Kilograms to Grams Converter
Convert kg to g — a thousand to one, since the 2019 redefinition.
Updated
grams
1,000g
1 kg = 1,000 g
In short
How many grams are in 2 kilograms?
2,000 grams, since a kilogram is exactly 1,000 grams. Multiply by 1,000. The prefix kilo- is defined as a thousand, so the conversion is a decimal shift with nothing to round and no alternative value anywhere.
Mass and weight are different quantities. A kilogram is a mass, and it does not change with location; weight does.
kilograms to grams — quick reference
| kilograms (kg) | grams (g) |
|---|---|
| 0.1 kg | 100 g |
| 0.3 kg | 250 g |
| 0.5 kg | 500 g |
| 1 kg | 1,000 g |
| 2 kg | 2,000 g |
| 5 kg | 5,000 g |
| 10 kg | 10,000 g |
| 50 kg | 50,000 g |
The formula, worked line by line
One multiplication by an exact power of ten. The prefix carries the entire conversion, and since prefixes are defined rather than measured there is no uncertainty to disclose and no better factor to find.
“Mass is a property of the object. Weight is what gravity does to it. Only one of them is a kilogram.”
For everyday purposes the papering-over is entirely reasonable, and no kitchen scale should be expected to do otherwise. It is worth knowing about because it explains why a scale needs calibrating where it will be used, rather than once at the factory.
grams = kilograms x 1,000
kilo- = 10^3, exactly
2 kg x 1,000 = 2,000 g
1 lb = 453.59237 g exactly
1 tonne = 1,000 kg = 1,000,000 g- Scale reads
- 2.5 kg
- Converted
- 2,500 g
- What the scale resolved
- about 0.1 kg
- What 2,500 g implies
- resolution to the gram
- Honest form
- 2,500 g, give or take 100
The three zeros are an artefact of the multiplication rather than information from the measurement. This is the mass equivalent of writing 1.750 m for a tape reading of 1.75, and it happens for the same reason.
The symbol rules, briefly
Lower case kg, with a space after the number, and no plural s. Capital K is kelvin, so Kg is not a variant spelling of kilogram — it is an invalid symbol. These are published rules rather than style preferences, and they exist because a symbol is a defined mark rather than an abbreviation.
The three tons, again
- Metric tonne
- 1,000 kg = 1,000,000 g
- US short ton
- 2,000 lb = 907,184.74 g
- UK long ton
- 2,240 lb = 1,016,046.9088 g
- Difference, short to long
- about 12 percent
Twelve percent is not a rounding difference. On a shipment, a commodity contract or an emissions figure it is the whole margin, so the unit needs stating rather than assuming.
How to use the kilograms to grams converter
Multiply by a thousand. Kilo- means exactly ten to the third, so the factor is a definition and the conversion is a decimal shift. There is nothing to round, nothing to look up, and no possibility of two sources giving different answers.
Which leaves the useful question: what does the mass figure actually cover? A number on a label can be net content, gross weight including packaging, or a drained weight excluding liquid, and those can differ by a lot. The conversion is exact; the thing being converted often is not what the reader assumes.
1,000
Grams in a kilogram
kilo- is exactly a thousand
1,000,000
Grams in a tonne
a tonne is 1,000 kg
453.59237
Grams in a pound
exactly, since 1959
The second thing a mass figure does not tell you is weight. Mass is how much matter there is, and it is the same everywhere. Weight is the force gravity exerts on that mass, and it varies with location. A kitchen scale reports mass in kilograms while actually measuring force, which is why it needs calibrating for local gravity in precision work.
Those three tons differ by about twelve percent, which is a wide gap for units sharing a word. Freight rates, commodity volumes and emissions figures all get quoted in "tons", and the first question about any such figure is which one — the answer changes the number materially rather than marginally.
- 0.5 kg
- 500 g
- 1 kg
- 1,000 g
- 2 kg
- 2,000 g
- 0.45359237 kg
- 453.59237 g, one pound exactly
- 1,000 kg
- 1,000,000 g, one tonne
The pound row is exact rather than measured, fixed by the same 1959 agreement that defined the yard. Every figure in this table is exact.
Convert kilograms into pounds instead
For the imperial figure rather than the metric one, that page uses the exact 0.45359237 factor and explains where it came from.
Open the kg to lbs converter →Kilograms converted to grams, with the pound figure alongside for the masses that cross between systems.
| Kilograms | Grams | In pounds |
|---|---|---|
| 0.1 kg | 100 g | 0.220 lb |
| 0.25 kg | 250 g | 0.551 lb |
| 0.4536 kg | 453.6 g | 1.000 lb |
| 0.5 kg | 500 g | 1.102 lb |
| 1 kg | 1,000 g | 2.205 lb |
| 2 kg | 2,000 g | 4.409 lb |
| 2.5 kg | 2,500 g | 5.512 lb |
| 5 kg | 5,000 g | 11.023 lb |
| 10 kg | 10,000 g | 22.046 lb |
| 20 kg | 20,000 g | 44.092 lb |
| 50 kg | 50,000 g | 110.231 lb |
| 100 kg | 100,000 g | 220.462 lb |
Mass is not weight, and scales report the wrong one
The distinction is usually treated as pedantry and occasionally matters a great deal. Mass is a property of the object and does not change. Weight is the force gravity exerts on it, which depends on where the object is. The same kilogram of flour weighs measurably less at the equator than at the poles.
- What you want
- mass, in kilograms
- What most scales measure
- force, in newtons
- How they report it
- converted to mass, assuming standard gravity
- Where that fails
- high altitude, or precision work
- For everyday use
- the difference is invisible
A balance comparing two masses does not have this problem, because gravity acts equally on both pans and cancels out. That is why laboratory balances were built that way for centuries, and why the distinction was designed into the instrument rather than the arithmetic.
In ordinary use none of this matters, and treating a kilogram as a weight is harmless. It stops being harmless in trade calibration, in aviation, and anywhere a scale is used far from where it was calibrated — which is why legal metrology treats scale verification as a regulated activity rather than a formality.
Net, gross, and what the figure covers
A mass on a label is a claim about something specific, and different labels mean different things. Net content is the goods alone. Gross is the goods plus their packaging. Drained weight excludes packing liquid. Converting between kilograms and grams preserves whichever of these you started with, including its ambiguity.
Do
- Check whether a figure is net, gross or drained
- Keep the symbol lower case, with a space after the number
- Say which ton you mean whenever the word appears
- Pick the unit that keeps the number above one
Don't
- Write Kg, KG or kgs, none of which are valid
- Treat a shipping weight as a product weight
- Assume tonne, short ton and long ton are interchangeable
- Report a converted figure to more places than the scale gave
Precision travels the same way it does with length. A scale reading 2.5 kg is good to about a tenth of a kilogram, and converting it to 2,500 g does not make it good to the gram. The multiplication produces three extra digits and none of them carries any information from the measurement.
Every kilograms value, worked out
211 common kilograms figures each get their own page, with the answer, the arithmetic, what rounding costs, and the nearest real-world reference point on the scale.
1 to 9 kg
10 to 99 kg
Questions people ask
Sources
Where the constants and formulas on this page come from. Each line names the figure it backs.
SI prefixes are exact powers of ten, and unit symbols are case sensitive and unaltered in the plural.
NIST Special Publication 811 — Guide for the Use of the International System of Units — National Institute of Standards and Technology
The avoirdupois pound is exactly 0.45359237 kilograms, and the short and long tons are 907.18474 and 1,016.0469088 kilograms.
NIST Handbook 44, Appendix C — General Tables of Units of Measurement — National Institute of Standards and Technology
The tonne is a non-SI unit equal to exactly 1,000 kilograms, equivalent to the megagram.
The International System of Units (SI), 9th edition — Bureau International des Poids et Mesures
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