Pounds to Cups Converter
Convert pounds (or pounds and ounces) of flour, sugar, butter, rice and more than 90 other ingredients to cups, or cups back to pounds, using real per-cup densities. You also get a measuring-cup breakdown, US or metric cups, and a chart of common weights.
How it works
grams = pounds × 453.592 (+ ounces × 28.35) · cups = grams ÷ grams per cup · grams per metric cup = grams per US cup × 250 ÷ 236.6 · reverse: pounds = cups × grams per cup ÷ 453.592
A pound is a fixed weight, but how many cups it fills depends on the ingredient’s density. A pound of all-purpose flour (about 454 g at 125 g per cup) is roughly 3.6 cups. A pound of granulated sugar (200 g per cup) is only about 2.3 cups, because sugar packs more weight into each cup. The converter works through grams: it turns the weight into grams, then divides by the grams that one cup of that ingredient holds. It covers flours, starches, sugars and syrups, fats, dairy, grains, nuts, seeds and mix-ins, or you can enter a density of your own. Under More options you can add ounces (for a package such as 1 lb 4 oz), say how the flour went into the cup, or switch to a metric, UK or Japanese cup. The reverse mode turns a cup measure back into pounds and grams, and the tables compare common weights and every ingredient side by side.
Worked example
You have a 1 lb bag of all-purpose flour. One pound is 453.592 g, and flour is about 125 g per cup, so 453.592 ÷ 125 = 3.63 cups, measured as 3 ½ cups + 2 tbsp. The same pound of granulated sugar is 453.592 ÷ 200 = 2.27 cups. Going the other way, 2 cups of butter at 227 g per cup weigh 454 g, exactly 1 lb (four sticks).
Sources: King Arthur Baking — Ingredient weight chart · NIST — Unit conversion (pound = 453.59237 g, US cup)
Frequently asked questions
How many cups are in a pound of flour?
About 3.6 cups of all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, since a pound is roughly 454 g and a cup holds about 125 g. Bread flour gives slightly fewer cups (about 3.5) and cake flour more (about 3.9). Scooping straight from the bag packs it down, so you would get only about 3 cups.
Is a pound of sugar the same number of cups as a pound of flour?
No. Granulated sugar is heavier per cup (about 200 g) than flour (about 125 g), so a pound of sugar is only about 2.3 cups against 3.6 cups of flour. Powdered sugar is closer to flour at about 3.8 cups per pound, and packed brown sugar is about 2.1 cups.
How many cups is a pound of butter?
Exactly 2 cups. US butter comes in 4-ounce sticks of ½ cup each, so 1 lb is four sticks, or 2 cups (454 g).
Can I convert cups back to pounds?
Yes. Switch to Cups → pounds, enter the amount (cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, mL or metric cups) and pick the ingredient. You get pounds, ounces and grams, plus a table of the same volume for every other ingredient.
Why convert through grams instead of directly?
Going pound → grams → cups lets one set of per-cup densities handle every ingredient and any cup size. It also shows the density, which is the number that actually drives the answer.
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