Why does one cup of flour weigh less than one cup of sugar?

Because weight depends on density, not volume. A cup is a fixed volume of about 237 ml, but flour is light and airy at roughly 0.53 g/ml while granulated sugar is dense at about 0.85 g/ml. So a cup of flour is around 125 g while a cup of sugar is around 200 g. This converter stores a density for each ingredient and uses it whenever you cross between volume and weight, which is why it is far more accurate than a generic cup-to-gram table.

Which cup size does this tool use?

It uses the US customary cup of 236.588 ml, which is the standard in most online recipes. The UK metric cup (250 ml) and the Australian cup (also 250 ml) are slightly larger, so if your recipe specifies one of those, convert via millilitres: enter the amount in ml directly rather than as cups. Tablespoon and teaspoon values follow the US convention of 14.79 ml and 4.93 ml respectively.

How accurate are the gram conversions?

They are as accurate as the ingredient densities allow, which is typically within a few percent for baking. Real densities vary with how you scoop, sift and pack an ingredient. Spooned-and-levelled flour weighs less than scooped flour, and packed brown sugar weighs more than loose. For precise baking, weigh ingredients on a kitchen scale and treat these figures as a reliable starting point.

Can I scale a recipe up or down?

Yes. Add every ingredient as a row in the recipe section, then set a scale factor. Tap a preset such as x0.5 to halve a recipe or x2 to double it, or type any factor like 1.5. Every amount, plus its gram and millilitre equivalent, updates instantly so you can cook for a different number of servings without manual maths.

Is my recipe data sent anywhere?

No. The entire tool runs in your browser using JavaScript. Nothing you type is uploaded, and your ingredient list is saved only in your own browser via local storage so it is still there when you return. You can clear it any time with the Reset button.

How do I convert tablespoons to teaspoons or cups?

These are all volume units, so the conversion is a fixed ratio that does not depend on the ingredient. One US tablespoon equals exactly three teaspoons, and one cup equals sixteen tablespoons or forty-eight teaspoons. Pick tablespoons as the from-unit and teaspoons or cups as the to-unit in the quick converter and you will get the exact answer instantly.

Cooking Unit Converter

A density-aware cooking unit converter that does what a plain cups-to-grams chart cannot: it knows that a cup of flour and a cup of honey weigh completely different amounts. Choose any two units — cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, fluid ounces, millilitres, litres, grams, kilograms, ounces or pounds — and it converts instantly. When the conversion crosses from a volume to a weight, it uses the real density of the ingredient you select so the gram figure is genuinely correct rather than a one-size-fits-all guess. On top of the single-value converter it includes a full recipe scaler: list every ingredient once, set a scale factor, and read off the new amounts together with their exact gram and millilitre equivalents, then export the whole table to CSV.

How it works

Every unit has a base size. Volume units are measured in millilitres per unit — a US cup is 236.588 ml, a tablespoon 14.79 ml, a teaspoon 4.93 ml. Weight units are measured in grams per unit — an ounce is 28.35 g, a pound 453.6 g. Converting between two units of the same kind is a simple ratio of their base sizes, so tablespoons to teaspoons or grams to ounces is exact and ingredient-independent.

The interesting part is crossing between volume and weight. To turn a volume into a weight you need density, expressed here in grams per millilitre. The tool ships with reference densities for fifteen common ingredients: water and milk at 1.0 g/ml, all-purpose flour at about 0.53, granulated sugar at 0.85, butter at 0.96, honey at 1.42, and more. When you convert, say, cups of flour to grams, the cups become millilitres, the millilitres are multiplied by the flour density, and you get grams. Reverse the direction and it divides instead. Because each ingredient carries its own density, swapping flour for sugar changes the answer exactly as it would in a real kitchen.

The recipe section reuses the same engine row by row. Each ingredient keeps its own unit and density, the global scale factor multiplies every amount, and the gram and millilitre columns are recomputed live so you can double a recipe or cut it in half with one tap.

Example

Suppose a cookie recipe calls for 2 cups flour, 1 cup granulated sugar and half a cup of butter, and you want to double it. Set the scale to ×2 and the tool shows 4 cups flour (about 530 g), 2 cups sugar (about 400 g) and 1 cup butter (about 227 g). Switch a single line from cups to grams and the others stay untouched. Need teaspoons instead of tablespoons for the baking powder? The quick converter shows that 1 tablespoon is exactly 3 teaspoons. Every figure is calculated on your device — nothing is uploaded, and your ingredient list is saved locally for next time.