How Many Grams in a Cup of Olive Oil?

Cups to grams: olive oil

Grams to cups: olive oil

Working with more than one ingredient? The grams in a cup chart puts 40 ingredients in one table, and the Whole Recipe Converter converts a full ingredient list in a single paste.

How to measure olive oil properly

Millilitres flatter it. 100 ml of olive oil weighs 91 grams. Dressing recipes written in millilitres or tablespoons convert cleanly by weight — a tablespoon is 13.5 grams — and weighing is how restaurants keep a vinaigrette identical from one service to the next.

A “drizzle” is not a measure. A free-poured glug of olive oil is routinely two tablespoons, not one — about 27 grams instead of 13.5. If the amount matters, weigh it into the pan; if it does not, at least know the drizzle is lying to you.

It clings like every oil. Pour from a measuring jug and a film stays behind. Weigh olive oil directly into the bowl or pan on the scale and the recipe gets every gram you intended.

What affects the weight of a cup of olive oil?

Olive oil is a liquid, so its cup weight is stable at 216 g, but pouring technique still introduces error. Oil clings to the inside of the measure, so some is always left behind; pouring slowly and letting the measure drain reduces the loss. The level should be read at eye level on a flat surface, since reading from above distorts it. Temperature has a negligible effect on density across normal kitchen conditions. One tablespoon weighs 13.5 g, often the more useful measure.

Extra virgin, virgin and refined (light) olive oils differ in flavour, colour and smoke behaviour, but their densities are effectively identical: all weigh 216 g per cup. Origin and brand change the taste, not the weight. The word light on a label refers to flavour and colour, never to fat content, and light olive oil weighs exactly the same as extra virgin.

Careful measuring matters in focaccia, where a controlled amount of oil gives the crust its texture; in olive oil cake, where oil is the main fat; and in vinaigrettes, where the oil-to-acid balance falls apart if the oil is free-poured. The most common mistake is the free-poured glug from the bottle, which routinely delivers far more or less than the recipe's amount.

Frequently asked questions