This Converter breaks the conversion down type by type, explains why the numbers shift between sugars, and gives you a reference you can actually trust while baking — not just a single number pulled out of context.
Grams To Cups Converter
Convert grams to cups instantly for common cooking and baking ingredients.
The Short Answer
For everyday granulated white sugar, the number to remember is:
From there, the math is simple:
So if a recipe calls for 350 grams of sugar and you only have a measuring cup on hand, you're looking at 1.75 cups. That formula works well for granulated sugar specifically — but it starts to break down the moment you switch to brown or powdered sugar, because those pack into a cup very differently.
For additional sugar measurement guidance: Michigan State University Extension's sugar conversion guide.
Why Sugar Doesn't Convert Like Flour or Water
A cup represents volume, that is, how much space an object occupies, while a gram is used to describe the mass or weight of an object. Conversion between the two units is possible when we know how much of the respective ingredient typically fits in a cup, because the empty space between its particles also affects its volume.
Granulated sugar crystals are small, uniform, and free-flowing, so they pack fairly consistently — that's why the 200g/cup figure holds up well across most kitchens. Brown sugar, on the other hand, is coated in molasses, which makes the grains sticky and clumpy. When a recipe says "1 cup packed brown sugar," it means pressed down firmly enough to hold the shape of the cup when turned out — and that packed cup weighs noticeably more than a loosely spooned one. Powdered sugar sits at the opposite end: it's ground so fine and aerated that a cup of it weighs far less than a cup of granulated sugar, even though the "sweetness" per gram is roughly the same.
Grams to Cups by Sugar Type
| Grams | Granulated | Brown (Packed) | Powdered | Raw/Turbinado |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 g | 2 Tbsp | 2 Tbsp | 3 Tbsp | 2 Tbsp |
| 50 g | ¼ cup | ¼ cup | ⅓ cup | ¼ cup |
| 100 g | ½ cup | ½ cup | ¾ cup | ⅓ cup + 2 Tbsp |
| 150 g | ¾ cup | ¾ cup | 1¼ cups | ¾ cup |
| 200 g | 1 cup | 1 cup (scant) | 1⅔ cups | ¾ cup + 3 Tbsp |
| 250 g | 1¼ cups | 1⅛ cups | 2 cups | 1 cup |
| 300 g | 1½ cups | 1⅓ cups | 2½ cups | 1¼ cups |
| 400 g | 2 cups | 1¾ cups | 3⅓ cups | 1⅔ cups |
| 500 g | 2½ cups | 2¼ cups | 4⅛ cups | 2 cups |
These are working estimates, not laboratory-grade figures — humidity, how tightly the sugar was packed, and even the brand can shift the real number by a few grams either way. If you're making something where precision genuinely matters (see below), a scale beats any chart.
A Closer Look at Each Sugar Type
Granulated (White) Sugar — about 200g per cup
This is the sugar most conversion formulas are built around, and for good reason: it's consistent. Spoon it into a cup, level it off with the back of a knife, and you'll be within a few grams of 200 almost every time. This is the one sugar where "just use a cup" is genuinely reliable.
Brown Sugar — about 200–220g per cup (packed)
Brown sugar is where most home bakers get tripped up. If a recipe says "packed," it means pressing the sugar into the cup with a spoon until it holds its shape when tipped out — light, loosely spooned brown sugar can weigh 30–40 grams less than a properly packed cup, which is enough to noticeably change a cookie's texture. If your brown sugar has hardened into a brick, breaking it up before measuring makes a real difference in accuracy.
Powdered (Confectioners') Sugar — about 120g per cup
Powdered sugar is mostly air by volume. It's also prone to clumping, especially if it's been sitting in a humid pantry, so sifting before you measure isn't just a nicety — it changes how much sugar actually ends up in your cup. Measuring powdered sugar by weight instead of volume is one of the easiest ways to fix inconsistent frosting or glaze results.
Raw / Turbinado Sugar — about 250g per cup
Raw sugar has larger, coarser crystals than granulated sugar, so more empty space sits between the grains — but the crystals themselves are denser, which pushes the weight-per-cup figure higher than you'd expect. It's commonly used to top muffins or sweeten coffee rather than as a full substitute in baking, since its coarser texture doesn't dissolve as easily in a batter.
Should You Weigh Sugar Instead of Measuring by Cup?
For most everyday cooking — sweetening a sauce, stirring sugar into coffee, a casual batch of cookies — a measuring cup is perfectly fine. Where weighing genuinely pays off is in recipes where sugar does more than add sweetness:
- Baking that relies on structure (macarons, meringues, delicate cakes): sugar affects how proteins set and how much moisture is in the batter. A few grams off can change whether a meringue holds its peak.
- Candy-making and caramel: sugar concentration determines the exact temperature at which sugar syrup transitions between stages. Volume inconsistency here can mean the difference between a smooth caramel and a grainy one.
- Recipes originally written in grams (common in European and professional baking sources): converting to cups and back introduces rounding error twice. Weighing the original gram amount skips that entirely.
If you bake often, a basic digital kitchen scale is one of the cheaper upgrades that noticeably improves consistency — and it removes the guesswork of "packed" versus "loose" entirely.
Quick Conversion Reference
Formula:
- Granulated sugar: divide by 200
- Brown sugar (packed): divide by ~220
- Powdered sugar: divide by ~120
- Raw sugar: divide by ~250
Gram (g)
A metric unit of mass equal to one-thousandth of a kilogram. It's the standard weight unit used in most baking recipes outside the US, and increasingly in professional kitchens everywhere because of how precise it is.
Cup (c)
A US customary unit of volume, equal to 16 tablespoons or roughly 236.6 milliliters. It's convenient and widely used in American home recipes, but because it measures space rather than mass, its accuracy depends heavily on how an ingredient is packed into it.
The Bottom Line
There's no single "grams to cups" number that works for every kind of sugar — treating them all as 200g/cup is the single most common source of baking measurement errors. Know which sugar you're working with, measure it the way the recipe intends (packed vs. loose), and reach for a scale when precision actually affects the outcome. For everything else, the chart above will get you close enough every time.
Other Ingredients
Grams-to-cups conversion isn't only useful for sugar. Each of these has its own weight-per-cup because densities differ: