How Many Grams in a Cup of Butter? (Plus Sticks, Tablespoons, and the UK Trap)

227 grams. That is how many grams in a cup of butter: one US cup, two sticks, 16 tablespoons, 8 ounces, 227 grams on the scale. If you came for the number, you have it. But the number has two traps hiding behind it, and the second one ruins European recipes.

The full butter table

The shortcut worth memorizing: sticks = grams ÷ 113. A recipe calls for 150 grams of butter, that is 150 ÷ 113, about 1 and 1/3 sticks. Faster than any chart.

Why 227 and not 240

A US cup holds 240 milliliters. A cup of water weighs 240 grams because water's density is 1. Butter's density is about 0.911 grams per milliliter, which is why a cup of it weighs 227 grams instead of 240. Same cup, less dense ingredient, lower weight. This is the whole reason cups-to-grams conversions need an ingredient column: volume is fixed, weight follows density.

Temperature moves the number too. Cold butter is compact; softened butter traps air; melted butter flows differently. The effect is small for butter compared to flour, but it is real, which is why the wrapper markings on US sticks matter. Those little tablespoon lines on the foil are the closest thing American packaging gets to a scale, and they work because the stick is a fixed weight cut to a fixed size.

The UK trap: 250 grams is not 2 sticks

Here is the one that actually ruins bakes. In the US, butter comes in 113-gram sticks. In the UK and most of Europe, it comes in 250-gram blocks, and nobody talks about sticks at all. A European recipe calling for 250 grams of butter is not asking for 2 sticks. Two sticks are 227 grams. 250 grams is about 2.2 sticks, or just over a cup plus 2 tablespoons.

The 23-gram difference sounds trivial until it lands in shortbread, where butter is half the recipe. If you are converting a European recipe with US sticks, do the division: 250 ÷ 113 = 2.21 sticks. Cut two full sticks and shave off roughly a fifth of a third. Or, obviously, use the scale.

Melted vs solid: weigh it either way

Recipes specify the state for a reason. "1 cup melted butter" and "1 cup butter, melted" are different instructions. The first means melt it, then measure a cup of the liquid. The second means measure a cup of solid butter, then melt it. The liquid version is denser in the cup, so you get more butter. When a recipe is sloppy about which it means, the scale settles it: 227 grams of butter is 227 grams whether it is a cold block, a softened lump, or a puddle. Weight does not care about state. Volume does.

The stick was a scale all along

Remember the stick from the top of this article, the lazy American packaging convenience? Look at it again. Each stick is cut to exactly 113 grams, 4 ounces, a fixed weight in a fixed size. Americans have been baking by weight for a century without owning a scale. The tablespoon lines on the foil are a weight chart printed on packaging. The rest of the world bought kitchen scales. America bought pre-weighed butter and kept calling it a volume.

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