Cups or grams of sugar?
American recipes measure sugar in cups and spoons, while European and international recipes give it in grams. The two can be converted reliably, because granulated sugar pours evenly and barely packs down. This converter uses 200 g per US cup of granulated white sugar, the value used by most baking references and close to the USDA figure.
How to use this converter
Type an amount in any field and every other measure updates as you type. Enter the cups from an American recipe to get grams for your scale, enter the grams from a European recipe to find the cups, or enter the grams of sugar from a Nutrition Facts label to see how many teaspoons that represents. Each common pair below has its own page with the formula, an example and a chart.
Key equivalents
- 1 cup of granulated sugar ≈ 200 g ≈ 7.05 oz
- ½ cup ≈ 100 g, and ¼ cup ≈ 50 g
- 1 tablespoon ≈ 12.5 g, and 1 teaspoon ≈ 4.2 g
- 1 lb ≈ 2.27 cups, and 1 kg = 5 cups
Reading sugar on food labels
Nutrition Facts labels list total and added sugars in grams. Dividing by 4 gives a quick estimate in teaspoons: a yogurt with 16 g of sugar holds about 4 teaspoons, and a 20 oz bottle of soda with 65 g about 16. The American Heart Association suggests limiting added sugars to about 25 g a day for women and 36 g for men, roughly 6 and 9 teaspoons.
Other sugars
The 200 g value applies to granulated white sugar, also called table sugar. Superfine or caster sugar weighs about the same. Brown sugar is measured packed into the cup and weighs about 220 g. Powdered sugar, also called confectioners’ or icing sugar, is light and airy, around 120 g per cup unsifted. Coarse sugars, raw cane sugar and coconut sugar differ slightly, so weigh them when the recipe gives grams.
Sugar units compared
| Unit | Symbol | In grams |
|---|---|---|
| Gram | g | 1 |
| Kilogram | kg | 1,000 |
| Ounce | oz | 28.3 |
| Pound | lb | 454 |
| Cup of sugar | cup | 200 |
| Tablespoon of sugar | tbsp | 12.5 |
| Teaspoon of sugar | tsp | 4.17 |
The units in detail
What is a gram?
Grams are the unit of sugar in recipes outside the US and on every Nutrition Facts label. The added sugars line counts grams: 4 g of sugar is about one teaspoon.
What is a kilogram?
A kilogram of sugar is the standard bag in Europe. It holds 5 US cups of granulated sugar.
What is an ounce?
The avoirdupois ounce, 28.35 grams, is the weight unit of US kitchen scales. A cup of granulated sugar weighs about 7 oz, not 8: weight ounces and fluid ounces only match for water.
What is a pound?
The pound, 453.6 grams, is the unit of US sugar bags, usually sold in 4 lb and 10 lb sizes. A 4 lb bag holds about 9 cups of granulated sugar.
What is a cup of sugar?
A US cup of granulated white sugar weighs about 200 g. Unlike flour, sugar crystals pour evenly and barely compress, so cup measurements of sugar are quite consistent from one cook to another.
What is a tablespoon of sugar?
A level US tablespoon of granulated sugar weighs about 12.5 g, one sixteenth of a cup. That is roughly the sugar in a third of a can of regular soda.
What is a teaspoon of sugar?
A level US teaspoon of granulated sugar weighs about 4.2 g. Nutrition guides often round it to 4 g, which makes it easy to turn the grams on a label into teaspoons.