Grams to Cups Converter

Amount

From

Ingredient

A cup of flour weighs 125 g and a cup of honey weighs 340 g. Weight and volume cannot be converted without knowing what is being measured.

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Answer

4US cups

500 g of plain / all-purpose flour is 4 US cups

What each figure is

A weight and a volume are different kinds of quantity. These are the numbers that connect them.

What you enteredYou chose thisthe figure in grams500 g
The ingredientYou chose thiswithout this the question has no answer — see belowPlain / all-purpose flour
What it weighs125 g per US cup, or 0.5283 g per millilitre0.5283 g/ml
The two sides in common unitsthe weight and the space it occupies, which is what density connects500 g = 946.353 ml
The answerthe same plain / all-purpose flour, measured in cups (us, 236.6 ml)4 US cups

About this figure

Published figures run 120–130 g per cup depending on whether the flour is spooned in or scooped. Weigh it if the recipe is fussy.

How that was worked out

Each step, and why it is that step.

Step 1 — Divide by the density
500 g ÷ 0.5283 g/ml = 946.353 ml
Plain / all-purpose flour weighs 0.5283 g per millilitre. Dividing a weight by that gives the space it takes up — which is what a cup measures.
Step 2 — Turn millilitres into cups (us, 236.6 ml)
946.353 ml ÷ 236.588 ml = 4 US cups
One US cup holds 236.588 ml.

Check it backwards: 4 US cups × 236.588 ml × 0.5283 g/ml = 500 g

The mistake this prevents

A converter that ignores the ingredient treats every millilitre as a gram, and would tell you 2.1134 US cups — out by 47.2%. Plain / all-purpose flour is lighter than water, and the gap is the whole reason this field exists.

Check this before you rely on it. A free everyday calculator, provided as a guide — not tax, accounting, financial or legal advice. The working is shown above so you can verify it against your own figures. See our terms of use.

How it works

STEP 1

Type the weight in grams

Whatever the recipe or the packet says. Kilograms, ounces and pounds are in the list too if that is what you have.

STEP 2

Choose the ingredient

This is the part that makes the answer correct. Twenty of the common ones are here, grouped by kind — flours, sugars, fats and dairy, liquids, dry goods. Each carries the weight of one US cup, and the ones with a real caveat say so.

STEP 3

Pick which cup you mean

A US cup is 236.6 ml and a metric cup — UK, Australian, New Zealand, Canadian — is 250 ml. Both are in the list under their own headings, because both are simply written "1 cup" in a recipe.

What this doesn't cover

Knowing where a calculator stops is what makes the rest of it trustworthy.

How you fill the cup matters more than the table doesPublished figures for plain flour run 120–130 g per US cup depending on whether it was spooned in or scooped straight from the bag — about 8% either way. The figure used here is the standard 125 g and it is shown on the page. For bread and pastry, weigh it.

Cup measures are not one sizeThe historical British imperial cup was 284 ml and is deliberately not offered. Modern UK recipes saying "cup" mean the 250 ml metric cup, and a third option would cause more wrong answers than it prevented.

Common questions

How many cups is 500g of flour?

Four US cups, or about 3.8 metric cups. Plain flour is 125 g per US cup, so 500 ÷ 125 = 4 exactly.

How many cups is 100g of sugar?

Half a US cup. Granulated and caster sugar are both about 200 g per US cup, so 100 g is 0.5 cups. Icing sugar is much lighter at 120 g per cup, so 100 g of that is nearer 0.83 cups.

How many cups is 250g of butter?

About 1.1 US cups. A US cup of butter is 227 g — two sticks, half a pound — which comes from how butter is wrapped rather than from measuring it into a cup.

Why can’t I just divide by 250?

Because that assumes a millilitre weighs a gram, which is only true of water. Do it with flour and you get about 2.1 cups for 500 g instead of 4 — wrong by almost half, and enough to ruin the bake.

Is a cup of flour always 125 grams?

It is the conventional figure and the one most recipes are written against, but real cups vary by up to 8% with how the flour was put in. Spoon it in and level it off and you will be close to 125 g; scoop it from the bag and compact it and you will be nearer 130.

What if my ingredient is not on the list?

Convert by volume instead and accept that it is approximate, or weigh it. The list covers the ingredients whose densities are well established; adding guesses to it would make every answer on the page less trustworthy.