How Many Grams in a Cup of Chocolate Chips?

There are about 170 grams in a cup of chocolate chips, according to King Arthur Baking. Mini chips pack a little tighter at about 177 g per cup, and chocolate chunks come in at the same 170 g as regular chips.

Here's a handy cross check: a standard 12 oz bag of Nestlé Toll House semi sweet morsels is labeled 340 g, which at 170 g per cup is exactly 2 cups. So when an old recipe says "one bag," you can read that as about 2 cups or 340 g.

Why a cup of chips can weigh more or less

Chocolate chips are lumpy little shapes, so there's a lot of empty space between them in a cup. How much space depends on:

• Chip size. Small chips fill the gaps better, which is why mini chips weigh more per cup than regular ones.
• Shaking and leveling. A cup you shake down holds more than one you fill loosely. Chips don't level flat, so the top of the cup is always a bit of a guess.
• Brand and shape. Chips, chunks, discs and wafers all stack differently. A cup of large discs can weigh quite a bit less than a cup of minis.
• Labels vs charts. The Toll House label lists a serving as 1 tablespoon at 14 g, while King Arthur's 170 g per cup works out to about 10.6 g per tablespoon. A tablespoon of chips really can land anywhere from about 10.6 to 14 g, depending on how it's heaped.

How to measure grams in a cup of chocolate chips

1. Set your bowl on the scale and press tare.
2. Pour chips in straight from the bag until you hit your number, such as 170 g for 1 cup or 85 g for 1/2 cup.
3. If you're using a full 12 oz bag, there's no need to measure at all: it's 340 g, or about 2 cups.
4. Save a small handful (a tablespoon or so) to press on top of the cookies before baking, if you like that look.

Weighing also helps when you mix kinds. Want half semi sweet and half milk chocolate? Weigh 85 g of each for a 1 cup total.

Putting chip weights to work

• Cookies. The original Toll House cookie recipe lists 2 cups, or one 12 oz package, of morsels. If you halve the recipe, that's 170 g of chips, no guessing at half a bag.
• Swapping chip sizes. If a recipe calls for 1 cup of regular chips and you only have minis, use 170 g of minis rather than a full cup. By cup, you'd add about 7 g extra.
• Melting. Recipes for ganache, drizzles and dipped treats often give chocolate in ounces. A 6 oz amount is about 170 g, using 28.35 g per ounce, which is about 1 cup of chips.
• Muffins and banana bread. These often call for 1/2 to 1 cup, so 85 to 170 g. Weighing means every loaf gets the same amount of chocolate, even when you switch brands.

Common chocolate chip mistakes

• Treating minis and regular chips as one for one by cup. Minis weigh more per cup.
• Measuring chunks with a cup. Large pieces leave big gaps, so a cup is especially unreliable. Weigh them.
• Forgetting the bag label. If you're using the whole bag, the net weight on the front already tells you the grams.
• Measuring over the dough. Extra chips that tumble in are hard to fish back out.

A practical tip: for small add ins, like a tablespoon of mini chips over a bowl of oatmeal or on top of a few muffins, a MeasureMate digital measuring spoon scoops and weighs in one step. It reads in 0.1 g steps and switches between grams and ounces, so you can follow a recipe in whichever unit it uses.

Quick questions

How many cups are in a 12 oz bag of chocolate chips?

About 2 cups. The bag holds 340 g, and King Arthur Baking puts a cup of chips at 170 g.

How many grams is 1/2 cup of chocolate chips?

About 85 g of regular chips, or about 89 g of mini chips.

Do mini chocolate chips weigh the same as regular ones?

Not by the cup. Mini chips pack tighter, so a cup weighs about 177 g compared with 170 g for regular chips.

Weights based on the King Arthur Baking ingredient weight chart, the Nestlé Toll House package label and recipe, and NIST unit conversions.