose flour120 g
Granulated sugar200 g
Brown sugar (packed)213 g
Butter227 g
Honey340 g
Cocoa powder85 g

Why Your Cake Failed and the Recipe Did Not

A cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 110 to 150 g depending on how you fill it. That 40 g spread is the difference between a sponge and a brick.
Fill it right: fluff the flour with a fork, spoon it into the cup, then level with a straight edge. Never scoop the cup through the bag — that packs in 20% extra.
Dry cups and liquid cups are different tools. A liquid measure has headroom above the line so you can carry it; filling it to the brim overshoots.
One US stick of butter is 113 g, which is exactly half a cup. That is the one cup measurement you can trust, because butter is sold pre-portioned.

A Cup Measures Space, a Gram Measures Matter

This is why there is no single number to convert between them. A cup is a fixed volume — about 237 millilitres in the United States — and what it weighs depends entirely on the density of whatever you pour into it. Cocoa powder is full of air and comes in at 85 grams per cup. Honey is dense and syrupy and comes in at 340 grams, four times as much for the same space. Every other ingredient sits somewhere between those two. Any converter that offers you one cups-to-grams factor is quietly assuming an ingredient and not telling you which one, which is why this page asks you first.

The Cup Is Not the Same Cup Everywhere

Even once you fix the ingredient, the cup itself varies by country. The US customary cup, the one American recipes assume, is 236.588 millilitres — half a US pint. The US legal cup used on nutrition labels is rounded to 240 millilitres. The metric cup used in Australia, New Zealand and modern British recipes is 250 millilitres, and the Japanese cup is 200 millilitres. That means an Australian recipe calling for a cup of flour wants about 6% more than an American one, and a Japanese recipe wants 15% less. This page uses the US customary cup, because that is where cup measurements overwhelmingly come from.

Why Every Chart Gives You a Different Number

King Arthur Baking puts all-purpose flour at 120 g per cup. Other reputable sources say 125 g, and the USDA uses 125 g. None of them is wrong.
The spread comes from how the flour was filled, how humid the room was, and how finely it was milled. Flour genuinely does not have one density.
This page uses 120 g because it matches the spoon-and-level method most home bakers are taught, and the calculator shows you the figure it used so you can check it.
If your recipe source publishes its own gram weights, use those. The recipe was tested with them, and internal consistency matters more than any chart.
Liquids are the exception: water, milk and oil have stable densities, so their conversions are reliable to within a percent.
For anything where 10 g matters — yeast, salt, baking soda — do not use cups at all. Weigh them.

Getting It Right in the Kitchen

Spoon and level for flour and cocoa: fluff, spoon into the cup, level off. Scooping compacts the powder and adds up to 20%.
Brown sugar is the opposite: recipes assume it is packed down firmly, which is why it weighs 213 g rather than the 145 g it would loose.
Butter comes pre-marked: one US stick is 113 g, half a cup, 4 ounces. Cut on the wrapper lines and you do not need a scale.
Sticky ingredients like honey and syrup cling to the cup. Oil the measure first, or weigh straight into the bowl and skip the cup.
A digital scale that reads in grams costs less than a set of measuring cups and removes all of this uncertainty at once.
When halving a recipe, halve the gram weights rather than the cups — half of a badly filled cup is still badly filled.

Worked Examples

The arithmetic behind the answer

Two and a half cups of flour

Look up the density: all-purpose flour is 120 g per cup
Multiply: 2.5 × 120 = 300 g
If your source says 125 g per cup instead, the answer becomes 312.5 g — a 4% difference

2.5 cups flour = 300 g

Why the same cup gives four different weights

1 cup cocoa powder: 1 × 85 = 85 g
1 cup flour: 1 × 120 = 120 g
1 cup sugar: 1 × 200 = 200 g, and 1 cup honey: 1 × 340 = 340 g

Same volume, four times the weight from cocoa to honey

Frequently Asked Questions

How many grams are 2 cups of flour?

240 g using the standard 120 g per cup for all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled. If your recipe source uses 125 g per cup, it would be 250 g. Check whether the recipe publishes its own weights before assuming.

Why does my baking fail when I measure in cups?

Because a cup of flour is not a fixed weight. Scooping the cup through the bag compacts the flour and can add 20-25%, so a recipe calling for 3 cups can receive the equivalent of nearly 4. Weighing removes the variable entirely.

Is an Australian cup the same as an American cup?

No. The Australian, New Zealand and modern British metric cup is 250 mL, while the US customary cup is 236.588 mL. That is about 6% more per cup, which compounds fast in a recipe using several cups.

How much is one stick of butter in grams?

113 g, which is half a US cup or 4 ounces. A full cup of butter is 227 g, or two sticks. Butter is the one cup measurement that is genuinely reliable, because it is sold in pre-marked portions.

How many grams is a cup of brown sugar?

213 g, but only if it is packed. Recipes calling for brown sugar assume you press it firmly into the cup; loosely spooned it drops to around 145 g, which is a third less sugar than the recipe intended.

Why do different websites give different gram weights for a cup?

Because ingredients like flour genuinely do not have one density — it depends on milling, humidity and how the cup was filled. King Arthur says 120 g for flour, the USDA says 125 g. This calculator shows which figure it used so you can substitute your own.

Can I convert cups to grams for any ingredient?

Only if you know that ingredient's density. This calculator covers 16 common baking ingredients. For anything else, weigh one cup on a scale once and write the number on the packet — you will never have to look it up again.