A level tablespoon of all purpose flour weighs about 7.5 grams. That comes from King Arthur Baking's standard of 120 g per cup, and it's the number to use any time you need the grams in a tablespoon of flour for a recipe that mixes cups and grams.
| Amount | All purpose flour |
|---|---|
| 1/4 tsp | 0.6 g |
| 1/2 tsp | 1.3 g |
| 1 tsp | 2.5 g |
| 1 tbsp | 7.5 g |
| 1/4 cup | 30 g |
| 1/2 cup | 60 g |
| 1 cup | 120 g |
Why the grams in a tablespoon of flour can vary
Flour is soft and squishy. It settles in the bag, it packs down when you push a spoon into it, and it piles up when you don't level it. So the same spoon can hold very different amounts depending on how you fill it.
King Arthur Baking puts some numbers on this. A cup of flour that's fluffed, spooned in and leveled holds around 120 g. A cup of densely packed flour can hold up to 160 g. Scale that down and a packed tablespoon can land near 10 g instead of 7.5 g. That's a third more flour than the recipe writer meant, which is plenty to turn a tender cake dry or a sauce gluey.
You'll also see slightly different figures on other conversion charts. That's normal. Each source measures its own way, so treat 7.5 g as a solid working number rather than a law of nature.
How to measure flour with a spoon
If you don't have a scale handy, this method gets you closest to 7.5 g per tablespoon:
- Stir or whisk the flour in its bag or canister to loosen it up.
- Use a second spoon to sprinkle flour into your measuring spoon until it's overflowing.
- Sweep the back of a knife across the top to level it.
- Don't tap the spoon or press the flour down. Both pack it tighter.
For anything bigger than a few spoonfuls, weighing beats scooping every time. If you're curious about the bigger picture, here's why weighing ingredients makes baking more consistent.
Where small amounts of flour show up
Most of the time a tablespoon or two of flour isn't the main event. It's doing a small job that still matters:
- Thickening a pan sauce or gravy. Two tablespoons is about 15 g. Too much and the sauce turns pasty.
- Fruit pie and crisp fillings. A few tablespoons help the juices set. Three level tablespoons is about 22.5 g.
- Fixing sticky dough. Add flour a spoonful at a time so you don't overshoot.
- Dusting a cake pan or work surface. Exact weight matters less here, so eyeballing is fine.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Scooping straight from the bag. Dragging the spoon through the flour packs it in. Spoon it in instead.
- Heaped spoons. A rounded tablespoon can hold far more than a level one. Always level unless the recipe says heaped.
- Using a cutlery spoon. The tablespoon from your silverware drawer isn't a measuring tablespoon, and sizes vary a lot.
- Mixing up teaspoons and tablespoons. One tablespoon equals three teaspoons, so a mix up triples or cuts the amount by two thirds.
One practical tip: if leveling spoons feels fussy, a MeasureMate digital measuring spoon scoops and weighs in one step. Press the tare button to zero the reading, scoop, and watch the display, which reads in 0.1 g steps, until it shows 7.5 g. The spoon head comes off for washing, so cleanup is quick.
Quick questions
How many grams are in 2 tablespoons of flour?
About 15 g of all purpose flour, using 7.5 g per level tablespoon.
How many tablespoons of flour make 100 grams?
About 13 1/3 level tablespoons. At that amount it's much easier to weigh the flour than to count spoons.
Does a tablespoon of flour weigh the same as a tablespoon of sugar?
No. Granulated sugar is much denser. King Arthur Baking lists a cup of sugar at 198 g, which works out to about 12.4 g per tablespoon.
Weights based on the King Arthur Baking ingredient weight chart and King Arthur Baking's guide to measuring flour.