Cooking converter · Free · No sign-up
Cooking Measurement Converter
A cup of all-purpose flour weighs 120 grams by King Arthur Baking and 142 grams by America’s Test Kitchen, so no single figure is right. Granulated sugar is 198 g, butter 227 g and water about 237 g. This converter shows both sources, and lets you pick a US, metric, imperial or Japanese cup.
Volume to volume needs no ingredient.
| Unit | Amount |
|---|---|
| Cups | 1 |
| Tablespoons (US, 14.79 ml) | 16 |
| Tablespoons (metric, 15 ml) | 15.8 |
| Tablespoons (Australian, 20 ml) | 11.8 |
| Teaspoons (US, 4.93 ml) | 48 |
| Teaspoons (metric, 5 ml) | 47.3 |
| Fluid ounces (US, 29.57 ml) | 8 |
| Fluid ounces (imperial, 28.41 ml) | 8.33 |
| Millilitres | 237 |
| Litres | 0.237 |
| Grams | 120 |
| Kilograms | 0.12 |
| Ounces (weight) | 4.23 |
| Pounds | 0.265 |
The figures above are an example: put in your own. Fractions such as 3/4 or 1 1/2 are accepted. Worked out in this browser and kept there; nothing is sent anywhere. Counting what you bake? Try the tally counter.
Enter an amount, choose the ingredient and the two units, and the result appears with the source of the weight. Where King Arthur Baking and America’s Test Kitchen disagree, you see both. Choose the size of cup your recipe was written for.
A cooking measurement converter changes an amount between volume units such as cups and tablespoons and weight units such as grams and ounces. The weight of a volume depends on the ingredient, so the conversion needs that ingredient’s density.
- No sign-up
- Nothing uploaded
- Sources linked
- Works offline
- Shows both sources
Key facts
| Detail | Answer |
|---|---|
| Price | Free, no sign-up, nothing to install |
| US cup | 236.588 ml; metric cup 250 ml, imperial cup 284.131 ml, Japanese cup 200 ml |
| Flour, 1 US cup, all-purpose | 120 g (King Arthur Baking) or 142 g (America’s Test Kitchen) |
| Sugar, butter, 1 US cup | Granulated sugar 198 g; butter 227 g |
| Weight ounce | 28.349523125 g exactly; a fluid ounce is a measure of volume |
| Where the weights come from | King Arthur Baking and America’s Test Kitchen charts, read 3 November 2026 |
| Where your numbers are kept | This browser only |
How to convert cups to grams
Pick the units and the ingredient, then read the answer and its source.
Enter the amount
A whole number, a decimal, or a fraction such as 3/4 or 1 1/2.
Choose the ingredient
Needed to change volume to weight or back; not needed for cups to millilitres.
Choose From and To
Cups, spoons, fluid ounces, millilitres, litres, grams, kilograms, ounces or pounds.
Set the size of a cup
US, metric, imperial or Japanese, to match where the recipe was written.
Pick the source
King Arthur Baking or America’s Test Kitchen; the other is shown beside the result.
Weigh it if you can
A scale beats any cup figure; use this when the recipe only gives cups.
Who uses a cooking measurement converter
Anyone holding a recipe in one set of units and a kitchen in another.
Bakers working from US recipes
Cups turned into grams so a scale can be used.
Cooks outside the US
A US cup read correctly, whatever size the local cup is.
Anyone scaling a recipe
Amounts with fractions in, every unit out.
People using an Australian recipe
20 ml tablespoons told apart from 15 ml ones.
Bread and cake bakers
Flour weights from two named sources, with the gap shown.
Students and teachers
The working: millilitres in a cup, grams per millilitre, and the rounding.
Why a cup of flour is not one number of grams
Search for how many grams are in a cup and nearly every converter hands back one number per ingredient and no name behind it. The two best-known baking references do not agree with each other. King Arthur Baking’s ingredient weight chart gives a cup of all-purpose flour as 120 grams. America’s Test Kitchen’s baking conversion chart gives 142 grams. That is 22 grams, or 18 per cent, in a recipe where a tablespoon too much flour changes the crumb.
| Ingredient | King Arthur (g) | America’s Test Kitchen (g) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 120 | 142 | +18% |
| Bread flour | 120 | not listed | |
| Whole wheat flour | 113 | 156 | +38% |
| Cake flour | 120 | 113 | -6% |
| Pastry flour | 106 | not listed | |
| Granulated sugar | 198 | 198 | same |
| Brown sugar, packed | 213 | 198 | -7% |
| Confectioners’ (icing) sugar | 113 | 113 | same |
| Butter | 226 | 227 | same |
| Cocoa powder | 84 | 85 | +1% |
| Rolled oats | 113 | not listed | |
| Honey | 336 | not listed | |
| Table salt | 288 | not listed | |
| Baking powder | 192 | not listed |
Sugar and icing sugar agree to the gram. Flour, cocoa and butter-by-the-cup do not, and the gap is usually put down to how a cup is filled: flour scooped straight from the bag packs tighter than flour spooned in and levelled, and each kitchen picks a method and weighs what that gives. Neither chart need be wrong: they most likely describe different cups. The converter lets you choose the source, shows the other one beside the result, and says so when a source does not list the ingredient.
The practical rule is the one both sources give: if the recipe states grams, weigh them. A cup figure is for a recipe that only gives cups, and it is an estimate with a margin of a tenth or more for flour.
Which cup your recipe means
“A cup” is not one size. Converting 250 g to cups, or the other way, gives the wrong answer if the recipe was written for a different cup from the one the tool assumed. The converter has a separate selector for it, and every row in the table follows it.
| Cup | Millilitres | Water (g) | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|---|
| US customary | 236.588 | 237 | American recipes and most US measuring cups |
| Metric | 250 | 250 | Australian and New Zealand recipes, and many modern UK ones |
| Imperial | 284.131 | 284 | Older British recipes: half an imperial pint |
| Japanese | 200 | 200 | Japanese recipes |
The widely repeated “250 grams in a cup” holds only for water, or something that weighs the same as water, in a 250 ml metric cup. A metric cup of flour is about 127 g by King Arthur’s density and 150 g by America’s Test Kitchen’s, not 250. US nutrition labels use a 240 ml “cup”, a labelling convention that is not the size of a measuring cup either.
Tablespoon sizes around the world
Spoons have the same problem on a smaller scale. A US tablespoon is 14.79 ml (one sixteenth of a US cup), a metric tablespoon is 15 ml, and an Australian tablespoon is 20 ml, a third larger. A recipe calling for 3 tablespoons of honey is therefore a different weight depending on where it was written. Teaspoons are closer: 4.93 ml in the US, 5 ml metric. The converter lists each, so you can read a 20 ml tablespoon recipe in 15 ml spoons.
| Spoon | Millilitres | In a US cup |
|---|---|---|
| US tablespoon | 14.79 | 16 |
| Metric tablespoon | 15 | 15.8 |
| Australian tablespoon | 20 | 11.8 |
| US teaspoon | 4.93 | 48 |
| Metric teaspoon | 5 | 47.3 |
Ounces of weight and fluid ounces
An ounce of weight and a fluid ounce are different units that share a name. A weight ounce is 28.3495 g (one sixteenth of a pound, exactly 28.349523125 g). A US fluid ounce is 29.5735 ml, an imperial fluid ounce 28.4131 ml. Only for water are they close, which is why “8 ounces to the cup” works for milk and goes wrong for flour: a cup holds 8 fluid ounces, but a cup of flour weighs about 4 to 5 ounces. King Arthur’s chart even lists a cup of water as 227 g, which is 8 ounces of weight; a US cup of water is nearer 237 g. This converter treats water as 1 g per ml and tells you so.
What this converter does not do
This is a kitchen conversion, not a precise measurement. It covers fifteen common baking ingredients, not every food, and it takes its weights from two published charts rather than measuring anything. Brand, humidity, how the flour was stored and how it was scooped all move the real weight of a cup, so treat a cup-to-gram result as a good estimate and a scale as the answer. It is not for medicines, infant formula or anything where an exact dose matters. For oven temperatures and other units, see the unit converter, and for money the currency converter.
| It does | It does not |
|---|---|
| Convert cups, spoons, fluid ounces, millilitres, litres, grams, kilograms, ounces and pounds | Convert oven temperatures or cooking times |
| Name the source of each weight and show the other source beside it | Claim one correct weight for a cup of flour |
| Let you pick a US, metric, imperial or Japanese cup | Guess which cup your recipe means |
| Keep your entries in this browser | Send anything anywhere |
This converter or a one-number chart
What this page adds to a one-number cups-to-grams chart.
| This converter | A typical chart | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free, no sign-up | Free |
| Names where each weight comes from | King Arthur Baking and America’s Test Kitchen, linked | Usually not |
| Shows where sources disagree | Both figures and the percentage gap | One figure |
| Cup size | US, metric, imperial or Japanese | US only, or unstated |
| Tablespoon size | US, metric and Australian | One size |
| Accepts 1 1/2 or 3/4 | Yes | Often decimals only |
| Your entries leave the browser | Never | Varies |
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Frequently asked questions
How many grams are in a cup of flour?
It depends on the source and how the cup is filled. King Arthur Baking gives a cup of all-purpose flour as 120 grams, and America’s Test Kitchen gives 142 grams. Bread flour is 120 g at King Arthur. Weighing the flour in grams removes the guesswork, so use a scale whenever the recipe gives a weight.
How many grams are in a cup of sugar?
A US cup of granulated sugar is 198 grams in both the King Arthur Baking and America’s Test Kitchen charts. Packed brown sugar is 213 g at King Arthur and 198 g at America’s Test Kitchen, and confectioners’ sugar is 113 g in both. Sugar is steadier than flour because it packs less.
How many grams are in a cup of butter?
A US cup of butter is 227 grams, which is two sticks. America’s Test Kitchen lists 16 tablespoons as 227 g, and King Arthur lists 8 tablespoons, half a cup, as 113 g. One US stick is half a cup, 8 tablespoons or about 113 grams.
Why do cups to grams converters give different answers?
Three reasons: the ingredient is packed differently depending on how the cup is filled, the sources use different test methods, and the cup itself varies, from 200 ml in Japan to 250 ml in metric countries and 236.6 ml in the US. A converter that does not name its cup or source cannot be checked.
How many tablespoons are in a cup?
A US cup holds 16 US tablespoons. With metric 15 ml tablespoons, a 250 ml cup holds 16.7 and a US cup 15.8. An Australian 20 ml tablespoon gives 12.5 to a 250 ml cup. Check which tablespoon your recipe means before converting.
Is a US cup the same as a UK cup?
No. A US cup is 236.588 ml. A metric cup is 250 ml, now common in UK and Australian recipes. The old imperial cup, half an imperial pint, is 284.131 ml, about 20 per cent bigger than a US cup. Choose the cup in the converter to match the recipe.
How many ounces are in a cup of flour?
By weight, a US cup of all-purpose flour is about 4 1/4 ounces at King Arthur Baking and 5 ounces at America’s Test Kitchen. A cup also holds 8 fluid ounces, but fluid ounces measure volume, not weight, so 8 ounces of flour is well over a cup and a half.
How many ml are in a cup?
A US cup is 236.588 ml, usually rounded to 237 or 240 in recipes. A metric cup is exactly 250 ml, an imperial cup 284.131 ml and a Japanese cup 200 ml. Millilitres are a volume, so this conversion never needs an ingredient.
Is an ounce of weight the same as a fluid ounce?
No. A weight ounce is 28.35 grams and a fluid ounce is a volume: 29.57 ml in the US and 28.41 ml in the imperial system. They are only close for water, so a recipe asking for ounces of flour or sugar means weight, not fluid ounces.
Related guides
Longer answers to the questions behind the numbers.