All-purpose flour: cups to grams
These are the numbers most American recipes are written around. They assume you spoon the flour into the cup and level it off, which is explained further down.
| Cups | Grams | Ounces | Tablespoons |
|---|---|---|---|
| ⅛ cup | 15 g | 0.53 oz | 2 |
| ¼ cup | 30 g | 1.06 oz | 4 |
| ⅓ cup | 40 g | 1.41 oz | 5.3 |
| ½ cup | 60 g | 2.12 oz | 8 |
| ⅔ cup | 80 g | 2.82 oz | 10.7 |
| ¾ cup | 90 g | 3.17 oz | 12 |
| 1 cup | 120 g | 4.23 oz | 16 |
| 1 ½ cups | 180 g | 6.35 oz | 24 |
| 2 cups | 240 g | 8.47 oz | 32 |
| 3 cups | 360 g | 12.7 oz | 48 |
Grams of flour to cups
Working from a European or professional recipe and only have measuring cups? Here is how common gram amounts translate, including what to actually measure out.
| Grams | Cups (decimal) | In the kitchen |
|---|---|---|
| 25 g | 0.21 | 3 tbsp + 1 tsp |
| 50 g | 0.42 | ⅓ cup + 1 tbsp + 1 tsp |
| 100 g | 0.83 | ¾ cup + 1 tbsp + 1 tsp |
| 125 g | 1.04 | 1 cup + 2 tsp |
| 150 g | 1.25 | 1 ¼ cups |
| 200 g | 1.67 | 1 ⅔ cups |
| 250 g | 2.08 | 2 cups + 1 tbsp + 1 tsp |
| 300 g | 2.5 | 2 ½ cups |
| 500 g | 4.17 | 4 cups + 2 tbsp + 2 tsp |
Does the type of flour change the weight?
A little, and in a few cases a lot. All-purpose, bread and cake flour all land at about 120 grams per cup, so you can treat them the same when converting. Whole wheat and self-rising flour come in slightly lighter. Nut flours are the big outlier: a cup of almond flour weighs only about 96 grams, so swapping it in cup for cup changes a recipe far more than most people expect.
| Ingredient | 1 cup | ½ cup | ¼ cup | 1 tbsp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 120 g | 60 g | 30 g | 7.5 g |
| Bread flour | 120 g | 60 g | 30 g | 7.5 g |
| Cake flour | 120 g | 60 g | 30 g | 7.5 g |
| Whole wheat flour | 113 g | 57 g | 28 g | 7.1 g |
| Self-rising flour | 113 g | 57 g | 28 g | 7.1 g |
| Almond flour | 96 g | 48 g | 24 g | 6 g |
| Oat flour | 92 g | 46 g | 23 g | 5.8 g |
Cake flour is the one to double-check. The figure above comes from unbleached cake flour, and some bleached brands are a few grams lighter per cup. If your bag lists a serving size in grams, it is worth a glance.
How you fill the cup matters more than the flour
Here is the part most charts skip. The same cup of all-purpose flour can weigh anywhere from about 120 to 160 grams depending on how it got into the cup. Push the cup straight into the bag and drag it out, and you compress the flour. Do that for a recipe that calls for three cups and you may add the weight of almost an extra cup without noticing.
That extra flour is behind a lot of familiar problems: cakes that bake up dry, cookies that stay thick and won't spread, bread dough that feels stiff and tears instead of stretching.
The spoon-and-level method
- Fluff the flour in the bag or canister with a spoon. Flour settles during shipping.
- Spoon it lightly into the measuring cup until it mounds over the top. Don't tap or shake the cup.
- Sweep across the rim with the back of a knife to level it.
Done this way, a cup lands close to 120 grams, which is what this page and most modern American recipes assume.
Simplest fix: weigh it. A basic kitchen scale costs less than a bag of good chocolate and takes all of the guesswork out of flour. Put the bowl on the scale, press tare, and spoon in flour until you hit the number.
"1 cup sifted flour" vs "1 cup flour, sifted"
Older recipes are fussy about word order, and it's worth respecting. "1 cup sifted flour" means sift first, then spoon into the cup, which gives you noticeably less than 120 grams because the flour is full of air. "1 cup flour, sifted" means measure a normal cup first, then sift it. If you're weighing, the second version is simply 120 grams.
Self-rising flour substitute
Out of self-rising flour? For each cup the recipe calls for, use 1 cup of all-purpose flour plus 1½ teaspoons of baking powder and ¼ teaspoon of salt, whisked together well. In grams, that's 120 g of flour, about 6 g of baking powder and about 1.5 g of table salt.
Frequently asked questions
How many grams is 1 cup of flour?
One cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 120 grams when spooned into the cup and leveled. If you scoop the cup directly into the bag, expect anywhere from 140 to 160 grams instead.
How many grams is ½ cup of flour?
Half a cup of all-purpose flour is about 60 grams. A quarter cup is about 30 grams and three quarters of a cup is about 90 grams.
How many cups is 100 grams of flour?
100 grams of all-purpose flour is about 0.83 cups. In practice, measure out ¾ cup + 1 tbsp + 1 tsp.
How many grams is a tablespoon of flour?
A level tablespoon of all-purpose flour weighs about 7.5 grams. Two tablespoons are roughly 15 grams.
Is bread flour heavier than all-purpose flour?
Not by volume. Both weigh about 120 grams per cup. Bread flour has more protein, which changes how the dough behaves, but it does not make a cup heavier.
Can I swap almond flour for regular flour cup for cup?
Not reliably. A cup of almond flour weighs about 96 grams versus 120 grams for all-purpose, and it has no gluten. Use a recipe written for almond flour, or follow a tested conversion rather than swapping by volume.