Cooking Conversion Calculator
Convert kitchen volumes between spoons, cups and milliliters, and convert cups to grams or grams to cups for specific ingredients.
Common Conversions
Cups to Grams by Ingredient
Based on 125 g per level US cup (USDA household measure). Scooped flour can weigh more.
Updated Formula covered by automated tests
Kitchen measurements come in two families that do not translate on their own: volume (teaspoons, cups, milliliters) and weight (grams, ounces, pounds). This converter handles both. The top section moves an amount between any two volume units, and the ingredient section turns cups into grams, or grams into cups, for a specific food such as flour, sugar, butter or honey.
It is built for the moment you open a European or British cookbook that lists 250 g of flour, or an American one that asks for 3/4 cup of butter when your kitchen only has a scale. It does not change how many servings a recipe makes; it changes the units the same quantity is written in.
The weight section matters because a cup is a fixed volume but not a fixed weight. A cup of honey weighs almost four times as much as a cup of cocoa powder, so there is no single cups-to-grams factor. Pick the ingredient and the tool applies its own density.
The formula
- unit volume
- Size of the starting unit in milliliters, derived from the US gallon of 231 cubic inches
- grams per cup
- Weight of one level US cup of the chosen ingredient, from USDA household measures (for example 125 g for all-purpose flour, 200 g for granulated sugar, 227 g for butter)
- 28.349523125
- Grams in one avoirdupois ounce, which is exactly 1/16 of the 453.59237 g pound
All US kitchen volumes descend from the wine gallon of 231 cubic inches. A gallon holds 4 quarts, 8 pints, 16 cups, 128 fluid ounces, 256 tablespoons or 768 teaspoons, and since 1959 the inch has been exactly 2.54 cm, so each unit has an exact metric value. The metric cup of 250 mL used in Australia, New Zealand and Canada is about 5.7 percent larger than the US cup.
To cross from volume to weight you need density, the mass of a given volume. For water it is about 1 g per mL, so a US cup weighs roughly 237 g. Powders trap air and weigh less; syrups and fats weigh more. USDA FoodData Central publishes measured gram weights for standard household portions, and those are the figures behind the ingredient list here.
Worked example
Elena is baking a sponge from a Swedish recipe that lists 250 g all-purpose flour, 100 g butter and 200 mL milk. She has US measuring cups and spoons but no scale.
- 1 Flour: 250 g ÷ 125 g per cup = 2 cups.
- 2 Butter: 100 g ÷ 227 g per cup = 0.44 cup, and 0.44 × 16 = 7.05, so about 7 tablespoons (just under one stick of 8 tbsp).
- 3 Milk is already a volume: 200 mL ÷ 236.59 mL per cup = 0.845 cup.
- 4 Turn the milk into spoon measures: 200 ÷ 14.79 = 13.5 tablespoons, which is 3/4 cup (12 tbsp) plus 1 1/2 tbsp.
Result: Elena measures 2 level cups of flour, 7 tablespoons of butter and 3/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons of milk.
Before you rely on the result
- Ingredient densities are averages. Brand, grind, moisture and how firmly the cup is packed can move the real weight by 10 percent or more, so weigh when precision matters, as in bread and pastry.
- Only the listed ingredients have densities; converting cups to grams for anything else needs that ingredient’s own figure.
- Imperial (UK) pints and gallons are larger than the US units used here, so older British recipes need different factors.
Want something to cook with these conversions? CivRecipes, a sister site, adapts recipes from ancient civilizations for modern kitchens.
Frequently asked questions
Is a fluid ounce the same as an ounce on my kitchen scale?
Only for water and things with a similar density. A fluid ounce is a volume (29.57 mL) and a weight ounce is a mass (28.35 g). Eight fluid ounces of water weigh about 8.3 ounces, but 8 fluid ounces of flour weigh only about 4.4 ounces. If a recipe says “ounces” for a dry ingredient, it almost always means weight.
Why does the flour weight here differ from my baking book?
Published figures for a cup of all-purpose flour range from about 115 g to 140 g depending on whether the cup is sifted, spooned or dipped. This tool uses the USDA household figure of 125 g. If your book gives its own gram weight per cup, trust the book for its recipes, since the author tested them that way.
Are Australian and British tablespoons the same size as American ones?
Not all of them. The Australian tablespoon is 20 mL, while US and UK recipes use about 15 mL. Teaspoons are 5 mL nearly everywhere. For a pinch of spice the gap is irrelevant, but in baking powder or salt it can be noticeable, so check where a recipe was written.
How many tablespoons of butter are in a stick?
A standard US stick is 1/2 cup, which is 8 tablespoons or about 113 g. Wrappers are usually marked in tablespoon steps, so cutting along the lines is a quicker way to measure than packing butter into a cup.
Sources
- USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov)
- NIST Special Publication 811: Guide for the Use of the SI (nist.gov)