Cups of Flour to Grams

Cups to grams — quick reference

The formula

Cups of flour to grams is one multiply by the all-purpose density, 120 grams per cup:

grams = cups × 120

Worked example: 1 cup × 120 = 120 g; ½ cup = 60 g; 2 cups = 240 g. The quick table below covers ¼ through 2 cups.

This is for all-purpose flour, spoon-and-level. A scooped cup can hit 150 g — about 25% more — which is why the same recipe behaves differently for different bakers.

How to use the cups of flour to grams

A cup of all-purpose flour is 120 grams when it’s measured the way recipe developers intend — and that qualifier is the whole story, because flour is the ingredient where the cup goes most wrong. Type your cups for the gram weight, or swap to turn a gram amount back into cups.

Here’s the problem. Flour settles and compresses, so how you fill the cup decides how much you get. Dip the cup into the bag and scoop, and you compact the flour to roughly 150 grams a cup. Fluff the flour, spoon it loosely into the cup, and level it off with a knife, and you get the intended 120. Same cup, a 25% spread — and on a recipe calling for three cups, that’s nearly a full extra cup of flour hiding in your technique.

Too much flour is the most common reason a home bake disappoints: cakes turn dense and dry, cookies go cakey and pale, bread tightens up. None of it looks like a measuring error, which is exactly why it persists. Weighing makes it vanish — 120 grams is 120 grams no matter how you get it into the bowl.

If you must use cups, use the spoon-and-level method every time: stir the flour to loosen it, spoon it gently into the measuring cup until it overflows, then sweep the top flat with a straight edge. Never scoop, never tap or pack the cup. But the honest advice is to weigh — flour is the one ingredient where a scale changes results you can taste. These values use the 240 ml US cup.

Frequently asked questions