Cups measure volume, grams measure weight
A cup is a volume, so how many grams it holds depends on what is in it. A cup of water weighs about 237 g, a cup of flour about 120 g and a cup of sugar about 200 g. There is no single cups-to-grams number; you need the density of the ingredient.
How big is a cup?
- US cup: 236.6 ml, the one in most American recipes. 1 cup is about 0.24 liters.
- Metric cup: 250 ml, used in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
- Japanese cup: 200 ml. A rice cooker cup is smaller still, 180 ml.
The Cups to ML converter uses the US cup. For other volumes, use the Volume Converter.
Grams in one US cup
- Water, milk: about 237 to 245 g
- All-purpose flour, spooned and leveled: about 120 g
- Granulated sugar: about 200 g
- Brown sugar, packed: about 213 g
- Butter: 227 g (two US sticks)
- Uncooked white rice: about 185 to 200 g
- Rolled oats: about 90 g
These are typical figures. Flour scooped straight from the bag can weigh 20% more than flour spooned into the cup, which is why bakers weigh it.
Converting a recipe
Multiply the cups by the grams per cup for each ingredient: 2½ cups of flour is 2.5 × 120 = 300 g. For ounces and pounds, the Weight Converter turns grams into whatever the recipe uses.