Grams to Cups Conversions Calculator

The Calculator

NOTE - A tablespoon in these conversions is 15ml (the standard size in the UK/US). A cup is assumed to be 240ml.

For more information about how to use this calculator and how the conversions have been derived, please have a read of everything below...

• About this calculator
• How to fill a cup for baking?
• Are you best using scales or cups for baking? - it's scales and I've got a big list to explain why
• What is a scant cup?
• How are the measurements in the calculator rounded?
• Conversion tables
  Select Ingredient

  • Water
  • Sugar - Caster, Granulated, Icing, Powdered, Confectioners, Brown
  • Flour - Plain, All-purpose, Self-raising, Spelt, Wholemeal
  • Fats & Oils - Butter, Margarine, Vegetable oil
  • Milk & Cream
  • Cocoa Powder

About this calculator

Isn't it annoying when you find a recipe in US cups, and you only have scales or vice versa?

Well, I now have the solution... my Interactive Grams to Cups / Cups to Grams Calculator.

I've called it "grams to cups / cups to grams" as they're the conversions I get asked for most often, but actually, it can convert between grams, cups, ounces or millilitres for many common baking ingredients. So you can go from grams to cups, or cups to grams, from cups to millilitres or grams to ounces to your heart's content.

Simply select your ingredient, what you'd like to convert from and to and enter the amount, and it'll tell you exactly what you need.

The ingredients currently included in the calculator are:

• Water
• Sugars & Sweeteners - Caster Sugar, Granulated Sugar, Icing/Powdered Sugar, Brown Sugar, Maple Syrup, Runny Honey, Golden Syrup and Black Treacle
• Flours - Self-Raising Flour, Plain Flour, Spelt Flour, Wholemeal Flour and Cornflour
• Fats & Oils - Butter, Margarine and Vegetable Oil
• Nuts & Seeds - Ground Almonds, Chia Seeds and Linseeds/Flax Seeds
• Milk & Cream - Milk, Single Cream, Double Cream, Half-and-half, Whipping Cream, Heavy Cream, Buttermilk
• Other Ingredients - Cocoa Powder, Chocolate Chips, Mini Marshmallows, Popping Corn, Raisins, Cream Cheese, Desiccated Coconut, Pudding Rice, Nutella, Custard and Skimmed Milk Powder

I'll be adding new ingredients all the time. If there's one missing that you'd love to see here then do let me know in the comments.

How to fill a cup for baking

I asked my followers on social media about how they fill cups. The majority scoop ingredients such as flour or sugar out of the bag and then level the top, so that's the approach I've taken when measuring similar ingredients for my calculator. I also like to give the bag a little squeeze beforehand to break up any lumps.

Many conversion charts give 1 cup of flour as 120g. However, I've found the only way I can get it that low is to sift the flour and then use a spoon to fill the cup with the sifted flour. I don't know about you, but I prefer to sift flour after it's been measured, not before. So in my conversions, you'll find a cup of flour weighs more as it reflects how I fill a cup.

For ingredients in smaller packets, I pour them into the cup straight from the bag and level the top.

For soft ingredients such as butter or cream cheese, I push them into the cup with the back of a spoon to ensure any gaps are filled and then level the top.

Are you best using scales or cups for baking?

In baking accuracy is important, so for my baking recipes I recommend always using grams if you can.

There are several reasons I'd recommend using weighed ingredients rather than cups:

The conversion varies depending on how you fill your cup

When I was working out all of the conversions for this calculator, I found that how I filled a cup could significantly impact the amount of an ingredient I could fit in.

In the image below both cups appear to be full of flour. However, the one on the right weighs over 40% more than the one on the left, as I packed the flour in as tightly as possible.

A cup isn't always a cup

The official size of a US cup is 236.588ml, but most cups available to buy in the shops assume it to be 240ml for simplicity (this is what I've assumed in my calculator). However, there are some cup manufacturers sell cups that are 250ml (but keep a ½ cup at 120ml!).

This isn't a huge problem as long as you know which you own. A bigger problem is that not all cups sold are hugely accurate.

I own two sets of measuring cups, and neither holds the amount they're supposed to. In one set my ¼ cup holds 65ml (it should be 60ml), yet the full cup only holds 225ml when it should be 240ml (don't worry I've adjusted everything here to ensure it's accurate for a correctly-sized cup).

Some ingredients can be tricky to get into the cup

If you've got a recipe such as scones or shortcrust pastry that need cold butter straight from the fridge, how do you get it into the cup to measure it?

Not everything fits nicely in a cup

Imagine measuring walnuts. If you put them into a cup whole, you're going to fit in a lot less than if you finely chop them before adding them to the cup.

You got the ingredient into the cup, but how do you get it back out again?

There are also some ingredients such as Nutella or Black Treacle that are tricky to remove from the cup after filling. It's unlikely that you'll get everything out that you put in so you may well end up adding less to your mixture than the recipe calls for.

Do you really want to be washing up mid-baking?

Many sets of scales have a tare button which allows you to rest the scales to 0 so you can keep measuring more ingredients into one bowl. The is great as it means you can pour in everything you need for your mixture without getting lots of extra measuring utensils dirty.

Imagine you've got a recipe that calls for a cup of butter, flour, maple syrup and Nutella (not too sure what you'd be making!). To get an accurate measurement, you'll need to either own lots of cups or wash the cup up between each ingredient before you can measure the next one.

What is a scant cup?

A scant cup is just under a cup. As measurements go it's a bit vague! Similarly, the amount you can fit into a heaped cup can vary significantly depending on the shape of the cup. I therefore don't use either of these descriptions in my recipes (it's a flat cup, tablespoon or teaspoon for me).

How are the measurements in the calculator rounded?

To keep the conversions to amounts that can be easily measured in the kitchen I've rounded...

• Grams to the nearest gram
• Millilitres to the nearest millilitre
• Ounces to the nearest ¼ ounce
• Cups to the nearest
  • ¼ teaspoon (for under 1 teaspoon)
  • Teaspoon for under ¼ cup
  • Tablespoon for over ¼ cup

Conversion tables

In addition to the main calculator, I thought it would be helpful to provide conversion tables for a selection of the most popular ingredients.

Water

WATER - GRAMS TO CUPS
Grams	Cups
50g	3 tbsp + 1 tsp
100g	¼ cup + 3 tbsp
200g	¾ cup + 1 tbsp
250g	1 cup + 1 tbsp
300g	1¼ cups
400g	1½ cups + 3 tbsp
500g	2 cups + 1 tbsp

 

WATER - CUPS TO GRAMS
Cups	Grams
1 tsp	5g
1 tbsp	15g
¼ cup	60g
⅓ cup	80g
½ cup	120g
1 cup	240g

 

Sugar

Caster sugar

CASTER SUGAR - GRAMS TO CUPS
Grams	Cups
50g	¼ cup
100g	½ cup
200g	1 cup
250g	1¼ cups
300g	1½ cups
400g	2 cups
500g	2½ cups

 

CASTER SUGAR - CUPS TO GRAMS
Cups	Grams
1 tsp	4g
1 tbsp	13g
¼ cup	51g
⅓ cup	67g
½ cup	101g
1 cup	202g

 

Granulated Sugar

GRANUALTED SUGAR - GRAMS TO CUPS
Grams	Cups
50g	3 tbsp + 2 tsp
100g	¼ cup + 3 tbsp
200g	¾ cup + 3 tbsp
250g	1 cup + 3 tbsp
300g	1½ cups + 2 tbsp
400g	1¾ cups + 2 tbsp
500g	2¼ cups + 1 tbsp

 

GRANULATED SUGAR - CUPS TO GRAMS
Cups	Grams
1 tsp	4g
1 tbsp	13g
¼ cup	54g
⅓ cup	72g
½ cup	108g
1 cup	215g

 

Icing / powdered / confectioners sugar

ICING / POWDERED/ CONFECTIONERS SUGAR - GRAMS TO CUPS
Grams	Cups
50g	¼ cup + 1 tbsp
100g	½ cup + 3 tbsp
200g	1¼ cups + 2 tbsp
250g	1½ cups + 3 tbsp
300g	2 cups + 1 tbsp
400g	2¾ cups
500g	3¼ cups + 3 tbsp

 

ICING / POWDERED / CONFECTIONERS SUGAR - CUPS TO GRAMS
Cups	Grams
1 tsp	3g
1 tbsp	9g
¼ cup	37g
⅓ cup	49g
½ cup	73g
1 cup	146g

 

Brown sugar (packed)

BROWN SUGAR (PACKED) - GRAMS TO CUPS
Grams	Cups
50g	¼ cup
100g	½ cup
200g	1 cup
250g	1¼ cups
300g	1½ cups
400g	2 cups
500g	2¼ cups + 3 tbsp

 

BROWN SUGAR (PACKED) - CUPS TO GRAMS
Cups	Grams
1 tsp	4g
1 tbsp	13g
¼ cup	51g
⅓ cup	68g
½ cup	102g
1 cup	203g

 

Flour

White flour - plain, all-purpose, self-raising, spelt

WHITE FLOUR - GRAMS TO CUPS
Grams	Cups
50g	¼ cup + 1 tbsp
100g	½ cup + 2 tbsp
200g	1¼ cups
250g	1½ cups + 1 tbsp
300g	1¾ cups + 2 tbsp
400g	2½ cups
500g	3 cups + 2 tbsp

 

WHITE FLOUR - CUPS TO GRAMS
Cups	Grams
1 tsp	3g
1 tbsp	10g
¼ cup	40g
⅓ cup	54g
½ cup	81g
1 cup	161g

 

Wholemeal / brown flour

BROWN FLOUR - GRAMS TO CUPS
Grams	Cups
50g	¼ cup + 1 tbsp
100g	½ cup + 2 tbsp
200g	1¼ cup + 1 tbsp
250g	1½ cup + 2 tbsp
300g	1¾ cups + 3 tbsp
400g	2½ cups + 1 tbsp
500g	3¼ cups

 

BROWN FLOUR - CUPS TO GRAMS
Cups	Grams
1 tsp	3g
1 tbsp	10g
¼ cup	39g
⅓ cup	52g
½ cup	78g
1 cup	155g

 

Cornflour (UK) / cornstarch (US)

CORNFLOUR / CORNSTARCH - GRAMS TO CUPS
Grams	Cups
50g	¼ cup + 3 tbsp
100g	¾ cup + 1 tbsp
200g	1½ cups + 2 tbsp
250g	2 cups + 1 tbsp
300g	2¼ cups + 3 tbsp
400g	3¼ cups
500g	4 cups + 2 tbsp

 

CORNFLOUR / CORNSTARCH - CUPS TO GRAMS
Cups	Grams
1 tsp	3g
1 tbsp	8g
¼ cup	31g
⅓ cup	41g
½ cup	61g
1 cup	122g

 

Fats and oils

Butter / margarine

BUTTER / MARGARINE - GRAMS TO CUPS
Grams	Cups
50g	3 tbsp + 2 tsp
100g	¼ cup + 3 tbsp
200g	¾ cup + 2 tbsp
250g	1 cup + 2 tbsp
300g	1¼ cups + 2 tbsp
400g	1¾ cups + 1 tbsp
500g	2¼ cups

 

BUTTER / MARGARINE - CUPS TO GRAMS
Cups	Grams
1 tsp	5g
1 tbsp	14g
¼ cup	56g
⅓ cup	74g
½ cup	111g
1 cup	222g

 

Vegetable oil

OIL - GRAMS TO CUPS
Grams	Cups
50g	3 tbsp + 2 tsp
100g	¼ cup + 3 tbsp
200g	¾ cup + 3 tbsp
250g	1 cup + 3 tbsp
300g	1¼ cups + 2 tbsp
400g	1¾ cups + 2 tbsp
500g	2¼ cups + 1 tbsp

 

OIL - CUPS TO GRAMS
Cups	Grams
1 tsp	4g
1 tbsp	13g
¼ cup	54g
⅓ cup	71g
½ cup	107g
1 cup	214g

 

Milk / Cream

MILK / CREAM - GRAMS TO CUPS
Grams	Cups
50g	3 tbsp
100g	¼ cup + 2 tbsp
200g	¾ cup + 1 tbsp
250g	1 cup
300g	1 cup + 3 tbsp
400g	1½ cups + 1 tbsp
500g	1¾ cups + 3 tbsp

 

MILK / CREAM - CUPS TO GRAMS
Cups	Grams
1 tsp	5g
1 tbsp	16g
¼ cup	64g
⅓ cup	85g
½ cup	128g
1 cup	255g

 

Cocoa Powder

COCOA POWDER - GRAMS TO CUPS
Grams	Cups
50g	¼ cup + 3 tbsp
100g	¾ cup + 2 tbsp
200g	1¾ cups + 1 tbsp
250g	2¼ cups
300g	2½ cups + 3 tbsp
400g	3½ cups + 2 tbsp
500g	4½ cups

 

COCOA POWDER - CUPS TO GRAMS
Cups	Grams
1 tsp	2g
1 tbsp	7g
¼ cup	28g
⅓ cup	37g
½ cup	56g
1 cup	111g

 

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