No two sugars weigh the same by the cup

Sugar is a solid, but a cup is a volume. The number that connects them is bulk density, and sugar is unusually sensitive to it.

Granulated sugar pours as small hard crystals that settle together with a fair amount of air around them. Powdered sugar is ground far finer and often cut with cornstarch, so it fluffs up and a cup of it weighs 120 grams. Brown sugar gets packed into the cup on purpose, which squeezes most of the air out and pushes the same volume up to 213 grams.

So the answer to how many grams are in a cup of sugar runs from 96 grams for coconut sugar to 213 for packed brown. That is a spread of 122 percent, and no single number covers it.

Where the 200 gram figure comes from

Most recipe sites and the nutrition databases settled on 200 grams per cup for granulated sugar, and it is a sensible round number that matches how sugar is sold. A 4 pound bag holds 1,814 grams, which is just over 9 cups at that rate.

Weigh a cup yourself and you may land anywhere between 190 and 210 grams. Full crystals scoop heavier than coarse ones, and a cup filled by dipping weighs more than a cup filled by spooning.

What one cup of each sugar weighs

The grams per cup column is the working figure. Everything else on this page is computed from it, so the tool and the tables cannot drift apart.

Sugar	1 cup, g	1 tbsp, g	1 tsp, g	1 cup, oz
Coconut sugar	96	6	2	3.39
Powdered sugar	120	7.5	2.5	4.23
Caster sugar	190	11.9	4	6.7
Demerara sugar	198	12.4	4.1	6.98
Granulated sugar	200	12.5	4.2	7.05
Turbinado sugar	202	12.6	4.2	7.13
Brown sugar, packed	213	13.3	4.4	7.51

Sorted lightest to heaviest. The tablespoon and teaspoon columns are the cup figure divided by 16 and 48, because a cup holds exactly that many level spoons.

Brown sugar packed to 213 grams sits 6.5 percent above granulated. Measured loose rather than packed it drops to roughly 180 grams, which is the single most common way a cookie recipe goes flat. If the recipe says packed, press it into the cup until it holds the shape of the cup when you turn it out.

Cup fractions in grams, for each sugar

Recipe amounts rarely land on a whole cup. These are the fractions that show up most often, worked out for all four everyday sugars.

Amount	Granulated	Brown, packed	Powdered	Caster
1/8 cup	25 g	26.6 g	15 g	23.8 g
1/4 cup	50 g	53.3 g	30 g	47.5 g
1/3 cup	66.7 g	71 g	40 g	63.3 g
1/2 cup	100 g	106.5 g	60 g	95 g
2/3 cup	133.3 g	142 g	80 g	126.7 g
3/4 cup	150 g	159.8 g	90 g	142.5 g
1 cup	200 g	213 g	120 g	190 g
1 1/2 cups	300 g	319.5 g	180 g	285 g
2 cups	400 g	426 g	240 g	380 g

Halve the cup, halve the grams. That holds exactly, because both scale with volume. The only place it breaks is the spoon, where how full you heap the spoon stops being predictable.

Spoons, and why they are the risky measurement

A level tablespoon of granulated sugar is 12.5 grams. A heaped one can run past 20, since the pile on top is roughly another half tablespoon of crystals.

Two things make spoons worse than cups. Sugar does not self level the way flour does when you drag a straight edge across, because the crystals sit at an angle. And the spoon sizes themselves are not standard. A US tablespoon is 14.79 millilitres, an Australian one is 20, and a British one from an old cutlery drawer may be neither.

Sugar	1 tsp	1 tbsp	2 tbsp	1/4 cup
Granulated	4.2 g	12.5 g	25 g	50 g
Brown, packed	4.4 g	13.3 g	26.6 g	53.3 g
Powdered	2.5 g	7.5 g	15 g	30 g
Caster	4 g	11.9 g	23.8 g	47.5 g

Notice the powdered sugar row. A tablespoon is 7.5 grams, which is 40 percent lighter than a tablespoon of granulated. Swap one for the other spoon for spoon in a frosting and you change the sweetness and the texture at the same time.

For anything under a quarter cup, a scale is worth the ten seconds. Below 25 grams the spoon error can easily reach 15 percent, and that is the range where baking powder, salt and sugar decisions actually matter.

Why two cups of sugar never weigh the same

Four things move the number, and none of them show up on a recipe card.

How the cup was filled is the big one. Scooping straight from the bag compacts the crystals near the wall and adds 10 to 15 grams. Spooning sugar in and levelling it off leaves it loose and light. A cup filled by scoop and a cup filled by spoon are the same volume and up to 8 percent apart by weight.

Moisture is the next. Sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it pulls water out of the air. A bag left open in a humid kitchen gains weight, and brown sugar in particular can pick up a few percent before it starts to clump. This is also why a cup of brown sugar weighs more in July than in January.

Particle size decides how much air fits between the grains. Granulated is coarse, caster is finer, powdered is a dust. Finer particles pack more sugar into the same space, except powdered sugar is both fine and aerated, so it lands at the low end instead.

Packing is the fourth. Brown sugar is the only sugar most recipes ask you to pack, and they mean it. Push it down with the back of a spoon until the surface is flat and firm rather than crumbly. Muscovado and some dark brown sugars are stickier still, so they weigh a little more than the 213 grams in the table once they have been pressed hard.

Which sugar a recipe means

American recipes usually say sugar and mean granulated. British recipes say caster when they mean the fine stuff that dissolves into creamed butter, and granulated when they do not care.

Brown sugar defaults to light brown and packed. If a recipe says dark brown, expect more molasses and a slightly heavier cup, since molasses is denser than the dry crystal it coats.

Powdered sugar is also called confectioners sugar in the US and icing sugar in the UK. It always means the same thing, and it always means 120 grams a cup.

Two sugars are not interchangeable with the others by weight. Coconut sugar weighs 96 grams a cup, so swapping it one for one into a recipe written in cups gives you less than half the sugar. Turbinado and demerara sit close enough to granulated that the difference is mostly texture, and both weigh slightly more because the crystals are larger and less settled.

Questions that come up with sugar weights

How many grams of sugar are in a cup: 200 grams for granulated, which is the figure most recipe sites and databases use. Brown sugar packed runs 213 grams and powdered sugar only 120. There is no single answer that covers all of them.
Is 200 grams of sugar the same as one cup: For granulated, close enough for baking. Scale it and you will usually see 195 to 205 grams depending on how the cup was filled. For any other sugar type the two are far apart, since a cup of powdered sugar is 120 grams and a cup of packed brown is 213.
How many grams is a tablespoon of sugar: 12.5 grams for a level tablespoon of granulated. Brown sugar packed is 13.3, caster 11.9, and powdered sugar 7.5. A heaped tablespoon can reach 20 grams, so level it when a recipe gives no size.
Does brown sugar really have to be packed: Yes if the recipe says packed. Loose brown sugar in the same cup weighs about 180 grams, so a cookie recipe calling for 213 grams ends up 33 grams light and the dough spreads differently. Press it until it holds the shape of the cup.
Why does my cup of sugar weigh more than the recipe says: You are probably scooping rather than spooning. Scooping compacts crystals against the side of the cup and adds up to 15 grams. Fill the cup with a spoon, then level it with a straight edge and it should land near 200 grams for granulated.
Can I use caster sugar instead of granulated: Yes, and the weight barely moves, 190 grams a cup against 200. Caster dissolves faster, which helps in meringues and sponges, so some bakers use it by habit even when the recipe says granulated.

Where these numbers come from

The cup is the US customary one at 236.5882 millilitres, the same volume used on the rest of this site. Tablespoon and teaspoon figures are that cup divided by 16 and 48, which is the standard level-spoon definition.

Per cup weights come from the density set this site maintains and publishes in full on the cups to grams page. Granulated at 200 grams, brown packed at 213, caster at 190 and powdered at 120 are the four figures nearly every source agrees on within a few percent. Turbinado, demerara and coconut sugar are less well documented, and the figures here round to the nearest practical gram.

The one honest caveat is flour and sugar both vary with fill method, and the sources genuinely disagree. USDA FoodData Central lists granulated sugar near 200 grams a cup and brown sugar packed near 220. Food Standards Australia New Zealand publishes figures on a 250 millilitre cup, which run about 5.7 percent higher than the ones here. Weigh sugar when the recipe is fussy, especially in candy, caramel and meringue where a few grams changes the outcome.

Related converters

These use the same density set and the same US customary cup.

Sugar grams, per cup

Sugar cups to grams converter