Cups of Powdered Sugar to Grams

Cups to grams — quick reference

The formula

Cups of unsifted powdered sugar to grams is one multiply by 113 grams per cup:

grams = cups × 113

Worked example: 1 cup × 113 = 113 g; ½ cup ≈ 57 g; 2 cups = 226 g. The quick table covers ¼ through 2 cups.

This is unsifted. Sifting aerates the sugar and lowers a cup to roughly 100 g, so a recipe that specifies “sifted” is asking for a slightly smaller weight than the figure here.

How to use the cups of powdered sugar to grams

A cup of unsifted powdered sugar is 113 grams. Enter cups for grams, or swap to convert grams back to cups. Powdered, confectioners’, and icing sugar are three names for the same thing — granulated sugar milled to a fine powder with a little cornstarch added to keep it free-flowing.

The catch with powdered sugar is air. It’s so fine and light that it clumps and traps pockets, so whether a recipe wants it sifted changes the weight noticeably. This page uses unsifted at 113 g per cup; sifting fluffs it up and drops a cup to roughly 100 grams — about a 10–15% difference, enough to matter in a thin icing or a delicate frosting where the sugar-to-liquid ratio sets the consistency.

So read the recipe’s wording. “1 cup powdered sugar, sifted” means measure then sift (or sift then measure if it says “1 cup sifted powdered sugar” — the comma placement flips the order and the amount). When precision matters, weighing skips the whole sifted-versus-unsifted question: the grams are the grams, and you sift afterward only to remove lumps for a smooth finish.

Powdered sugar clumps because of moisture and the cornstarch, which is why icings can turn out grainy if you don’t sift before whisking. For dusting, no measurement is needed — just sieve a little over the top. These values use the 240 ml US cup.

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