Cup and spoon to grams for Indian kitchen staples

Recipes written in cups travel badly. A cup of besan weighs far less than a cup of sugar, and the cup itself is not the same size everywhere. Choose your ingredient and your cup, and the converter scales USDA’s published weight to it. Switch the measure to grams to go the other way.

Values checked 26 October 2026. Next review due 26 October 2027.

This page is past its review date (26 October 2027). Official values can change, so check the linked sources before relying on these figures.

Weights for one cup, tablespoon and teaspoon

The table follows the cup and spoon you choose above. Without JavaScript it shows a 250 ml cup with 15 ml and 5 ml spoons.

* USDA does not list this measure for the food, so the figure is scaled from the measure it does list (see “How we calculate”).

Which cup is your cup?

Three cup sizes turn up in recipes and measuring sets, and the gap between the largest and smallest is about 6 percent.

• Metric cup, 250 ml. Choose this if your cup or recipe says 250 ml. We have not found an official definition of a 250 ml metric cup; NIST notes only that historic metric cup and spoon measures are slightly larger than the US customary ones. Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Metric Kitchen: Culinary Measurement Tips, checked 26 October 2026.
• US labelling cup, 240 ml. US nutrition labels define a cup as 240 ml, a tablespoon as 15 ml and a teaspoon as 5 ml. Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation (text via Cornell Law School LII), 21 CFR 101.9(b)(5)(viii), nutrition labeling household measures, checked 26 October 2026.
• US customary cup, 236.6 ml. The traditional US cup is 236.588 2 ml; the US tablespoon is 14.786 76 ml and the US teaspoon 4.928 922 ml. Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: Factors for units listed alphabetically (SP 811), checked 26 October 2026.

The quickest check is the marking on your own cup. If it says 200 ml, or your recipe uses a particular steel tumbler, choose “My cup” and enter its volume. You can find the volume of any cup by filling it with water and pouring that into a marked measuring jug.

Why the answer says “about”

A cup measures space, not weight. Flour pressed into a cup holds more than flour spooned in and levelled, and sifting, moisture and the fineness of the grind can all move the number. NIST calls weighing ingredients on a kitchen scale a best practice for recipe accuracy, and warns that using a dry measuring cup for liquids is a common way to introduce errors. Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Metric Kitchen: Culinary Measurement Tips, checked 26 October 2026.

So treat these weights as a well-founded starting point. If a recipe works for you by cup, keep using the cup. If you want repeatable results, weigh once, note the grams, and use the grams next time. Our measuring tools guide covers what to look for in a scale.

How we calculate

For each food, USDA lists the grams in one or more household measures. We take the measure that matches yours (or, if USDA lists none for that food, the largest one it does list), and scale it by volume. For a 250 ml cup of atta the arithmetic is 120 g × 250 ml ÷ 236.588 2 ml = 126.8 g, which we show as about 127 g.

FoodData Central is a US database, so we treat its cup, tablespoon and teaspoon as US customary measures. That is our reading, not a statement by USDA. If USDA’s cup were the 240 ml labelling cup instead, every figure here would be about 1.4 percent too high, which is well inside the variation from packing alone. Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, FoodData Central (SR Legacy foods), checked 26 October 2026.

Close matches, not exact matches

USDA weighed products sold in the United States. Here is the record we use for each staple and how closely it matches.

• Atta (whole-wheat flour): USDA “Wheat flour, whole-grain” (FDC 168893). USDA whole-grain wheat flour. Chakki-ground atta was not part of this record, and a finer or coarser grind can pack differently.
• Maida (all-purpose flour): USDA “Wheat flour, white, all-purpose, unenriched” (FDC 169761). USDA white all-purpose wheat flour.
• Besan (gram flour): USDA “Chickpea flour (besan)” (FDC 174288). USDA lists this record as chickpea flour (besan).
• Rice flour: USDA “Rice flour, white, unenriched” (FDC 169714). USDA white rice flour. Home-ground or wet-ground rice flour will differ.
• Cornflour (cornstarch): USDA “Cornstarch” (FDC 169698). USDA cornstarch, the fine white starch sold in India as cornflour.
• Rice, raw (long-grain white): USDA “Rice, white, long-grain, regular, raw, enriched” (FDC 168877). USDA long-grain white rice, uncooked. Basmati, sona masoori and other Indian varieties were not measured by USDA and may differ.
• Sooji / rava (semolina): USDA “Semolina, unenriched” (FDC 168933). USDA semolina. Fine and coarse rava pack differently.
• Rolled oats: USDA “Cereals, oats, regular and quick, not fortified, dry” (FDC 173904). USDA regular and quick oats, dry.
• Masoor dal (red lentils): USDA “Lentils, pink or red, raw” (FDC 174284). USDA pink or red lentils, raw.
• Toor / arhar (pigeon peas): USDA “Pigeon peas (red gram), mature seeds, raw” (FDC 172436). USDA record for raw mature pigeon-pea seeds; it does not say whether they were split. Split, skinned toor dal can pack differently from whole seeds.
• Moong (mung beans): USDA “Mung beans, mature seeds, raw” (FDC 174256). USDA record for raw mature mung-bean seeds; it does not say whether they were split. Split moong dal can pack differently from whole seeds.
• Urad (black gram): USDA “Mungo beans, mature seeds, raw” (FDC 174259). USDA record for raw mature "mungo beans" (black gram); it does not say whether they were split. Split urad dal can pack differently from whole seeds.
• Sugar (granulated): USDA “Sugars, granulated” (FDC 169655). USDA granulated sugar. Coarse Indian sugar crystals may pack slightly differently.
• Powdered sugar (unsifted): USDA “Sugars, powdered” (FDC 169656). USDA powdered sugar, unsifted. USDA gives 100 g for a cup of sifted powdered sugar.
• Honey: USDA “Honey” (FDC 169640). USDA honey.
• Cooking oil (soybean): USDA “Oil, soybean, salad or cooking” (FDC 171411). USDA soybean oil. USDA lists the same cup weight for canola and coconut oil.
• Groundnut (peanut) oil: USDA “Oil, peanut, salad or cooking” (FDC 171410). USDA peanut oil.
• Coconut oil: USDA “Oil, coconut” (FDC 171412). USDA coconut oil; the record does not say whether it was liquid or solid. If yours has set solid, weigh it.
• Ghee (closest USDA match): USDA “Butter oil, anhydrous” (FDC 173412). USDA's own ghee record (FDC 171314) lists no cup or spoon weight, so we use its anhydrous butter oil record, a clarified butterfat. Treat it as a close match, not a measurement of ghee.
• Butter (unsalted): USDA “Butter, without salt” (FDC 173430). USDA unsalted butter.
• Milk (whole cow's milk): USDA “Milk, whole, 3.25% milkfat, with added vitamin D” (FDC 171265). USDA whole milk with 3.25 % milkfat. Toned, double-toned and buffalo milk were not part of this record.
• Curd / plain yoghurt (whole milk): USDA “Yogurt, plain, whole milk” (FDC 171284). USDA plain whole-milk yogurt. Hung curd and very thick set curd will not match this figure.
• Peanuts, raw: USDA “Peanuts, all types, raw” (FDC 172430). USDA raw peanuts, all types.
• Sesame seeds (til), whole: USDA “Seeds, sesame seeds, whole, dried” (FDC 170150). USDA whole dried sesame seeds.
• Fresh coconut, grated: USDA “Nuts, coconut meat, raw” (FDC 170169). USDA raw coconut meat, shredded and loosely filled. Pressing it into the cup will change the weight.
• Salt (table salt): USDA “Salt, table” (FDC 173468). USDA table salt. Coarse salt and rock salt (sendha namak) were not part of this record; weigh them.
• Turmeric powder (haldi): USDA “Spices, turmeric, ground” (FDC 172231). USDA ground turmeric.
• Red chilli powder: USDA “Spices, pepper, red or cayenne” (FDC 170932). USDA ground red (cayenne) pepper. Indian chilli powders such as Kashmiri chilli were not part of this record.
• Cumin seeds (jeera), whole: USDA “Spices, cumin seed” (FDC 170923). USDA whole cumin seed.
• Baking soda (meetha soda): USDA “Leavening agents, baking soda” (FDC 175040). USDA baking soda.

Not listed yet

We did not find a published cup or spoon weight from an authoritative source for these, so we have left them out rather than estimate. Weigh them, or tell us about an official source.

• Poha (flattened rice)
• Jaggery (gur) powder
• Ragi and other millet flours
• Split, skinned dals such as chana dal