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Grams of Rice to Cups

Convert grams of uncooked white rice to cups at 185 g a cup — uncooked, which is where most of the confusion starts.

Updated

cups of white rice (uncooked)

0.54cups

100 grams of white rice (uncooked) = 0.54 cups

Values use the 240 ml US cup, spoon-and-level — your bag’s label may differ slightly.

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In short

How many cups is 100 grams of rice?

0.54 cups of uncooked white rice, since a cup holds 185 g. Uncooked is the important word: rice roughly triples in weight as it absorbs water, so 100 g dry becomes about 300 g cooked, and the two readings are not interchangeable.

Every figure on this page is dry, uncooked rice. Cooked rice is a different measurement entirely.

Grams to cups — quick reference

White rice (uncooked) (g)Cups
25 g0.14 cups
50 g0.27 cups
75 g0.41 cups
100 g0.54 cups
125 g0.68 cups
150 g0.81 cups
200 g1.08 cups
250 g1.35 cups
500 g2.7 cups

The formula, worked line by line

One division by 185. The arithmetic is straightforward and the ingredient is well behaved; the entire risk on this page sits in a single adjective attached to the input.

Rice is the one ingredient where the largest error is not in how you measure it but in which version of it you were measuring.
On the word uncooked

That is why every figure here is labelled dry. A conversion that quietly accepted either state would be wrong by a factor of three about half the time, which is worse than not converting at all.

cups = grams / 185
grams = cups x 185
100 g / 185 = 0.54 cups
500 g / 185 = 2.7 cups
cooked weight, roughly: dry grams x 3
Cups of White rice (uncooked) against gramsA twin scale: cups of White rice (uncooked) along the top against grams along the bottom, with 1 cup marked at 185 grams.cups ↔ g000.59311851.52782370cupsg
Grams of uncooked white rice against cups at 185 g to the cup.
Rice for four, from the dry weight
Servings
4
Dry rice at 75 g each
300 g
Converted
1.62 cups
Water by absorption, 1.5 to 1
450 g
Cooked yield
about 900 g
On the plate
about 225 g each

Working entirely from the dry weight makes every other figure fall out of it: the water, the yield and the portion size. Starting from a cup measurement instead means carrying an extra conversion into each of those steps, with a rounding error at every one.

The rice cooker cup, which is not a cup

Rice cookers are supplied with a measure of about 180 ml, the traditional Japanese go, and the water lines inside the pot assume it. Filling that measure with a US cup of rice puts about twenty percent too much in, and the marked water line then gives too little liquid for the amount present.

How the varieties compare

Roughly what a cup holds, uncooked
Long-grain white rice
185 g
Basmati and jasmine
close to the same
Short-grain and sushi rice
slightly heavier
Brown rice
slightly lighter
A rice cooker measure
about 150 g, not a cup

The variety differences are small enough to ignore for most cooking. The last row is not a variety at all and is the one that actually changes results, because it is a different sized vessel being used as though it were this one.

Two things to carry away: the number on this page is dry rice, and the cup that came with your rice cooker is not the cup this page means.

How to use the grams of rice to cups

Divide by 185. That is one cup of uncooked long-grain white rice, and like sugar it is a well-behaved measurement: rice grains are hard, roughly uniform and do not compress, so the cup holds much the same weight however you fill it.

The complication is not technique but state. Rice absorbs two to three times its own weight in water as it cooks, so a recipe specifying 300 g of rice is describing two very different quantities depending on whether it means before or after. A dish built on 300 g dry serves roughly three times as many people as one built on 300 g cooked.

185 g

One cup of uncooked rice

long-grain white

0.54

Cups in 100 g

a little over a half

about 3x

Weight gain when cooked

100 g dry to about 300 g

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The way to tell which is meant is usually the context. A recipe that starts by cooking the rice means dry. One that uses rice as an ingredient in something else, such as a salad, a stuffing or a fried rice, almost always means cooked, and often says so with the word leftover.

Different rices vary a little but not dramatically. Long-grain white, basmati and jasmine all sit close to the same figure. Short-grain and sushi rice pack slightly tighter, and brown rice is a touch lighter because the bran keeps the grains apart. None of these gaps approaches the size of the cooked-versus-dry difference.

Rice weights in cups, dry
50 g
0.27 cups
75 g
0.41 cups, a portion
100 g
0.54 cups
185 g
1 cup exactly
200 g
1.08 cups
250 g
1.35 cups
500 g
2.7 cups

A dry portion is usually taken as 75 g per person, which comes to about 0.4 cups and cooks up to roughly 225 g on the plate. Four portions is 300 g dry, a shade over one and a half cups, which is a useful figure to carry for a family meal.

Every ingredient in one place

The main grams to cups page carries all fourteen densities together, from oats at 90 g a cup up to honey at 340, with the ingredient picker built in.

Open grams to cups

Uncooked white rice weights converted to cups at 185 g per cup, with the approximate cooked weight and the number of servings each represents.

Grams, dryCupsCooked weightServings
25 g0.14about 75 g0.3
50 g0.27about 150 g0.7
75 g0.41about 225 g1
100 g0.54about 300 g1.3
150 g0.81about 450 g2
185 g1about 555 g2.5
200 g1.08about 600 g2.7
250 g1.35about 750 g3.3
300 g1.62about 900 g4
500 g2.7about 1,500 g6.7
Cooked weight is taken as three times the dry weight, which is typical for long-grain white rice cooked by absorption. A serving is 75 g dry. Both vary with variety and cooking method.

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Cooked against dry, and how to tell which is meant

This is the only real trap in measuring rice, and it is a large one. Rice absorbs water as it cooks and gains roughly two to three times its own weight, depending on the variety and how much water it is given. Nothing about a gram figure on its own says which state it refers to.

What 300 g of rice means
If dry
1.62 cups uncooked
Cooks up to
roughly 900 g
Serves
about four people
If cooked
came from about 100 g dry
Serves
about one to two people
Difference
roughly threefold

A recipe read the wrong way round produces either a third of the food expected or three times it. This is a much larger error than any measuring inaccuracy on this shelf, and it comes entirely from a word that recipes often leave out.

The reliable signal is where the rice appears in the method. If step one involves water, stock or a pan, the figure is dry. If the rice is added to something already cooked, the figure is cooked. When neither is clear, assume dry for a main dish and cooked for a salad or a filling.

Getting the water right from the dry weight

Once you have the dry weight, the water follows from it, and working by weight is considerably more reliable than the finger method or the lines inside a pan. Long-grain white rice takes around one and a half times its weight in water by the absorption method, and more if it is to be drained.

Do

  • Establish whether the recipe means cooked or dry rice first
  • Use 75 g dry per person as a working portion
  • Measure water against the dry weight rather than by eye
  • Rinse long-grain rice before cooking to remove surface starch

Don't

  • Use a rice cooker cup as though it were a US cup
  • Assume brown rice takes the same water and time as white
  • Convert a cooked-rice weight with this dry figure
  • Add the water before you know which state the recipe meant

Brown rice is the exception worth stating separately. It keeps its bran layer, so it takes noticeably more water and roughly twice the cooking time, and it absorbs less overall. Applying a white-rice ratio to it produces something undercooked with liquid still in the pan.

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Questions people ask

How many cups is 100 grams of rice?

0.54 cups of uncooked white rice, a little over half, since a cup holds 185 g. That figure is for dry rice. The same 100 g would come to roughly 300 g once cooked, because rice absorbs about twice its own weight in water during cooking.

Does this figure mean cooked or uncooked rice?

Uncooked. Every number on this page is dry rice, and the distinction matters more than any measuring detail: rice roughly triples in weight as it cooks, so reading a recipe the wrong way round gives either a third of the food you expected or three times it.

How much dry rice is one serving?

Around 75 g per person, which is about 0.4 cups and cooks up to roughly 225 g on the plate. Four servings is 300 g dry, a shade over one and a half cups. Working from the dry weight also makes the water easy, at about one and a half times the rice by weight.

Is the cup that came with my rice cooker a US cup?

No. Rice cooker measures are usually the Japanese go, about 180 ml, holding roughly 150 g of rice against 185 g for a US cup. The water lines inside the pot are calibrated to that measure, so using a standard cup puts in about twenty percent more rice than the marked line expects.

Does brown rice convert the same way?

Close for volume, different for cooking. Brown rice keeps its bran layer, so it is slightly lighter per cup, but it takes noticeably more water and about twice the cooking time. Applying a white-rice water ratio and timing to it leaves it undercooked with liquid still sitting in the pan.

Sources

Where the constants and formulas on this page come from. Each line names the figure it backs.

  1. One cup of uncooked white rice weighs 185 g, against 90 g for rolled oats and 120 g for all-purpose flour.

    Ingredient Weight ChartKing Arthur Baking

  2. Cooked white rice contains substantially more water than the raw grain, which is the basis of the roughly threefold weight gain during cooking.

    FoodData Central — Rice, white, long-grainUS Department of Agriculture

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