Cooking Measurement Converter

One cup of all-purpose flour is about 120 grams, using the spoon-and-level method: spoon the flour into the cup, then level it off with a straight edge. Scooping straight from the bag instead packs it denser and can weigh 135 to 150 grams for the same cup, a difference big enough to throw off a recipe.

No. A cup of granulated sugar weighs about 200 grams, while a cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 120 grams, even though both fill the exact same cup. Weight depends on density, not volume, which is why this converter asks which ingredient you are measuring before converting cups to grams.

Because flour compresses easily, so how you fill the cup changes the weight by up to 25 percent. Spoon-and-level gives about 120 grams per cup, the standard most US recipes assume. Scooping the cup directly into the bag packs it tighter, often 135 to 150 grams, which can make baked goods dense or dry.

Yes, that is exactly what this tool is for: type the amount and ingredient, and it applies that ingredient's real density instead of a generic one-size-fits-all number. A scale is still more accurate for baking, since even careful cup measuring has some variation, but this gets you a reliable estimate instantly.

Weight ounces, always, the kind a kitchen scale shows. Fluid ounces measure volume (8 fl oz equals 1 cup for any liquid), while weight ounces measure mass and depend on the ingredient. Mixing the two up is a common recipe error, so this converter never uses fluid ounces to avoid that confusion.

Because their crystal shape is different. Diamond Crystal's flakes are hollow and light, about 136 grams per cup, while Morton's are denser and closer to table salt, about 230 grams per cup. Using one brand's measurements with the other can make a dish noticeably too salty or too bland, so recipes should always specify which.

The densities come from standard reference values published by the USDA and King Arthur Baking, the same sources professional recipe developers use. They represent typical measuring conditions, spoon-and-level for dry ingredients, so an individual measurement can vary a few percent based on technique, humidity, and how the ingredient settles in the cup.

Fifty common baking and cooking ingredients across flours, sugars, fats and oils, dairy, leaveners and spices, grains, and mix-ins like chocolate chips and nuts. Each has its own measured density, so switching from all-purpose flour to almond flour or from butter to honey changes the converted weight automatically, without picking a new tool.

Sixteen tablespoons make one cup, and three teaspoons make one tablespoon, so there are 48 teaspoons in a cup. These volume ratios are fixed and never change with the ingredient, unlike converting to grams or ounces, which is why this converter treats volume-to-volume conversions separately from weight-based ones.

For consistency, yes. A gram is a fixed unit, but a cup depends on how firmly you pack it, so two bakers using cups can end up with meaningfully different amounts of the same ingredient. Weight removes that variable entirely, which is why most professional and European recipes are written in grams.