Cups to Grams: The Complete Baking Conversion Guide

If you have ever followed a European recipe that lists everything in grams while your measuring cups sit in the drawer, you already know the problem: a cup is a unit of volume, but baking is chemistry that cares about weight. One cup of flour and one cup of honey occupy the same space, yet the honey weighs nearly three times as much. That is why serious bakers weigh their ingredients — and why a blanket “1 cup = 240 g” rule will ruin your cake.

This guide explains how the conversion actually works, where the common mistakes hide, and gives you a reference table you can trust.

Why volume-to-weight isn’t a single number

The conversion from cups to grams depends entirely on density — how much mass is packed into a given volume. The formula is simple:

grams = cups × 236.588 ml/cup × density (g/ml)

A US legal cup is 236.588 ml. The variable that changes everything is density:

• All-purpose flour: ~0.53 g/ml → 1 cup ≈ 125 g
• Granulated sugar: ~0.85 g/ml → 1 cup ≈ 200 g
• Butter: ~0.96 g/ml → 1 cup ≈ 227 g
• Honey: ~1.42 g/ml → 1 cup ≈ 340 g

So the same “1 cup” ranges from 125 g to 340 g depending on what’s in it. There is no shortcut around knowing the ingredient.

The flour problem: packed vs. spooned

Flour is the ingredient most likely to wreck a recipe, because its density depends on how you fill the cup. Scoop the cup directly into the bag and you compress the flour — you can end up with 150–160 g in a “cup” that should hold 125 g. That extra 25% flour is the difference between a tender crumb and a hockey puck.

The fix professionals use: spoon the flour into the cup and level it off, or better, weigh it. Our Cups to Grams converter uses the spooned-and-leveled density (~125 g/cup for AP flour) so your numbers match how cookbooks are tested.

A quick reference table

Ingredient (1 US cup)	Grams	Ounces
All-purpose flour	125 g	4.4 oz
Bread flour	130 g	4.6 oz
Granulated sugar	200 g	7.1 oz
Brown sugar (packed)	220 g	7.8 oz
Powdered sugar	120 g	4.2 oz
Butter	227 g	8.0 oz
Honey	340 g	12.0 oz
Cocoa powder	100 g	3.5 oz
Rolled oats	90 g	3.2 oz

Scaling a whole recipe

Converting one ingredient is easy; converting a recipe means doing it a dozen times and keeping ratios intact. If you are doubling a batch or fitting a recipe to a different pan, run it through the Recipe Scaler first, then convert the scaled amounts to grams. And because oven behaviour matters as much as ingredient weight, the Oven Temperature converter will translate °F, °C and gas marks so an imported recipe bakes the way its author intended.

Frequently asked questions

Is a US cup the same as a metric cup? No. A US cup is 236.588 ml; a metric cup is 250 ml. That ~6% difference is enough to matter in baking, so check which your recipe assumes.

Should I weigh liquids too? You can, and for water it’s trivial: 1 ml ≈ 1 g. For syrups and oils the density differs, so weighing is actually more reliable than a measuring jug.

What’s the single best upgrade to my baking? A $15 digital kitchen scale. Weighing flour alone eliminates the most common cause of dense, dry bakes.

Bookmark the Cups to Grams converter for your next recipe — it covers 100+ ingredients with their real densities, so you are never guessing again.