One cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 125 grams. That is the figure most recipes assume and the one the cups to grams converter uses. If your recipe gives a different number, it is almost always because of the flour type or the way the flour was measured into the cup.
Why 125 grams, and when it changes
A US cup is a fixed volume, about 237 millilitres. What changes is how much flour fits in that volume, which depends on the flour and on how packed it is. The common reference figures are:
| Flour | Grams per cup |
|---|---|
| All-purpose (plain) | 125 |
| Bread flour | 127 |
| Cake flour | 114 |
| Whole wheat | 120 |
| Almond flour | 96 |
These are spooned-and-levelled figures. If you dip the cup straight into the bag and scoop, you compress the flour and can end up with 140 grams or more in the same cup. That extra 15 grams is enough to make a cake dry or a dough stiff.
The reliable way to measure flour
Weighing is the most accurate method, because it skips the packing problem entirely. If you only have cups, use the spoon-and-level method:
- Stir the flour in its container to loosen it.
- Spoon it lightly into the measuring cup until it overflows.
- Level the top with the straight back of a knife. Do not tap or pack.
This gets you close to the 125-gram figure that recipes expect.
Dry versus liquid cups
A dry measuring cup and a liquid measuring cup hold the same volume, but they are used differently. Dry cups are filled to the brim and levelled off. Liquid cups are filled to a printed line and read at eye level. For flour, always use a dry cup and level it. This difference in technique is the main reason weighing in grams is steadier than measuring by cup, especially for baking.
Convert any amount
To turn a cup measurement into grams for a specific flour, open the cups to grams converter, pick the flour, and enter the amount. It also handles tablespoons, teaspoons and millilitres, and works the other way if you need to turn grams back into cups. For the figures behind other baking staples, see cups to grams for common ingredients.