Cups of Honey to Grams

Cups to grams — quick reference

The formula

Cups of honey to grams is one multiplication by 340, the weight of a 240 ml cup. The arithmetic is the same as for every other ingredient in this section; what changes is that honey has the highest density in the set, so the numbers grow quickly and a small volume error costs more grams than it would elsewhere.

Dividing by sixteen gives the tablespoon weight, which is the measurement honey is most often called for in — a spoonful in a dressing, a drizzle in a marinade, a tablespoon to feed a bread dough.

grams = cups × 340
cups = grams ÷ 340
grams per tablespoon = 340 ÷ 16 ≈ 21.25
honey ÷ water by volume = 340 ÷ 240 ≈ 1.42

Worked example: a granola recipe calls for ⅓ cup of honey and ¼ cup of oil. The honey is 340 ÷ 3 = 113.3 grams, displayed as 113. The oil at 218 grams a cup is 0.25 × 218 = 54.5 grams. Tare the bowl, pour the honey to 113, tare again, pour the oil to 55, and you have measured both sticky ingredients without washing a single cup between them.

The comparison in the last formula line is the useful mental model. Honey is about 1.42 times as heavy as the same volume of water, because it is a concentrated sugar solution with very little air and very little water left in it. That is also why it behaves the way it does in the cup: it pours slowly, holds its level, and leaves a film behind on any surface it touches.

Two things weight will not fix. Honey is not interchangeable with sugar gram for gram, because it is sweeter, wetter and slightly acidic, so a swap needs the liquid, the leavening and the oven temperature adjusted alongside it. And crystallised honey weighs exactly the same as runny honey — crystallisation moves sugar out of solution without changing the mass — so if you are weighing rather than measuring, a grainy jar needs no correction at all.

How to use the cups of honey to grams

Type the cups and read the grams, or tap Swap to convert grams back into cups. Honey is 340 grams a cup here, and that number is worth sitting with for a second, because it is the largest density in the whole converter. A cup of honey outweighs a cup of water at 240 grams, a cup of granulated sugar at 200 grams and a cup of all-purpose flour at 120 grams — nearly three times the flour by weight for the same space in a measuring cup. USDA nutrient data gives a cup of honey as 339 grams and King Arthur Baking lists a tablespoon at 21 grams, which is 336 grams a cup; all three figures describe the same thick, nearly air-free liquid. That is the underlying reason for the weight: honey is a supersaturated sugar solution holding very little water and essentially no trapped air, so a cup of it is not far off a cup of solid sugar.

Honey is also the ingredient where weighing is not just more accurate but considerably less unpleasant. Measuring a sticky liquid by volume means coaxing it into a cup, waiting for it to settle level, then scraping it back out again while a stubborn film stays behind on the sides. That film is real honey that never reaches the bowl, it varies with the temperature of the kitchen and the shape of the cup, and it is the main reason volume measurement of syrups runs short. Weighing skips every part of that: put the bowl on the scale, press tare, and pour until the number is right. It is also the only method that stays accurate as a batch grows, because the film left behind scales with how many times you fill the cup rather than with how much honey the recipe actually wants.

If you do measure by volume, the fix is to stop the honey sticking before it starts. Wipe the inside of the measuring cup with a thin film of neutral oil or give it a quick shot of cooking spray, and the honey will slide out almost completely. The same trick works for maple syrup, golden syrup, molasses and corn syrup. The elegant version is to measure the recipe’s oil or melted butter first and then use the same unwashed cup for the honey, which oils the cup and saves washing up in one move. Either way, finish with a flexible spatula rather than a spoon. Warming the honey a little also helps it release, though not so much that it thins right out and overfills the cup as it settles.

One thing the weight will not tell you is how honey behaves once it is in the recipe. It is sweeter than sugar by weight, it brings water with it, and it is mildly acidic, so swapping honey into a recipe written for granulated sugar is not a one-for-one exchange. The Kitchn’s widely repeated rules are a sensible starting point: use around three-quarters of a cup of honey per cup of sugar, cut another liquid by about a quarter cup for each cup of honey, add roughly a quarter teaspoon of baking soda per cup of honey to offset the acidity, and drop the oven by about 25 °F because honey browns faster. Honey also holds moisture in a finished bake, which is why honey cakes and honey breads stay soft longer than their sugar equivalents and often taste better on the second day than the first. None of that is visible in the gram figure, which measures only how much honey went in. The values here use a 240 ml cup.

Frequently asked questions