Grams to Cups Converter
90 grams of all-purpose flour is 0.72 cups, but 90 grams of sugar is only 0.45 cups. This grams to cups converter handles the difference automatically, because a cup measures volume and a gram measures weight, and every ingredient packs a different weight into the same cup. Pick an ingredient from the list, enter the amount you have, and convert in either direction, grams to cups or cups to grams. The tool covers 11 common baking ingredients, from all-purpose flour and granulated sugar to honey, rolled oats, and rice, each using a grams-per-cup value pulled from King Arthur Baking and USDA averages for spooned-and-leveled measuring. That distinction matters because scooping a measuring cup straight into a flour bag compacts the flour and can add 20 percent or more to the actual weight, which is one of the most common reasons a recipe made by weight and the same recipe made by volume turn out differently. Use this converter when a recipe lists grams but your kitchen only has cup measures, or when you want to check a cup measurement against a kitchen scale.
Quick answer
Grams measure weight and cups measure volume, so the conversion depends on the ingredient's density.
Result
0.72 cups
Grams
90
Cups
0.72
Grams per cup
125
What this tells you
- •Grams measure weight and cups measure volume, so the conversion depends on the ingredient's density.
- •A US cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 125 g, granulated sugar about 200 g, and honey about 340 g.
- •To convert grams to cups, divide the grams by the ingredient's grams-per-cup value.
- •To convert cups to grams, multiply the cups by the same value.
- •Dense, sticky ingredients like honey and butter pack more weight into a cup than light, airy ones like rolled oats or cocoa powder.
- •This converter assumes a US customary cup of 240 ml, not the 250 ml metric cup used in Australia and some UK recipes.
- •When precision matters for baking, weighing ingredients on a kitchen scale removes the variation that cup measuring introduces.
How to Use
- 1Choose your ingredient from the list. Eleven common baking ingredients are built in, from flour and sugar to honey and rice.
- 2Enter the amount you have, either a weight in grams or a volume in cups depending on which direction you are converting.
- 3Pick the direction, grams to cups or cups to grams, using the direction control.
- 4Read the converted amount, along with the grams-per-cup constant shown so you can check the math yourself.
- 5If the result feeds into a recipe, round to a measure you can actually read on your scale or measuring cups, such as the nearest gram or the nearest eighth of a cup.
How It Works
Formula
cups = grams / grams per cup (or grams = cups x grams per cup)Each ingredient has a measured weight per US cup (240 ml), and the tool stores those values in a lookup table rather than using one universal conversion factor. To go from grams to cups, divide the grams by the ingredient's grams-per-cup value: 90 g of flour is 90 / 125 = 0.72 cups, and 100 g of honey is 100 / 340 = 0.2941 cups because honey is denser. To go from cups to grams, run the formula the other direction and multiply: 2 cups of milk at 244 g per cup works out to 2 × 244 = 488 g. The constants follow King Arthur Baking and USDA reference values for spooned-and-leveled measuring, meaning the ingredient is spooned into the cup and leveled off with a flat edge rather than packed or scooped, with the one exception of brown sugar, which is conventionally measured packed.
Calculation note: values are processed in the order shown above, using the current input units.
Worked Examples
90 grams of flour to cups
Divide 90 by flour's 125 g per cup to get 0.72 cups, just under three quarters of a cup. This is the classic case that trips up recipe conversions, because 90 g always means 0.72 cups of flour but a completely different fraction for any other ingredient. If your measuring cups only mark quarters, round to 3/4 cup and adjust slightly, or weigh it directly instead.
200 grams of sugar to cups
Granulated sugar weighs almost exactly 200 g per cup, so 200 g converts to a clean 1 cup with no rounding needed. That makes sugar one of the easier ingredients to eyeball between grams and cups. Brown sugar and powdered sugar use different constants, so this ratio does not carry over to other kinds of sugar.
2 cups of milk to grams
Milk weighs about 244 g per cup, so multiplying 2 cups by 244 gives 488 g. This direction is useful when a US recipe lists cups but a scale-based recipe or nutrition label needs the equivalent weight. Because milk is a liquid, its cup measurement is also close to its volume in milliliters, roughly 473 ml for 2 cups.
100 grams of honey to cups
Honey packs 340 g into a cup, nearly three times flour's density, so 100 g works out to only 100 / 340 = 0.2941 cups, a little over a quarter cup. This is the clearest illustration of why a single grams-to-cups ratio cannot work across ingredients. Dense, liquid ingredients like honey, molasses, and syrup always convert to a smaller cup measurement than the same weight of a light, dry ingredient.
1 cup of packed brown sugar to grams
Packed brown sugar weighs 220 g per cup, heavier than granulated sugar's 200 g, because packing presses out the air pockets between the sticky, molasses-coated crystals. The tool's brown sugar constant already assumes the packed method, so there is no need to round up further. If a recipe calls for lightly packed instead of packed, expect the real weight to land a little below 220 g.
300 grams of rice to cups
Uncooked rice weighs about 185 g per cup, so 300 g converts to 300 / 185 = 1.6216 cups, a little over one and five eighths cups. Rice measurements matter most before cooking, since rice roughly triples in volume once it absorbs water and cooks through. Use the uncooked weight here, then check your recipe or rice cooker markings for the correct water ratio.
A German cake recipe in grams, converted for US measuring cups
Lena is baking from a German recipe that lists 250 g flour, 150 g sugar, and 100 g butter, and her kitchen has US measuring cups but no scale. The first run gives 250 / 125 = 2 cups of flour. Switching the ingredient to granulated sugar, 150 g comes to 150 / 200 = 0.75 cups, and for butter, 100 g is 100 / 227 = 0.4405 cups, a shade under half a cup. One US stick of butter is half a cup, which this converter puts at 113.5 g, so 100 g is a stick with about a tablespoon shaved off. If her measuring cups are a 250 mL metric set, each cup holds about 5.7 percent more than the US cup these factors assume, so she should fill them slightly short.
Grams per US cup for common ingredients, as this converter uses them
The exact grams-per-cup factor stored for each of the 11 ingredients, with half-cup and quarter-cup weights computed from it. These are the numbers behind every result on this page.
| Ingredient | 1 cup | 1/2 cup | 1/4 cup |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 125 g | 62.5 g | 31.25 g |
| Granulated sugar | 200 g | 100 g | 50 g |
| Brown sugar (packed) | 220 g | 110 g | 55 g |
| Powdered sugar | 120 g | 60 g | 30 g |
| Butter | 227 g | 113.5 g | 56.75 g |
| Milk | 244 g | 122 g | 61 g |
| Water | 236.6 g | 118.3 g | 59.15 g |
| Honey | 340 g | 170 g | 85 g |
| Rolled oats | 90 g | 45 g | 22.5 g |
| Cocoa powder | 100 g | 50 g | 25 g |
| Rice (uncooked) | 185 g | 92.5 g | 46.25 g |
Computed with the formula above from the converter's stored factors, which follow the King Arthur Baking and USDA averages for spooned-and-leveled measuring, with brown sugar packed. One US cup is 8 US fluid ounces, or 236.588 mL (NIST Handbook 44, Appendix C), which is why the water row reads 236.6 g. Cup-to-gram factors depend on how an ingredient is packed and leveled, so a recipe author's cup can differ from these by a few grams.
Spooned-and-Leveled vs. Scooped Measuring
The grams-per-cup values in this converter assume spooned-and-leveled measuring, the method most baking references use for dry ingredients. That means spooning the ingredient into the measuring cup until it mounds above the rim, then dragging a straight edge, like the back of a knife, across the top to level it off without pressing down. Scooping the cup directly into a bag of flour or sugar packs the ingredient in and can add 10 to 20 percent more weight than the spooned-and-leveled figure, which is one of the most common reasons a home bake turns out dense or dry compared to the recipe developer's result.
Liquids and packed ingredients follow different rules. Water, milk, and honey settle into a measuring cup evenly, so their grams-per-cup values reflect a straightforward fill to the line. Brown sugar is the outlier among the dry ingredients, since recipes almost always call for it packed, meaning pressed down firmly enough that it holds the cup's shape when turned out. Butter is usually measured by the markings on its wrapper or a stick, which line up closely with the same volume-to-weight ratio used here.
The factors above are averages with known limits. Flour shows the widest swing: a cup scooped straight from the bag packs tighter than a spooned and leveled cup and can weigh a fifth more, sometimes more than that, and sifted flour runs lighter still. That spread is why recipe authors who weigh their flour still disagree with each other by several grams per cup, and why the converter's 125 g may not match the number printed in a specific cookbook. The tool cannot see how you filled the cup, so read its result as the spooned and leveled weight and adjust when a recipe states a different method.
A cup is not one size either. This converter's water factor of 236.6 g matches the US customary cup of 8 US fluid ounces, or 236.588 mL (NIST Handbook 44, Appendix C), which US food labels round to 240 mL (21 CFR 101.9). A metric cup is 250 mL, the standard in Australian, New Zealand, and many Canadian recipes, so it holds 13.4 mL more, about 5.7 percent. An older British cup is half an imperial pint, 10 imperial fluid ounces or 284.131 mL, about 20 percent more than the US cup. Weight carries none of that ambiguity, which is why recipes written in grams exist and why a kitchen scale is the more accurate way to bake. When a recipe prints both grams and cups, follow the grams.
Common mistakes
- Using one conversion for every ingredient. 100 g of oats is over a cup, while 100 g of honey is under a third of a cup.
- Scooping flour directly from the bag with the measuring cup. That compacts it and can add up to 20 percent more weight than the spooned-and-leveled value these constants assume.
- Mixing cup standards. A US cup is 240 ml, an Australian cup is 250 ml, and an old UK cup is 284 ml, so the same 1 cup means a different weight depending on where the recipe was written.
- Forgetting that brown sugar is measured packed. Scooping it loosely instead of pressing it into the cup comes up short on weight even though the volume looks like a full cup.
- Reading the result from the wrong direction. Grams to cups and cups to grams give very different numbers, so check the direction control before trusting the answer.
- Assuming a nutrition label's per-cup serving size uses the same density as this converter. Manufacturers sometimes round serving sizes for label simplicity rather than measuring precisely.
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