2 Cups of Sugar in Grams

Two cups of granulated sugar weigh 400 grams

Two US cups of granulated sugar weigh 400 g. USDA FoodData Central record 169655 lists one cup of granulated sugar at 200 g in its household measures, and the record was last updated in April 2019, so the same cup doubles cleanly: 2 x 200 = 400 g. King Arthur Baking's ingredient weight chart prints 198 g per cup, which puts two cups at 396 g, and 400 / 396 = 1.010, a one percent gap that no kitchen will notice.

In other units 400 g is 400 / 28.3495 = 14.11 oz by weight, or 400 / 453.592 = 0.88 lb. Two cups also hold 32 level tablespoons, since a cup holds 16, and 400 / 32 = 12.5 g per tablespoon. Those tablespoons divide again into 96 teaspoons at 400 / 96 = 4.17 g each, the same 4 g a sugar packet prints after rounding.

A liquid measure marked 16 fl oz is not a claim that the sugar weighs 16 oz. The two numbers describe different things.

Brown and powdered sugar change the number, not the cup

Every figure in the next table comes from the same 236.6 mL cup. What changes is what the cup holds. Packed brown sugar lands at 440 g because molasses binds the crystals into one mass, and the same sugar spooned loose weighs 290 g. Powdered sugar moves the other way: 240 g unsifted and 200 g after sifting, because the sieve drives out the air that had been taking up space.

Density explains the whole table in one line. Two cups is 473.2 mL, so granulated sugar sits at 400 / 473.2 = 0.85 g per mL, packed brown at 440 / 473.2 = 0.93 g per mL and unsifted powdered sugar at 240 / 473.2 = 0.51 g per mL. The finest ground sugar is the lightest per cup, which reads backwards until you remember that a powder is mostly air by volume. The weights come from USDA record 168833 for brown sugar and record 169656 for powdered sugar, both read in 2026.

Superfine sugar, sold as castor sugar in the UK, sits between the two at 190 g per cup on the King Arthur chart, so two cups is 380 g. Smaller crystals pack closer and dissolve faster in a cold drink.

Doubling, halving and the batch multiplier table

Most recipes that call for two cups of sugar are written for one batch, and the first thing a cook does with a good recipe is make more of it. Grams scale in a straight line, so the arithmetic never needs a new chart: double the cups and the grams double with them.

The 200 g per cup line holds at every size, which is the useful part. Half a batch needs 1 cup and 200 g, a batch and a half needs 3 cups and 600 g, and two batches need 4 cups and 800 g, which is 28.22 oz. What changes at the top end is the bowl: 800 g of sugar creamed with 454 g of butter is 1,254 g of mixture before the first egg goes in.

Scaling down is where volume measuring struggles. A third of a two cup batch asks for 2/3 cup, the least reliable line on any dry measure. Weighing 400 / 3 = 133.3 g removes the guess entirely.

Why your two cups might weigh 360 or 440 grams

Granulated sugar pours, and pouring traps air. A cup spooned from a wide bowl and leveled with a knife sits near 180 g. A cup scooped straight from the bag and swept level reaches 200 g. A cup pressed down hard can hit 220 g. Two cups made with a light hand weigh 360 g, two cups made with a heavy hand weigh 440 g, and the spread is 80 g, or 20 percent of the 400 g target.

That is enough to change a bake. Sugar carries structure as well as sweetness, so 20 percent more gives a softer crumb that can sink as it cools, and 20 percent less gives a dry, tight one. The ingredient list never moved; only the wrist did.

Brown sugar is the exception, because packing is written into the recipe. A firmly packed cup is 220 g and a loose cup is 145 g, so two cups run from 290 g to 440 g, a factor of 440 / 290 = 1.52. When a recipe says packed it means it, and the 150 g gap between the two readings is not a rounding error.

Powdered sugar has its own fork in the road. Sifting breaks up the lumps that would otherwise sit in the frosting, and it also drops two cups from 240 g to 200 g. When a recipe lists sifted powdered sugar by volume, weigh it after sifting.

Calories and carbs: 1,548 in two cups

USDA record 169655 lists granulated sugar at 387 kcal and 99.8 g of carbohydrate per 100 g, almost all of it sucrose. Two cups at 400 g therefore carry 400 x 3.87 = 1,548 calories and 400 x 0.998 = 399.2 g of carbohydrate.

A bag of sugar prints a different total, and both numbers are defensible. FDA general factors value carbohydrate at 4 kcal per gram, which turns 399.2 g into 399.2 x 4 = 1,596.8, or about 1,597 calories. The label also rounds its serving: a teaspoon is declared as 4 g and 15 calories, and 96 teaspoons at that rate come to 96 x 15 = 1,440 calories. The spread from 1,440 to 1,597 is rounding, not a different sugar.

For one slice of cake none of this matters. For a bake sale or a wedding cake it is worth knowing which figure you are quoting. The FDA guide to the Nutrition Facts label explains the serving rules that produce the smaller number.

Ounces, pounds and the fluid ounce trap

A cup is 8 fluid ounces by definition and 236.6 mL by measurement, so two cups is 16 fl oz of volume. Sugar is not water. Two cups of granulated sugar weigh 14.11 oz on a scale, and the 1.89 oz gap between 16 and 14.11 is the trap. A cook who reads 16 fl oz and multiplies by 28.35 g gets 454 g, which is 454 / 400 = 1.135, or 13.5 percent more sugar than the recipe asked for.

Pounds work the same way. Two cups is 0.88 lb, so a recipe that calls for a pound of sugar needs 2 / 0.88 = 2.27 cups, which bakers round to two and a quarter. Brown sugar at 440 g for two cups is 0.97 lb, close enough that two packed cups pass for a pound.

A kitchen scale set to ounces reads mass, and that is the number to trust when a bag or a butter wrapper mentions ounces. Fluid ounces only appear on measuring cups and bottles.

Bag math: how far two cups goes

A standard 4 lb bag holds 4 x 453.592 = 1,814 g of sugar. At 400 g per two cups that is 1,814 / 400 = 4.54 batches, so four batches use 1,600 g and leave 214 g, a little over one cup, in the bag.

Buying by weight makes the arithmetic exact. A 2 lb bag is 907 g, or 2.27 two-cup batches, and a 10 lb bag is 4,536 g, or 11.3 batches. The same sums work for brown sugar with 440 g in place of 400 g, which brings a 4 lb bag down to 1,814 / 440 = 4.12 batches.

Storage moves the number only at the edges. Sugar is hygroscopic, so an open bag in a humid kitchen takes on moisture and clumps in the corners. A sealed container keeps the 200 g per cup figure steady for months.