How Many Grams of Sugar Are in a Teaspoon? A Clear, Scientific Guide

When counting sugar for baking, nutrition label reading, or health monitoring, one key question often arises: How many grams of sugar are in a teaspoon? Understanding this measurement helps you manage your sugar intake more accurately—whether you’re baking, reading food labels, or tracking your daily nutrition.

The Short Answer

Understanding the Context

A standard teaspoon contains approximately 4 to 5 grams of sugar when dissolved in water or mixed into most recipes. More precisely, 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar equals about 4.2 grams of sugar.

What This Means for Your Sugar Intake

Knowing the sugar content per teaspoon is essential for:

Key Insights

Health-conscious eating: Ideal for monitoring daily sugar consumption and managing conditions like diabetes.
Home cooking and baking: Ensures consistent sweetness across recipes.
Reading labels: Helps you compare sugar content in foods, especially processed goods.

The Science Behind Teaspoons and Sugar

Sugar, especially granulated white sugar, is composed mostly of sucrose—a disaccharide made of glucose and fructose. When measured by volume (like teaspoons), sugar’s density and granule size affect exact gram amounts.

Granulated Sugar: The Standard Reference

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Final Thoughts

For most health and cooking guidelines:

1 teaspoon (5 mL) of granulated sugar = ~4.2 grams of sugar
Volume vs. weight: 1 teaspoon ≈ 4.2 grams, but sugar isn’t perfectly dense—moisture and crystal shape influence this.

Comparison with Other Sweeteners

Not all sugars behave exactly the same in volume:

| Sweetener Type | Teaspoon (grams of sugar) | Notes |
|----------------------|---------------------------|-----------------------------------|
| Granulated sugar | ~4.2 g | Most commonly used benchmark |
| Brown sugar | ~4.0–4.5 g | Slightly less due to molasses content |
| Honey | ~3.0–3.5 g | More viscous, denser |
| Maple syrup | ~4.0 g | Liquid; sweetness varies by grade |
| Powdered sugar | ~4.0–4.5 g | Finely ground; similar density to granulated sugar |

Visualizing a Teaspoon of Sugar

Imagine a standard paper teaspoon (5 mL). If granulated sugar were packed perfectly, a single teaspoon would weigh about 4.2 grams. That means:

Scoop 1 tsp ~ 4.2 g sugar
2 tsp make ~8.4 g
3 tsp total ~12.6 g

This consistency helps recipe scaling and calorie estimation—especially in baking, where precision matters.