Ingredient Weight Converter · flour
All-Purpose Flour: cups to grams
1 cup of all-purpose flour weighs 120 grams. Use the converter below for any other amount, or check the quick-reference table.
All-Purpose Flour baseline: 1 cup = 120 g.
Common amounts
| Cups | Tablespoons | Grams | Ounces (weight) | Milliliters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/4 cup | 4.0 | 30 g | 1.06 oz | 59 mL |
| 1/3 cup | 5.3 | 40 g | 1.41 oz | 79 mL |
| 1/2 cup | 8.0 | 60 g | 2.12 oz | 118 mL |
| 2/3 cup | 10.7 | 80 g | 2.82 oz | 158 mL |
| 3/4 cup | 12.0 | 90 g | 3.17 oz | 177 mL |
| 1 cup | 16.0 | 120 g | 4.23 oz | 237 mL |
| 1.5 cups | 24.0 | 180 g | 6.35 oz | 355 mL |
| 2 cups | 32.0 | 240 g | 8.47 oz | 473 mL |
| 3 cups | 48.0 | 360 g | 12.70 oz | 710 mL |
| 4 cups | 64.0 | 480 g | 16.93 oz | 946 mL |
Why measuring all-purpose flour by cup goes wrong
Flour is the recipe ingredient most likely to ruin a bake when measured by cup, and all-purpose flour is the worst offender because home bakers reach for it almost every time. A 'cup' of flour ranges from about 120 grams (spoon-and-level into the cup, sweep the top with a knife) to 160 grams (scoop the cup straight through the bag and pack it down). That 40-gram swing is a third of a cup of pure dry weight. In a chocolate-chip cookie it shows up as dryness. In a cake it shows up as a tight, gummy crumb that no amount of butter can fix.
Practical tips for working with all-purpose flour
If you only own measuring cups, fluff the flour first: jab a fork into the bag a few times to break up the compacted layer that forms during shipping. Then spoon the flour into the cup until it mounds over the rim and level it off with the back of a knife. Never tap the cup against the counter — every tap settles another two or three grams. Better, weigh it: 120 grams to one cup is what King Arthur, Bob's Red Mill, and most US recipe developers calibrate to today. Older American cookbooks (pre-1980) often use 140 grams per cup; if you're working from a vintage book, that's worth knowing before you blame your oven.
Note from this ingredient's record: Spoon-and-level. Scooping straight from the bag can add 30–40 g of compacted flour and is the single most common reason a recipe turns out dry.
Frequently asked
Is one cup of flour really 120 grams or 125 grams?
Both numbers are honest. King Arthur and most US recipe sites use 120 grams. Some European-trained pastry references round to 125 grams. Either is within the normal measurement error of a home scale, so either works — what matters is staying consistent within a single recipe.
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