Cooking converter · USDA gram weights

Powdered Sugar Cups to Grams

Quick answer

1 cup of powdered sugar weighs 120 g (4.23 oz). 1 tablespoon is 8 g and 1 teaspoon is 2.5 g.

1 cup: 120g; 4.23 oz
1 tablespoon: 8g
1 teaspoon: 2.5g
100 g: 0.83cups; of a US cup

Powdered sugar is very fine and compacts in the bag, so USDA lists an unsifted cup and a sifted one. Sifting adds air and makes the cup lighter, which is why recipes for icing so often say to sift first.

Convert any amount of powdered sugar

Starts at 1 cup of powdered sugar in grams (120 g); change the units to go from grams back to cups.

Amount of powdered sugarFromTo

1 cup of powdered sugar is 120 grams

Cups: 1
Tablespoons: 15
Teaspoons: 48
Grams: 120
Ounces: 4.23

Powdered Sugar: cups to grams and ounces

Cups of powdered sugar in grams and ounces
Cups	Grams	Ounces
1/4 cup	30	1.06
1/3 cup	40	1.41
1/2 cup	60	2.12
2/3 cup	80	2.82
3/4 cup	90	3.17
1 cup	120	4.23
1 1/2 cups	180	6.35
2 cups	240	8.47
3 cups	360	12.7
4 cups	480	16.93

Tablespoons and teaspoons of powdered sugar in grams and ounces
Spoons	Grams	Ounces
1/2 tablespoon	4	0.14
1 tablespoon	8	0.28
2 tablespoons	16	0.56
3 tablespoons	24	0.85
4 tablespoons	32	1.13
6 tablespoons	48	1.69
8 tablespoons	64	2.26
1/4 teaspoon	0.63	0.02
1/2 teaspoon	1.3	0.04
3/4 teaspoon	1.9	0.07
1 teaspoon	2.5	0.09
2 teaspoons	5	0.18
3 teaspoons	7.5	0.26

Powdered Sugar: grams and ounces to cups

For a recipe written in grams or ounces, here is how much of a US cup each weight of powdered sugar fills.

Grams of powdered sugar in cups, tablespoons and ounces
Grams	Cups	Tablespoons	Ounces
25 g	0.21	3.13	0.88
50 g	0.42	6.25	1.76
100 g	0.83	12.5	3.53
125 g	1.04	15.63	4.41
150 g	1.25	18.75	5.29
200 g	1.67	25	7.05
250 g	2.08	31.25	8.82
300 g	2.5	37.5	10.58
400 g	3.33	50	14.11
500 g	4.17	62.5	17.64

Ounces of powdered sugar in grams, cups and tablespoons
Ounces (weight)	Grams	Cups	Tablespoons
1 oz	28.3	0.24	3.54
2 oz	56.7	0.47	7.09
3 oz	85	0.71	10.63
4 oz	113.4	0.94	14.17
6 oz	170.1	1.42	21.26
8 oz	226.8	1.89	28.35
12 oz	340.2	2.83	42.52
16 oz	453.6	3.78	56.7

What a cup of powdered sugar weighs, and why it can differ

USDA’s weight for “1 cup unsifted” is 120 g. Next to a cup of water, which holds about 236.6 g, that is 51% of the weight of a cup of water, so a lot of the cup is air. The same cup works out at 0.51 g per millilitre.

Depending on how it is prepared, a cup of powdered sugar ranges from 100 g (sifted) to 120 g (unsifted) in USDA’s own entry: 20 g apart, and the heavier cup holds 1.20 times the lighter.

For a recipe that asks for 2 cups, that is a difference of 40 g between the lightest and the heaviest way to fill them, which is why the safest route is to weigh powdered sugar instead.

Other USDA cup measures for powdered sugar
USDA measure	Grams	Ounces
1 cup unsifted (used on this page)	120	4.23
1 cup sifted	100	3.53

USDA lists slightly different weights for the tablespoon and the teaspoon here: 3 teaspoons come to 7.5 g and 1 tablespoon is 8 g. The gap is rounding in the source figures.

Frequently asked questions

How many grams are in 1 cup of powdered sugar?

USDA measures 1 cup of powdered sugar (its portion is listed as “1 cup unsifted”) at 120 g, which is 4.23 oz.

How many cups is 500 g of powdered sugar?

500 g of powdered sugar is 4.17 cups, using 120 g per cup of powdered sugar. A 1 kg bag of powdered sugar would fill 8.33 cups, and a 1 lb pack of powdered sugar would fill 3.78.

How much does a part of a cup of powdered sugar weigh?

Half a cup of powdered sugar is 60 g, a third of a cup of powdered sugar is 40 g and a quarter cup of powdered sugar is 30 g. For small amounts, 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar is 8 g (0.28 oz) and 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar are 16 g.

If my recipe uses 250 ml metric cups, how much powdered sugar is that?

A 250 ml cup is about 5.7% larger than a US cup, so a metric cup of powdered sugar comes to about 126.8 g, going by USDA’s 120 g for a US cup of powdered sugar. The weights on this page are for the US cup of about 237 ml.

Why does a cup of powdered sugar weigh different amounts?

Depending on how it is prepared, a cup of powdered sugar ranges from 100 g (sifted) to 120 g (unsifted) in USDA’s own entry: 20 g apart, and the heavier cup holds 1.20 times the lighter. Scooping, packing and preparing it change the weight, and the figure used on this page is the “1 cup unsifted” measure.

What weighs about the same as a cup of powdered sugar?

Among these converters, whole wheat flour (120 g per cup) and cornmeal (122 g per cup) come closest to 120 g. Same volume, different ingredient: the weights are close, but the foods are not interchangeable.

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Weights are USDA averages for the entry named below. Packing, sifting, brand and moisture change the weight of a real cup, so treat them as a good starting point, not a lab measurement.

USDA describes this entry as “Sugars, powdered” (FoodData Central SR Legacy 2018-04).

Source: USDA FoodData Central, FDC 169656, retrieved October 22, 2026. How we calculate.