1 Cup of Sugar in Grams

One cup of granulated sugar is 200 grams

A US cup of granulated sugar weighs 200 g in USDA FoodData Central record 169655, where the household measure for one cup is listed at that weight. King Arthur Baking charts the same cup at 198 g, so the two sources sit within one percent of each other and either number works in a recipe.

In other units 200 g is 200 / 28.3495 = 7.05 oz by weight and 200 / 453.592 = 0.44 lb. A cup holds 16 tablespoons, so a tablespoon of sugar is 200 / 16 = 12.5 g, and one of its 48 teaspoons is 200 / 48 = 4.17 g, which is the 4 g printed on most nutrition labels.

Those divisions hold because granulated sugar is the best behaved dry ingredient in the kitchen. Its crystals are uniform and free flowing, so a spooned cup and a scooped cup land within a few grams of each other. Flour is not like that at all, which is why 120 g and 125 g per cup appear on the same shelf.

The number changes with the sugar, not with the cup

Every row in the next table is the same 236.6 mL cup. Granulated sugar fills it to 200 g, a density of 200 / 236.588 = 0.85 g per mL. Packed brown sugar reaches 220 g because molasses glues the crystals into a solid mass, and the same brown sugar left loose in the bag weighs 145 g.

Powdered sugar is the opposite case. Its crystals are ground fine and cut with a little cornstarch, and air sits in the space between particles, so an unsifted cup weighs 120 g, a density of 120 / 236.588 = 0.51 g per mL. Sifting knocks that air out and the same cup drops to 100 g, which is why a frosting recipe says sifted in one line and unsifted in the next.

Superfine sugar sits between the two at 190 g per cup. The crystals are smaller than granulated, so more of them fit into the same volume, and it dissolves faster in a cold drink or a meringue. None of this is about the cup, and all of it is about what the cup holds.

Scooping moves a cup of sugar by 20 grams

Granulated sugar is consistent, not constant. A cup packed hard into the measure can reach 220 g, and a cup spooned from a wide bowl and leveled can sit near 180 g, so the same recipe varies by 200 x 0.10 = 20 g in either direction, from 180 g to 220 g.

Twenty grams sounds small until it lands in a delicate bake. In a sponge where sugar carries most of the structure, 10 percent more sugar gives a softer crumb that sinks as it cools, and 10 percent less gives a dry, tight cake. The fix costs nothing: spoon the sugar into the cup, sweep the top level with the back of a knife, and weigh the first cup to see where your hand sits.

Brown sugar is the exception that proves the rule, because packing is part of the instruction. A packed cup at 220 g and a loose cup at 145 g differ by 220 - 145 = 75 g, which is 220 / 145 = 1.52, more than half again as much sugar in the same volume. Recipes say packed for a reason, and the reason is moisture and density rather than tradition.

774 calories and 199.6 grams of carbs in one cup

USDA lists granulated sugar at 387 kcal per 100 g, of which 99.8 g is carbohydrate and almost all of that is sucrose. One cup at 200 g carries 200 x 3.87 = 774 calories and 200 x 0.998 = 199.6 g of carbohydrate.

The label arithmetic gives a slightly lower figure. FDA rules let a manufacturer round a small serving, so 1 tsp of 4 g is declared as 15 calories, and 200 / 4 = 50 teaspoons make 50 x 15 = 750 calories for the cup. The 24 calorie gap comes from rounding 4.17 g down to 4 g, not from a different sugar.

A 4 pound bag holds 4 x 453.592 = 1,814 g, which is 1,814 / 200 = 9.07 cups and 9.07 x 774 = 7,020 calories. That is the number to keep in mind before a bake sale, and it is also why sugar is the first ingredient most bakers start weighing.

One cup in the bowl: syrup, creaming and meringue

Simple syrup is the clearest test of weight against volume. Equal volumes of sugar and water, one cup each, give 200 g of sugar and 237 g of water, a syrup that is 200 / 437 = 45.8 percent sugar. Weighing 200 g of each instead makes a true 1 to 1 syrup at 50 percent, and the two behave differently in a cocktail or a sorbet.

Creaming starts with room temperature butter. One US cup of butter is 227 g, and with 200 g of sugar the bowl holds 427 g before the eggs go in, which is why a stand mixer with a 3 quart bowl is enough for a single batch of cookies.

Meringue is a ratio recipe rather than a volume one. Four large egg whites weigh about 120 g, and 200 g of sugar is 200 / 120 = 1.67 times their weight, a firm French meringue that pipes into shells and holds a peak. Drop the sugar to 150 g and the foam turns soft, better folded into a batter than piped onto a sheet.

The same logic covers caramel. A dry caramel takes 200 g of sugar in a wide pan with nothing else, and it needs an even layer no deeper than a centimeter, which is why one cup is about the most a 10 inch skillet will do without scorching at the edges.

Metric cups, fluid ounces and the label teaspoon

A US cup is 236.588 mL and a metric cup is 250 mL, so a metric cup holds 250 / 236.588 = 1.057 times as much. One metric cup of granulated sugar weighs 200 x 250 / 236.588 = 211.3 g, and a recipe from Australia, Canada or the UK that says one cup means that larger measure.

Fluid ounces measure volume, not weight. A cup is 8 fl oz by definition, but a cup of sugar weighs 7.05 oz on a scale, and the two numbers describe different things. A US kitchen scale reads ounces of mass, so 7.05 is the figure to expect when a cup of sugar goes onto the platform.

The FDA defines a teaspoon as 5 mL for nutrition labeling under 21 CFR 101.9, and a level teaspoon of sugar scoops about 4.2 g. Labels round that to 4 g and 15 calories, which is a legal declaration rather than a measurement from your kitchen. When a recipe and a label disagree by a gram, trust the recipe and the scale.

Grams back to cups without a chart

The reverse is one division: cups = grams / 200 for granulated sugar. So 100 g is 100 / 200 = 0.5 cup, 250 g is 1.25 cups, 400 g is 2 cups and 500 g is 2.5 cups. A European recipe asking for 250 g of sugar wants a cup and a quarter, not two cups.

The divisor moves with the sugar. For packed brown sugar it is 220, so 100 g is 100 / 220 = 0.45 cup, and for unsifted powdered sugar it is 120, so 100 g is 100 / 120 = 0.83 cup. Using 200 for every sugar is the most common mistake in a converted recipe, and it shows up first in frosting and in brown sugar cookie dough.

The converter above runs both directions and covers all six sugars. Type 1 cup for 200 g, switch the menu to brown for 220 g, or enter 250 g in the grams box to read 1.25 cups. Every row in the results follows the same division and the same USDA and King Arthur records cited here.