1 Cup Salt in Grams
1 cup of salt weighs 288 g (spooned and levelled, King Arthur Baking). Fine-grained salt; the default seasoning salt. All the figures on this page are approximate conversions based on the King Arthur Baking value, so when a recipe really matters, verify with a kitchen scale.
Why weighing salt beats measuring it in cups
Small-quantity dry ingredients are where cup measures are at their worst. Nobody measures a cup of baking soda for a normal recipe, but when you are scaling a recipe up for a bake sale, or converting a commercial recipe down, you suddenly need to know what a cup of it weighs. The same applies to spices and leaveners: a few grams too many of baking soda leaves a soapy taste, and a few grams too few leaves a flat cake. Grams give you control that cups simply cannot.
Fine-grained salt; the default seasoning salt. It is used for seasoning every dish and controlling yeast in bread. That range of uses is part of why the conversion comes up so often: the same ingredient appears in everyday cooking and in precise baking, and the two situations demand different levels of accuracy.
Salt cups to grams conversion table
| Cups | Grams | Tablespoons (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| 1/4 cup | 72 g | 4.5 g |
| 1/3 cup | 96 g | 6 g |
| 1/2 cup | 144 g | 9 g |
| 2/3 cup | 192 g | 12 g |
| 3/4 cup | 216 g | 13.5 g |
| 1 cup | 288 g | 18 g |
| 1 1/2 cups | 432 g | 27 g |
| 2 cups | 576 g | 36 g |
| 3 cups | 864 g | 54 g |
| 4 cups | 1152 g | 72 g |
The tablespoon column is a bonus for recipes that call for a spoonful or two: one tablespoon of salt weighs about 18 g. Remember that a cup is 16 tablespoons, so the numbers in the table are just the cup weight divided by 16, rounded to one decimal place. For small amounts a scale that reads to the gram is far more reliable than a spoon, because a heaped tablespoon can weigh half as much again as a level one.
How the weight was measured
Spooned and levelled means spooning the ingredient into the measuring cup until it is heaped, then sweeping a straight knife across the top to level it off. Never scoop the cup through the bag or jar, and never tap the cup down, because both pack the ingredient and add weight.
The source for the 288 g figure is King Arthur Baking, and the confidence in the value is high. King Arthur Baking publishes a standard ingredient weight chart that recipe developers use as a reference, and this page follows it exactly rather than averaging across sources, because an average of two different measuring methods is a number that matches nobody's cup. There is a dispute worth knowing about. Fine table salt packs at 288 g per cup (18 g per tablespoon). Kosher salt is far lighter: Diamond Crystal is about 128 g per cup and Morton about 256 g - never swap them cup-for-cup. The practical advice is simple: use the value in the table above, measure the way the table describes, and your results will match the recipes this site is built around. If a recipe you are following was written with a different value, follow that recipe's value instead of ours, because consistency within one recipe matters more than which authoritative number you pick.
Worked examples
A brine or cure
A brine calling for 1/2 cup of salt needs 144 g. Brines and cures are chemistry, and the salt concentration decides whether the food is seasoned or spoiled. Weighing 144 g is the safe way to get the concentration right.
Scaling a spice rub for a barbecue
A spice rub that calls for 1/4 cup of salt needs 72 g. Spice rubs are all about ratio, and a quarter-cup of a ground spice can vary by several grams depending on how settled the jar is. Weighing 72 g keeps the rub balanced.
A large batch of seasoned flour
A seasoned flour mix using 1 cup of salt needs 288 g. When you are making a big batch to keep in the pantry, weighing 288 g means every future use of the mix tastes the same as the first.
When this conversion matters most
This conversion matters most when you are scaling a recipe. A teaspoon of a spice or a leavener is easy to measure, but a cup of one is a large amount, and the difference between a level cup and a heaped one can be tens of grams. That difference is enough to make a cake taste of soap, a curry taste of nothing but chilli, or a brine too salty to eat. Weighing is the only reliable way to scale dry ingredients up or down.
Common mistakes with salt
- Using another ingredient's weight. Dry ingredients range from 48 g to 288 g per cup, so borrowing a number from a different ingredient is the fastest way to ruin a recipe. Always use the table for the ingredient you have.
- Measuring leaveners by the cup. Baking soda and baking powder are powerful in tiny amounts. A cup measure is far too coarse for them, so weigh them when scaling recipes up or down.
- Not levelling the spoon. A heaped teaspoon of a spice can be twice the weight of a level one. Level dry ingredients with a knife every time.
- Storing spices in a damp cupboard. Ground spices absorb moisture and clump, which changes both their weight per cup and their flavour. Keep them sealed and dry.
Storage and handling
Dry cupboard, indefinitely. Keeping salt stored properly also keeps its weight per cup stable: an ingredient that has absorbed moisture from the air weighs more per cup than a dry one, so a sealed container is not just about freshness, it is about measurement accuracy too. If a bag has been open for months in a humid kitchen, the first thing to do before a precise bake is to weigh the ingredient rather than trusting the cup.
Frequently asked questions
How many grams is 1 cup of salt?
1 cup of salt weighs 288 g, measured spooned and levelled according to King Arthur Baking. That is the figure to use when converting a recipe from cups to grams, and it is the value the conversion table on this page is built on.
How do I measure salt without a scale?
Spooned and levelled means spooning the ingredient into the measuring cup until it is heaped, then sweeping a straight knife across the top to level it off. Never scoop the cup through the bag or jar, and never tap the cup down, because both pack the ingredient and add weight. That gives the closest result to 288 g per cup, but it is still an estimate: the honest answer is that a scale is the only way to know the exact weight, and a basic digital kitchen scale costs less than a bag of good flour.
Does salt always weigh the same per cup?
No. Brand, grind, moisture and how settled the container is all shift the weight by a few grams, and for flour the swing can be 20 g or more. The 288 g figure is the standard King Arthur Baking value for salt measured spooned and levelled, and it is the right default, but when a recipe is precise, weigh the ingredient and trust the scale over the cup.
Why do different websites give different weights for salt?
Because they are measuring different things. Fine table salt packs at 288 g per cup (18 g per tablespoon). Kosher salt is far lighter: Diamond Crystal is about 128 g per cup and Morton about 256 g - never swap them cup-for-cup. A source that scoops will always report a heavier cup than a source that spoons and levels, and both can be correct about their own method. The fix is to pick one source and one method and stick with it for the whole recipe.
How should I store salt?
Dry cupboard, indefinitely. Good storage keeps the ingredient fresh and keeps its weight per cup consistent, because moisture absorbed from the air adds grams that the recipe did not ask for.
What is salt used for?
Seasoning every dish and controlling yeast in bread. Fine-grained salt; the default seasoning salt.
Related conversions
Use the cups to grams converter or the tablespoons to grams converter for instant answers, or browse the cups to grams hub for the full ingredient list. Related pages: Baking Soda in cups to grams, Baking Powder in cups to grams, Cinnamon in cups to grams. More tools: cups to grams converter, tablespoons to grams converter, weight converter, spice substitute finder. See also our disclaimer about approximate conversions.