One US cup of butter weighs 227 grams, which is two standard sticks, 16 tablespoons, 8 ounces or half a pound. A single stick is 113 g and a tablespoon is about 14.2 g. Those are the figures in USDA FoodData Central and in King Arthur Baking’s weight chart, so butter is one of the few ingredients where American references agree.
How many grams is a cup of butter? #
| Butter | Grams | Ounces | Tablespoons |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 tablespoon | 14.2 g | 0.5 oz | 1 |
| 1/4 cup (half a stick) | 57 g | 2 oz | 4 |
| 1/2 cup (1 stick) | 113 g | 4 oz | 8 |
| 1 cup (2 sticks) | 227 g | 8 oz | 16 |
| 2 cups (1 pound) | 454 g | 16 oz | 32 |
A pound is exactly 453.59237 g, so four quarter-pound sticks come to 113.4 g each. Food labels and charts round that to 113 g.
Why isn’t a cup of butter 236 g like a cup of water? #
Because the cup of butter is defined by the package, not the measuring cup. US butter is sold by weight, 4 ounces to the stick, and the wrapper calls that stick 1/2 cup and 8 tablespoons. Recipe writers go by the wrapper, so “1 cup butter” means two sticks, 227 g.
If you packed softened butter into a measuring cup instead, you’d get a bit less, roughly 216 g. Butter is less dense than water (it floats), so a full cup of it weighs less than a cup of water. That’s one more reason to go by sticks or grams and never press butter into a cup.
Cups of butter to grams chart #
| Cups | Sticks | Tablespoons | Grams |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1/8 cup | 1/4 | 2 | 28 g |
| 1/4 cup | 1/2 | 4 | 57 g |
| 1/3 cup | 2/3 | 5 1/3 (5 tbsp + 1 tsp) | 76 g |
| 1/2 cup | 1 | 8 | 113 g |
| 2/3 cup | 1 1/3 | 10 2/3 (10 tbsp + 2 tsp) | 151 g |
| 3/4 cup | 1 1/2 | 12 | 170 g |
| 1 cup | 2 | 16 | 227 g |
| 1 1/4 cups | 2 1/2 | 20 | 284 g |
| 1 1/2 cups | 3 | 24 | 340 g |
| 2 cups | 4 | 32 | 454 g |
How do you convert grams of butter to tablespoons or sticks? #
Divide the grams by 14.2 for tablespoons or by 113 for sticks. Since stick wrappers are marked in tablespoons, the tablespoon figure is the practical one: slice at the nearest line.
| Grams | Tablespoons | Sticks | Easiest cut |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 g | 1.1 | 0.13 | 1 tbsp |
| 25 g | 1.8 | 0.22 | just under 2 tbsp |
| 30 g | 2.1 | 0.26 | 2 tbsp |
| 50 g | 3.5 | 0.44 | 3 1/2 tbsp |
| 75 g | 5.3 | 0.66 | 5 1/3 tbsp (1/3 cup) |
| 100 g | 7.0 | 0.88 | 7 tbsp |
| 125 g | 8.8 | 1.10 | 1 stick + 2 1/2 tsp |
| 150 g | 10.6 | 1.32 | 1 stick + 2 1/2 tbsp |
| 200 g | 14.1 | 1.76 | 1 3/4 sticks |
| 250 g | 17.6 | 2.20 | 2 sticks + 1 1/2 tbsp |
Measuring a 250 g block from Europe, the UK or Australia #
Outside the US, butter is commonly sold in 250 g blocks, without tablespoon lines. That’s 2.2 US sticks, or 1.1 cups. To cut 113 g (one stick’s worth) from a 250 g block, cut it a hair under halfway. For anything more precise, a kitchen scale is the only honest tool, since blocks aren’t marked.
Does melted butter weigh the same? #
Yes. Melting doesn’t change the weight, so 113 g of solid butter is still 113 g melted. The volume shifts a little, and what’s in the cup matters less than when you measure. “1/2 cup butter, melted” means measure one stick, then melt it. “1/2 cup melted butter” technically means melt first and then measure, but most recipe writers use the phrases interchangeably, and one stick is the right answer for both in practice.
Salted and unsalted butter weigh the same per stick. The salt content changes the flavor of the recipe, not the conversion.
Worked examples #
A pie crust calls for 3/4 cup of cold butter. That’s 1 1/2 sticks, 12 tablespoons, or 170 g.
A British shortbread recipe calls for 125 g of butter. One US stick is 113 g, so you need one stick plus 12 g more. That extra is about 2 1/2 teaspoons, or a thin slice under a tablespoon.
A French recipe calls for 200 g of butter. 200 ÷ 113 = 1.77 sticks. Use 1 3/4 sticks (198 g), close enough for anything but laminated pastry.
You’re scaling a cake from 2 sticks to 1 1/2 times the recipe. 3 sticks, 340 g.
Converting butter on your phone #
Convert Units Calculator includes butter in its Cooking category at 227 g per cup, shown right on the screen, and converts cups, tablespoons and teaspoons of it to grams, kilograms, ounces or pounds. It understands recipe fractions, so typing “1/3” cup gives you 75.7 g, and it can show a gram amount as the nearest cup mark when you go the other way. The Cooking category arrived in version 1.0.5; if you don’t see it, your copy hasn’t been updated.
More kitchen conversions: tablespoons in a cup covers the spoon math, the cups to grams conversion chart has 23 ingredients, and grams to ounces helps if your scale is set to ounces.
Frequently asked questions #
How many grams are in a stick of butter? #
A standard US stick is 4 ounces, which is 113.4 g and usually written as 113 g. It’s also 8 tablespoons, or 1/2 cup.
How many grams is 1 tablespoon of butter? #
About 14.2 g, according to USDA FoodData Central. Two tablespoons is about 28 g, which is 1 ounce.
How many cups is 250 g of butter? #
About 1.1 US cups, or 2.2 sticks. That’s two full sticks plus roughly 1 1/2 tablespoons.
How many sticks of butter are in a pound? #
Four. Each stick is a quarter pound (4 ounces, 113 g), so a 1-pound box holds 2 cups of butter.
Is 1/2 cup of butter 100 g? #
No, it’s 113 g. Using 100 g for half a cup shorts the butter by about 12%, which is enough to make cookies spread less and pastry drier. If a metric recipe calls for 100 g, use 7 tablespoons.