To convert cups of uncooked brown rice into pounds, multiply by 0.4188783: one cup comes to 0.4188783 pounds. Every ingredient has its own figure here, because the units are measuring different things and only the density links them.
Water is the yardstick: 1 mL of it weighs 1 g. Uncooked brown rice comes in at 0.80308 g per mL, or 80.31% of water, which is why a cup of it is 190 g rather than 236.6 g. Volume and weight only line up for water, and only in metric.
A cup of uncooked brown rice is 190 g when it is measured the standard way, but how it gets into the cup changes the answer: between about 171 g and 228 g covers the range from lightly spooned to firmly packed. That 20% spread is larger than most of the adjustments recipes fuss over, and it disappears entirely the moment the ingredient is weighed instead.
Pounds are how uncooked brown rice is bought rather than cooked, so this is the bag-size arithmetic: one pound is 2.387 cups, a 2 lb pack is 4.775 cups and a 5 lb sack is 11.94. That last figure is the one worth knowing before a large bake — it tells you whether one bag covers the recipe.
The condition this weight assumes: The bran layer left on the grain makes it slightly heavier per cup than white rice of the same variety.
The formula
cups- The amount of uncooked brown rice you are converting, in cups
0.418878298151- Pounds per cup for uncooked brown rice, from its density of 0.80308 g/mL
pounds- The equivalent quantity in pounds
How it works, step by step
- Enter the quantity in cups.
- It is multiplied by 0.418878298151, the pounds-per-cup figure for uncooked brown rice.
- The result appears in pounds, with a second reading in g beneath it.
- Use the measure table if you want a standard recipe quantity rather than a number you type in.
Worked examples
1/3 cup of uncooked brown rice in pounds
1/3 cup of uncooked brown rice weighs out at 0.139626 pounds. Divide 0.139626 by 0.4188783 and you get back to 1/3 cup, which is the quickest check that the factor is the right way up.
3/4 cup of uncooked brown rice in pounds
A recipe calling for 3/4 cup of uncooked brown rice needs 0.314159 pounds on the scale. The arithmetic is 0.75 × 0.4188783 = 0.31415872, and halving the recipe halves the weight to 0.157079 pounds.
3 cup of uncooked brown rice in pounds
Take 3 cup of uncooked brown rice: 3 × 0.4188783 gives 1.25663 pounds. Doubling the batch takes it to 2.51327 pounds, because the relationship is a straight proportion once the density is known.
How to read your score
Frequently asked questions
How many pounds are in 1 cup of uncooked brown rice?
One cup of uncooked brown rice is 0.4188783 pounds. Half that quantity is 0.209439 pounds and double it is 0.837757 pounds, so the figure scales straight up and down — there is no offset in this conversion, only the factor.
Why is a cup of uncooked brown rice not 236 g like water?
Because weight per cup depends on what is in the cup. Uncooked brown rice has a density of 0.80308 g per mL where water has 1.00, so a cup of it weighs 190 g rather than 236.6 g. That is a difference of 46.6 g per cup, and it is the reason a single volume-to-weight factor cannot be applied to every ingredient.
Does how I measure it change the weight?
Yes, and by more than most people expect. Handling changes the weight of a cup of uncooked brown rice by roughly 20% — about 19 g either side of 190 g — because the bran layer left on the grain makes it slightly heavier per cup than white rice of the same variety. Weighing removes the question entirely.
Is a fluid ounce of uncooked brown rice the same as an ounce?
No. A fluid ounce is a volume — one eighth of a US cup, 29.57 mL — and an ounce is a weight. One fluid ounce of uncooked brown rice weighs 0.8378 oz, so the two readings differ by 16.2%. They coincide only for something with the density of water, and then only roughly.
Is this a US cup or a metric cup?
US customary: 236.59 mL, which is the cup every US recipe means. A metric cup is 250 mL, so the same cup of uncooked brown rice would weigh 200.77 g instead of 190 g — 10.8 g more, or 5.67%. Australian and some European recipes use the metric cup, and the difference is large enough to matter in baking.
Do I need a scale for this, or will measuring cups do?
A scale, if the result matters. Volume measuring carries a spread of about 20% for uncooked brown rice — roughly 38 g on a 190 g cup — while a domestic scale is accurate to a gram or two. For anything where the ratio of ingredients drives the outcome, bread and pastry above all, weigh it.
How many cups of uncooked brown rice is 1 lb?
1 lb of uncooked brown rice is 2.3873 cups — 2.38733 cups to one pound, so 1 × 2.38733 = 2.3873. Going that way is a division by 0.418878, or a multiplication by 2.38733 if you prefer.
Uncooked brown rice in cups and pounds
| Cups | Pounds | Unrounded |
|---|---|---|
| 1/8 cup | 0.0523598 lb | 0.05235978727 |
| 1/4 cup | 0.10472 lb | 0.1047195745 |
| 1/3 cup | 0.139626 lb | 0.1396260994 |
| 1/2 cup | 0.209439 lb | 0.2094391491 |
| 2/3 cup | 0.279252 lb | 0.2792521988 |
| 3/4 cup | 0.314159 lb | 0.3141587236 |
| 1 cup | 0.418878 lb | 0.4188782982 |
| 1 1/2 cup | 0.628317 lb | 0.6283174472 |
| 2 cup | 0.837757 lb | 0.8377565963 |
| 3 cup | 1.25663 lb | 1.256634894 |
| 4 cup | 1.67551 lb | 1.675513193 |
Based on 190 g per cup of uncooked brown rice. One cup of uncooked brown rice is 0.4188783 pounds.
| Measure | Grams | Ounces | Millilitres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cup | 190 g | 6.7 oz | 236.6 mL |
| 3/4 cup | 142.5 g | 5.03 oz | 177.4 mL |
| 2/3 cup | 126.7 g | 4.47 oz | 157.7 mL |
| 1/2 cup | 95 g | 3.35 oz | 118.3 mL |
| 1/3 cup | 63.33 g | 2.23 oz | 78.86 mL |
| 1/4 cup | 47.5 g | 1.68 oz | 59.15 mL |
| 1 tbsp | 11.88 g | 0.419 oz | 14.79 mL |
| 1 tsp | 3.958 g | 0.14 oz | 4.929 mL |
US customary measures: 1 cup = 236.59 mL, 1 tbsp = 14.79 mL, 1 tsp = 4.93 mL.
| Ingredient | Grams per cup | Ounces per cup | Density (g/mL) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uncooked quinoa | 170 g | 5.997 oz | 0.7185 |
| Dry couscous | 170 g | 5.997 oz | 0.7185 |
| Uncooked white rice | 185 g | 6.526 oz | 0.7819 |
| Uncooked brown rice (this page) | 190 g | 6.702 oz | 0.8031 |
| Dried lentils | 192 g | 6.773 oz | 0.8115 |
| Granulated sugar | 200 g | 7.055 oz | 0.8454 |
| Arborio rice | 200 g | 7.055 oz | 0.8454 |
Ordered by weight. The spread across this group is why a single generic cups-to-grams factor cannot work.