Calculator
Recipe to Metric
Convert an entire American recipe into metric weights in one pass, matching each line to its ingredient density instead of using one generic cup factor.
8 lines converted · 8 matched to a known ingredient density
240 g all-purpose flour
All-Purpose Flour · 120 g per cup
300 g granulated sugar
Granulated Sugar · 200 g per cup
227 g butter, softened
Butter · 227 g per cup
183 g whole milk
Milk · 244 g per cup
8 g baking powder
Baking Powder · 192 g per cup
6.08 g table salt
Table Salt · 292 g per cup
42.5 g cocoa powder
Cocoa Powder · 85 g per cup
4 large eggs
8.42 g vanilla extract
Vanilla Extract · 202 g per cup
Why metric recipes are easier to follow
Weighing is faster, more accurate and means less washing up. You put the bowl on the scale, tare it, and add each ingredient in turn. There is no packing, no levelling and no guessing whether the recipe author scooped or spooned their flour.
It also makes recipes portable. A bread formula written in percentages of flour weight behaves identically in any kitchen in the world; the same recipe written in cups does not.
How we handle each line
- Matched ingredients use their own measured density, shown underneath the converted line so you can check our working.
- Unmatched volumes are converted to millilitres — correct for liquids, and still more useful than cups for everything else.
- Amounts already in grams or kilograms are left alone.
A quick sanity check
After converting, add up the flour, sugar, fat and liquid weights. In a standard butter cake they should land close to equal parts flour, sugar, fat and egg. If one number looks wildly out of line, the original recipe probably meant a different ingredient than the one we matched — swap that line for the exact ingredient on its own conversion page.
Frequently asked questions
Why not just use one cup-to-gram number for everything?
Because a cup measures volume, not weight. A cup of all-purpose flour is about 120 g, a cup of granulated sugar is 200 g, and a cup of honey is 340 g. Any single conversion factor will be wrong for most of your ingredients.
Which ingredients can it recognise?
We match against 115 ingredients plus their common British and American names — plain flour and all-purpose flour, caster sugar and superfine sugar, and so on. Lines we cannot match are still converted to millilitres so nothing is lost.
What happens to eggs, cloves of garlic and pinches of salt?
Countable and vague amounts are left exactly as written, because converting them to grams would not help you cook.
Are US cups the same as UK or Australian cups?
No. A US customary cup is 236.6 ml, a metric cup (Australia, New Zealand, Canada) is 250 ml, and a historical UK imperial cup is 284 ml. This tool assumes US cups, which is what American recipes use.
Should sticks of butter be converted too?
Yes — one US stick is 113 g. If your recipe lists butter in sticks, convert it with the butter calculator and paste the gram amount back in.