1 US cup of all-purpose flour = 120 grams, lightly spooned and levelled. Scooping directly from the bag can pack the flour to 150–160 g per cup — a 25–30% excess that affects baked goods.
Ingredient: All-purpose flour — 120 g per US cup
This calculator uses the US recipe cup (240 ml); the precise customary cup is 236.6 ml.
| Cups | Grams |
|---|---|
| ¼ cup | 30 g |
| ⅓ cup | 40 g |
| ½ cup | 60 g |
| ⅔ cup | 80 g |
| ¾ cup | 90 g |
| 1 cup | 120 g |
| 1½ cup | 180 g |
| 2 cup | 240 g |
| Grams | Cups |
|---|---|
| 25 g | 0.21 cup |
| 50 g | 0.42 cup |
| 100 g | 0.83 cup |
| 150 g | 1.25 cup |
| 200 g | 1.67 cup |
| 250 g | 2.08 cup |
Flour is the most variable ingredient when measured by volume. The difference between spooning flour lightly into a cup and levelling, versus scooping the cup through the flour bag, can be 30–40% more flour — enough to make a cake dry and dense. The 120 g/cup figure used here follows the King Arthur Baking standard (lightly spooned and levelled).
For reliable baking, weigh flour in grams. A simple digital kitchen scale removes the scooping variable entirely: 120 g is 120 g regardless of method. If you must use cups, spoon the flour into the measuring cup from a separate container rather than scooping, then level with a straight edge.
In Nordic recipes using dl, the conversion is: 1 dl all-purpose flour = 50 g. A Danish recipe asking for "4 dl mel" (flour) means 200 g. Bread flour, whole wheat flour, and cake flour have slightly different densities per cup (all close to 120 g, but cake flour is lighter at around 100 g/cup).
For baking precision, always weigh ingredients in grams rather than measuring by volume. Ingredient figures are culinary approximations based on King Arthur Baking and USDA references.
1 US cup of all-purpose flour equals 120 grams when lightly spooned into the cup and levelled off. Scooping directly from the bag packs the flour and gives 150–160 g.
100 grams of all-purpose flour equals 0.83 cups — just under 1 cup.
2 US cups of all-purpose flour equals 240 grams (spooned and levelled).
1 dl of all-purpose flour equals 50 grams (100 ml × 120 g ÷ 240 ml).