Cooking Converter.
Convert cups, grams, millilitres, ounces and tablespoons — with the ingredient taken into account, because density changes the answer.
Grams
Ounces
US cups
Millilitres
Weight conversions use the density of the selected ingredient. Switching ingredient changes the gram figure even though the volume stays the same — that is correct, and it is exactly why cup measurements are unreliable for baking.
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Why One Conversion Number Does Not Exist
A cup measures volume. A gram measures mass. Converting between them requires knowing how heavy the ingredient is for its size — its density — and that differs enormously between ingredients.
One US cup weighs
Sugar 200 g · Butter 227 g · Honey 340 g
Honey is nearly four times the weight of the same volume of oats. Any converter that offers a single “cups to grams” figure without asking what you are measuring is giving you one ingredient’s answer for all of them.
The Flour Problem
Flour is the ingredient where cup measurement fails worst, because it compresses. How you fill the cup changes how much flour is in it:
Spooned and levelled — about 125 g
Flour spooned loosely into the cup, then levelled with a straight edge. This is what most US recipes assume, and it is the figure this calculator uses.
Scooped from the bag — 140 to 150 g
Dragging the cup through the bag packs the flour. That is up to 20% more flour than the recipe intended, which is the single most common reason home-baked cakes and breads come out dry and dense.
Sifted — around 115 g
Aerated flour takes up more room, so a cup holds less. Note the order in the recipe: “1 cup sifted flour” means sift then measure, while “1 cup flour, sifted” means measure then sift. These are different amounts.
Not All Cups Are the Same Size
If you cook from recipes written in different countries, the word “cup” is doing different jobs:
- US cup: 236.6 ml — the default in American recipes and most food blogs
- Metric cup: 250 ml — Australia, New Zealand, Canada and much of Europe
- Imperial cup: 284 ml — older British recipes, now rare
A US and a metric cup differ by about 6%. In a soup that is invisible; in a cake, where the ratio of flour to liquid to fat determines the crumb, it is enough to change the result. If a recipe does not say which cup it means, the author’s country is usually the best guess.
Why Bakers Weigh Instead
Professional and most serious home bakers work in grams, and the reason is simply that mass is unambiguous. 125 g of flour is 125 g regardless of how it was scooped, how humid the kitchen is, or which country the recipe came from. A digital scale removes the largest source of variability in home baking, and it also means fewer measuring cups to wash — you can weigh everything into one bowl, taring between additions.
Internal Navigation
Converting Cooking Measurements Accurately Methodology.
The Calculation Branch
Industrial Standards.
Volume units are converted through millilitres, then to mass using a published typical density for the selected ingredient. Flour is treated as spooned and levelled at 125 g per US cup, the convention most American recipes assume. Values are typical rather than exact — moisture content, brand, grind and how the ingredient settles all shift the real figure by a few percent.
In-Depth Analysis & Reference Data
Liquids are the exception where cups behave reasonably. Water, milk and stock are close enough in density that a cup of any of them is roughly 240 g, and small errors do not compound. It is dry ingredients — and particularly flour, cocoa and powdered sugar, which all compress — where volume measurement introduces real error.
Butter is the one dry-ish ingredient cups handle well, but only because US butter is sold in sticks marked with tablespoon gradations. One stick is half a cup, 8 tablespoons, or 113 g. Outside the US, butter comes in blocks without markings, which is why converting a US baking recipe usually means weighing the butter even if you measure everything else by volume.
Registry Questions & FAQ.
My conversion does not match the one printed on the packet.
Manufacturers use their own measured density for their specific product, and brands genuinely differ — a coarser grind or higher moisture content changes the weight per cup. If the packet gives a figure for that exact product, use it in preference to a general table.
Does this work for converting a whole recipe?
Yes, but convert each ingredient separately using its own setting. Applying one ingredient's conversion factor across a whole recipe is the mistake this calculator exists to prevent — the ratios between ingredients are what make a recipe work, and a uniform conversion destroys them.
Estimates for planning. Always confirm against an authoritative source.