GramsToCupsHow many grams are in a cup?
There is no single answer — a cup holds anywhere from 85 g of cocoa powder to 340 g of honey. A cup is a fixed volume (240 ml); how much that volume weighs depends on the ingredient's density and how it packs. This page is the reference chart behind the converter.
Short version for the most-searched ingredients: flour 120 g · granulated sugar 200 g · butter 227 g · water 237 g · milk 240 g · honey 340 g.
The grams-per-cup chart
| Ingredient | Grams in 1 cup | Grams in 1 tbsp | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 120 g | 7.5 g | spooned & levelled |
| Bread flour | 127 g | 7.9 g | spooned & levelled |
| Cake flour | 114 g | 7.1 g | spooned & levelled |
| Granulated sugar | 200 g | 12.5 g | — |
| Brown sugar | 220 g | 13.8 g | packed |
| Powdered sugar (icing sugar) | 120 g | 7.5 g | sifted |
| Butter | 227 g | 14.2 g | 2 sticks |
| Cocoa powder | 85 g | 5.3 g | unsweetened, spooned |
| Honey | 340 g | 21.3 g | — |
| Rolled oats | 90 g | 5.6 g | old-fashioned |
| Cornstarch (cornflour) | 128 g | 8 g | — |
| Rice, uncooked | 185 g | 11.6 g | long grain |
| Milk | 240 g | 15 g | whole |
| Water | 237 g | 14.8 g | — |
| Vegetable oil | 218 g | 13.6 g | — |
| Almond flour | 96 g | 6 g | blanched, spooned |
| Peanut butter | 258 g | 16.1 g | creamy |
| Chopped nuts | 120 g | 7.5 g | walnuts / pecans |
| Shredded cheese | 113 g | 7.1 g | cheddar, lightly packed |
| Sour cream | 230 g | 14.4 g | — |
| Cream cheese | 232 g | 14.5 g | softened |
Why the numbers spread so widely
Three things decide what a cup of something weighs. Density: honey is mostly sugar and water packed tight, so it is heavy; cocoa powder is mostly air between fine particles, so it is light. Particle size: powdered sugar has the same chemistry as granulated sugar but weighs 40% less per cup, because the fine grains trap air. Packing: brown sugar is deliberately pressed into the cup ("packed"), which is a measuring instruction, not a property of the sugar.
This is also why a kitchen scale beats cups for baking. Flour alone can swing from about 100 g (sifted) to 145 g (scooped hard from the bag) per cup — a 45% swing in the main ingredient of your recipe. Grams remove the technique from the equation entirely.
US cup vs metric cup
Everything here uses the US cup of 240 ml (the FDA nutrition-label standard). A metric cup, used in Australia and New Zealand, is 250 ml — so for metric recipes, multiply the grams-per-cup values by about 1.04. The gram values in a recipe never change; only the cup size does.
Frequently asked questions
How many grams are in a cup of water?
237 g. Water is the reference liquid — but note it still is not 250 g, because a US cup is 236.6 ml, not 250 ml.
How many grams are in a cup of milk?
240 g for whole milk — very slightly denser than water because of its fat and protein content.
Why isn't a cup just 250 grams?
Because a cup is a unit of volume (240 ml in the US system), and grams measure weight. Only an ingredient with a density of exactly 1.04 g/ml would give 250 g per cup. Flour is far lighter, honey far heavier.
How many grams are in a cup of oats?
90 g for rolled (old-fashioned) oats. Steel-cut oats are denser, around 176 g per cup, because the pieces pack tighter — another reason the ingredient, not just the food group, matters.