Sugar grams per cup: granulated, brown, powdered and specialty sugars compared

A US cup of sugar weighs anywhere from 120 grams for powdered sugar to 220 grams for packed brown sugar. Crystal size, moisture and how firmly the cup is filled decide where each one lands, so swapping one sugar for another by the cup can be off by 40 percent.

All weights are for a US cup of 236.5882365 ml; a tablespoon is a sixteenth of it. A range means the sources disagree by more than this site’s tolerance for that kind of ingredient, so no single figure is chosen. King Arthur’s figure is shown where this site records one, with the verdict on it. Each ingredient’s own page has every source and the full reasoning.

White sugars differ only in crystal size, and it matters less than you might expect until the crystals become powder. Granulated sugar weighs 200 grams a cup, with USDA and King Arthur within 1 percent. Caster sugar, the same sucrose ground finer, weighs 190 grams, and Swedish pearl sugar, pressed nibs of small crystals, weighs 192. Powdered sugar is different: ground to a flour-like powder with a little cornstarch, it traps so much air that an unsifted cup weighs 120 grams and a sifted cup 100, by USDA's own measurements.

Raw cane sugars keep a thin film of molasses on larger crystals. Demerara weighs 192 grams a cup, where four producer labels agree; King Arthur's 220 grams is rejected, because nothing lets demerara pack 22 percent denser than the turbinado King Arthur weighs at 180. Turbinado is published as a range, 180 to 202 grams, because coarse retail crystals and finer turbinado both sell under the name, and larger crystals of one size leave more air between them.

Moist sugars pack. Brown sugar is measured firmly packed in nearly every recipe, and the molasses lets the crystals press together, so a packed cup weighs 220 grams, the heaviest figure here. Muscovado, darker and stickier, runs from 200 to 235 grams depending on how moist it is and how hard it is pressed.

The other sugars are lighter and less predictable. Coconut sugar weighs 132 to 154 grams, maple sugar 144 to 156, and date sugar, which is ground dried dates rather than crystals, anywhere from 144 to 240 grams across brands. Allulose, and monk fruit sweetener bulked with erythritol, both weigh 192 grams a cup, within 3 percent of granulated sugar.

For baking, weigh sugar, and above all weigh brown sugar and the specialty sugars. A cup of powdered sugar used in place of a cup of granulated is about 40 percent short by weight, and a cup of coconut sugar a quarter to a third short.