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Cooking Measurement Converter

Convert cups, spoons, millilitres, grams and ounces, with US, legal and imperial cups kept apart and cups to grams by ingredient from USDA weights.

Built by AbhiLast reviewed September 24, 2026

US cup236.588 mLLegal cup240 mLImperial cup284.131 mLIn use: US cupAll-purpose flour: 125 g per US cup

Needed only between a volume, such as cups, and a weight, such as grams.

Result

Converted amount125 g

Weights from volume assume USDA’s measuring method for each ingredient; a scooped or packed cup weighs more. Weigh when it matters.

Cup definition in use
1 US cup = 236.588 mL
What the weight assumes
All-purpose flour: unsifted, spooned into the cup and levelled. USDA weighs 125 g in one US customary cup
Density used
0.5283 g/cm³Estimate
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Results are arithmetic on the figures you enter. Cooking times are estimates: ovens, cuts and starting temperatures vary, so check doneness with a thermometer. Safe temperatures are the USDA's; guidance differs by country, so check your own. Read the full disclaimer

How to use the Cooking Measurement Converter

  1. Enter the amount and choose the unit it is in and the unit you want. The three cups are listed separately, so pick the one your recipe means.
  2. To go between a volume and a weight, such as cups to grams, choose the ingredient. Each one says how USDA measured the cup it weighed.
  3. Read the converted amount, the nearest kitchen fraction where one makes sense, and the cup definition the answer used.

Volume to volume, weight to weight

Cups, spoons, fluid ounces, pints, quarts, millilitres and litres all measure volume, and each has an exact definition, so converting between them needs nothing else:

1 US gallon = 231 in³ = 3.785411784 L1 US cup    = 1/16 US gallon  = 236.588 mL1 US tbsp   = 1/256 US gallon = 14.787 mL1 US tsp    = 1/3 tbsp        = 4.929 mL

Grams, kilograms, ounces and pounds measure weight, and they are just as exact: a pound is 453.59237 g, an ounce a sixteenth of that. A weight ounce and a fluid ounce are different things and only coincide, roughly, for water.

The three cups

“Cup” means at least three different amounts, and this page makes you choose:

The answer always names the cup it used. If a recipe just says “cup”, its country of origin is the best guide.

Cups to grams needs the ingredient

To turn a volume into a weight, the page multiplies by the ingredient’s density:

weight = volume × densityvolume = weight ÷ density

The densities come from USDA, which publishes the weight of a US cup of common foods. Choose the ingredient and the page shows which figure it used and how USDA measured it.

How you measure changes the weight

Flour is the ingredient where this matters most. Flour settles in the bag, and a cup dipped straight into it and levelled comes out heavier than a cup filled with a spoon, often by a large margin. Sifting first makes it lighter again. USDA’s all-purpose flour figure is for flour spooned in unsifted, and the page offers the sifted figure as a separate choice. It does not offer a scooped figure, because no primary source publishes one.

Brown sugar is measured packed, pressed firmly into the cup, and powdered sugar unsifted, because that is how USDA weighed them. A different method gives a different weight, and no converter can know which one your recipe’s author used.

Weigh when it matters

For baking, a kitchen scale is more reliable than any conversion. The results here are the best estimate a volume can give, not a substitute for weighing, and they do not account for brand, humidity or how long the flour has sat.

With your numbers

  1. Weight = volume × density; volume = weight ÷ density
  2. 1 US cup = 236.588237 mL

Quick reference

Weights from volume assume USDA’s measuring method for each ingredient; a scooped or packed cup weighs more. Weigh when it matters.

Worked examples on the figures shown, for United States. No ingredient density, serving size or pan size is stored by the site.
ExampleConverted amount
1 cup flour to grams125 g
1 cup sugar to grams200 g
1 cup butter to grams227 g
1 cup packed brown sugar to grams220 g
100 g flour to cups0.8 US cup
1 tbsp honey to grams21.19 g
1 US cup to mL236.588 mL
1 imperial cup to mL284.131 mL
3 tsp to tbsp1 tbsp
16 tbsp to cups1 US cup

Where the numbers come from

The fixed figures this calculator relies on, and the published source each one was checked against. How the calculators are built and checked

16 sources

  1. USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov), SR Legacy FDC ID 168894 (NDB 20081), "Wheat flour, white, all-purpose, enriched, bleached", portion 1 cup = 125 g. Measuring method from USDA Home and Garden Bulletin 72, Nutritive Value of Foods (2002), item 666, "All purpose, enriched, unsifted, spooned", 1 cup = 125 g.

    Used for

    • All-purpose flour, unsifted, spooned into the cup and levelled: 125 g per US cup.

  2. USDA Home and Garden Bulletin 72, Nutritive Value of Foods (2002), item 665, "Wheat flours, all purpose, enriched, sifted, spooned", 1 cup = 115 g. Not in the FoodData Central portion list, which gives the unsifted figure only.

    Used for

    • All-purpose flour, sifted, then spooned into the cup and levelled: 115 g per US cup.

  3. USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov), SR Legacy FDC ID 168896 (NDB 20083), "Wheat flour, white, bread, enriched", portion 1 cup = 137 g; the same 137 g in USDA Home and Garden Bulletin 72, Nutritive Value of Foods (2002), item 667, with no measuring method stated.

    Used for

    • Bread flour: 137 g per US cup. USDA does not state the measuring method.

  4. USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov), SR Legacy FDC ID 168893 (NDB 20080), "Wheat flour, whole-grain", portion 1 cup = 120 g. Measuring method from USDA Home and Garden Bulletin 72, Nutritive Value of Foods (2002), item 670, "Whole wheat, from hard wheats, stirred, spooned", 1 cup = 120 g.

    Used for

    • Whole wheat flour, stirred, then spooned into the cup and levelled: 120 g per US cup.

  5. USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov), SR Legacy FDC ID 169655 (NDB 19335), "Sugars, granulated", portion 1 cup = 200 g; USDA Home and Garden Bulletin 72, Nutritive Value of Foods (2002), item 1026 agrees.

    Used for

    • White granulated sugar: 200 g per US cup.

  6. USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov), SR Legacy FDC ID 168833 (NDB 19334), "Sugars, brown", portion 1 cup packed = 220 g (1 cup unpacked = 145 g); USDA Home and Garden Bulletin 72, Nutritive Value of Foods (2002), item 1021 agrees.

    Used for

    • Brown sugar, packed into the cup: 220 g per US cup (unpacked is much lighter).

  7. USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov), SR Legacy FDC ID 169656 (NDB 19336), "Sugars, powdered", portion 1 cup unsifted = 120 g (1 cup sifted = 100 g); USDA Home and Garden Bulletin 72, Nutritive Value of Foods (2002), item 1028 agrees.

    Used for

    • Powdered (icing) sugar, unsifted: 120 g per US cup.

  8. USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov), SR Legacy FDC ID 173410 (NDB 1001), "Butter, salted", portion 1 cup = 227 g; FDC ID 173430 (NDB 1145), "Butter, without salt", gives the same 227 g.

    Used for

    • Butter, salted or unsalted: 227 g per US cup, about two sticks.

  9. USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov), SR Legacy FDC ID 173647 (NDB 14411), "Beverages, water, tap, drinking", portion 1 serving 8 fl oz = 237 g; USDA Home and Garden Bulletin 72, Nutritive Value of Foods (2002), item 51 agrees.

    Used for

    • Tap water: 237 g per 8 fl oz, which is one US cup.

  10. USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov), SR Legacy FDC ID 171265 (NDB 1077), "Milk, whole, 3.25% milkfat, with added vitamin D", portion 1 cup = 244 g.

    Used for

    • Whole milk, 3.25% fat: 244 g per US cup.

  11. USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov), SR Legacy FDC ID 172336 (NDB 4582), "Oil, canola", portion 1 cup = 218 g; FDC ID 171411 (NDB 4044), "Oil, soybean, salad or cooking", gives the same 218 g; USDA Home and Garden Bulletin 72, Nutritive Value of Foods (2002), item 171 agrees.

    Used for

    • Vegetable oil, canola or soybean: 218 g per US cup.

  12. USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov), SR Legacy FDC ID 169640 (NDB 19296), "Honey", portion 1 cup = 339 g; USDA Home and Garden Bulletin 72, Nutritive Value of Foods (2002), item 1005 agrees.

    Used for

    • Honey: 339 g per US cup.

  13. USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov), SR Legacy FDC ID 173904 (NDB 8120), "Cereals, oats, regular and quick, not fortified, dry", portion 1 cup = 81 g.

    Used for

    • Rolled oats, old-fashioned or quick, dry: 81 g per US cup.

  14. USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov), SR Legacy FDC ID 169593 (NDB 19165), "Cocoa, dry powder, unsweetened", portion 1 cup = 86 g.

    Used for

    • Unsweetened cocoa powder: 86 g per US cup.

  15. USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov), SR Legacy FDC ID 169756 (NDB 20444), "Rice, white, long-grain, regular, raw, unenriched", portion 1 cup = 185 g.

    Used for

    • White long-grain rice, uncooked: 185 g per US cup.

  16. USDA FoodData Central (fdc.nal.usda.gov), SR Legacy FDC ID 173468 (NDB 2047), "Salt, table", portion 1 cup = 292 g.

    Used for

    • Table salt: 292 g per US cup. Coarse and flaked salts are far lighter.

Common questions about the Cooking Measurement Converter

How many grams are in a cup of flour?
It depends on how the flour got into the cup. USDA weighs all-purpose flour spooned into a US cup and levelled, unsifted, at 125 g, and sifted before spooning at 115 g. Dipping the cup into the bag and levelling it packs the flour down and holds noticeably more. A recipe written in cups was tested with one of these methods, and it rarely says which, which is why bakers who can weigh do.
Is a US cup the same as a UK cup?
No. A US customary cup is 236.588 mL, a sixteenth of the US gallon. An imperial cup is 284.131 mL, a sixteenth of the imperial gallon, about 20% larger. There is also the US legal cup of 240 mL used on nutrition labels. Australian, New Zealand and Canadian recipes often use a metric cup of 250 mL instead; it is not one of the cups on this page, so enter it as 250 mL.
How many teaspoons are in a tablespoon?
Three, exactly, in US measure: a teaspoon is a third of a tablespoon, a tablespoon is half a fluid ounce, and 16 tablespoons make a cup. Metric spoons elsewhere are 5 mL and 15 mL, within 2% of the US ones. Australia is the exception: its standard tablespoon is 20 mL, four teaspoons, so an Australian recipe’s tablespoon holds a third more.
Why do bakers weigh ingredients?
Because a gram of flour is a gram of flour however it was scooped, sifted or settled in the bag. Volume measures change with packing, humidity and the cook, and baking is sensitive to the ratio of flour to liquid. That is why professional recipes and baker’s percentages are written by weight.
Why can this page not convert cups to grams without an ingredient?
A cup is a volume and a gram is a weight, and the link between them is the density of whatever is in the cup. A cup of honey weighs more than four times a cup of rolled oats. Assuming water for everything gives a confident answer that is wrong for almost every dry ingredient, so the page asks instead.

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