Fresh Orange Juice

One US cup of fresh orange juice weighs 248 grams (8.7 ounces). Going the other way, 100 grams is about 0.40 cups.

Also called orange juice, freshly squeezed orange juice, OJ, orange juice raw, squeezed orange juice, not-from-concentrate orange juice.

Citrus juices compared: cup weights side by side, the source behind each, and why they differ.

Fruit juices compared: cup weights side by side, the source behind each, and why they differ.

Fresh orange juice weighs 248 g per US cup (8.7 oz), a density of 1.048 g/mL. USDA's standard reference record, USDA's survey database and two laboratory density measurements all land within 1% of each other, so this entry publishes a single figure at high confidence.

Orange juice here means the juice pressed from oranges with nothing added: squeezed at home, or the not-from-concentrate juice sold chilled. USDA describes the raw juice as about 88 g of water per 100 g carrying about 10 g of carbohydrate, almost all of it the fruit's own sugars. Orange juice carries far less acid than lemon or lime juice, so its extra weight over water comes mainly from sugar.

USDA SR Legacy "Orange juice, raw" (FDC 169098) publishes 1 cup = 248 g and 1 fluid ounce = 31 g. The two portions agree exactly, because eight fluid ounces of 31 g is 248 g, which gives 1.048 g/mL. USDA's survey database, FNDDS, which scores the US national dietary survey, carries "Orange juice, 100%, freshly squeezed" (FDC 2709187) at the same 31 g per fluid ounce. USDA's Foundation Foods record for chilled not-from-concentrate juice (FDC 2003597) gives composition only, no volume weight, but its 88.5 g water and 10.0 g carbohydrate per 100 g match the raw juice closely, which is why one figure covers both fresh and chilled juice.

Two laboratory studies measured orange juice directly with a pycnometer. Ramos and Ibarz (Journal of Food Engineering, 1998) report 1.057 g/mL at 10 °C for juice at 10 °Brix, falling to 1.046 g/mL at 50 °C; a 2019 study at 9.8 °Brix found 1.054 g/mL at 20 °C. That is 249 to 250 g per cup, chilled or at room temperature, within 1% of USDA. The physics is simple: dissolved sugar is denser than water, so a juice carrying about 10% sugar must weigh about 5% more per cup than water does, and warming it lowers the density slightly.

Retail labels are no help here. Tropicana, Simply Orange and Natalie's state their servings in millilitres, never grams, so they cannot act as an independent weight source. King Arthur's ingredient weight chart has no row for orange juice either; its only orange entry is candied orange peel, a different product, so there is no King Arthur figure to check.

Practical guidance: a cup of orange juice weighs about 12 g more than a cup of water (236 g). For orange cakes, glazes, curds and marinades, 1/4 cup is 62 g and 1 tablespoon is 15.5 g. USDA's survey data puts the juice of one orange at 86 g, about a third of a cup, so a full cup takes roughly three oranges. Recipes that say "juice of 2 oranges" are asking for about 170 g, but the yield of a single orange varies with its size and season, so weighing the juice is the reliable way to hit a recipe.

Among citrus juices, orange is the heaviest per cup: fresh grapefruit juice weighs 247 g, lemon juice 244 g and lime juice 242 g. The difference follows sugar content, and the citrus juice comparison page shows all four side by side.