To convert tablespoons of rice flour into grams, multiply by 9.875: one tablespoon comes to 9.875 grams. 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. Rice flour comes in at 0.66783 g per mL, or 66.78% of water, which is why a cup of it is 158 g rather than 236.6 g. Volume and weight only line up for water, and only in metric.
A level tablespoon of rice flour is 9.875 g, which puts a teaspoon at 3.292 g and a tablespoon and a half — the quantity recipes are fondest of — at 14.81 g. Levelling twice is where the error comes from, so the scale is the faster instrument once the quantity passes a couple of spoons.
Grams are the unit this conversion is really for. A domestic scale resolves to a gram, which is 0.633% of a cup of rice flour, so weighing gets an accuracy no measuring cup can reach. A 500 g pack of it is 3.165 cups, and a 1 kg pack 6.329.
How the figure is arrived at: Fine, dense and gluten-free. Common in gluten-free blends and in tempura and rice-noodle batters.
The formula
tablespoons- The amount of rice flour you are converting, in tablespoons
9.875- Grams per tablespoon for rice flour, from its density of 0.66783 g/mL
grams- The equivalent quantity in grams
How it works, step by step
- Enter the quantity in tablespoons.
- It is multiplied by 9.875, the grams-per-tablespoon figure for rice flour.
- The result appears in grams, with a second reading in oz beneath it.
- Use the measure table if you want a standard recipe quantity rather than a number you type in.
Worked examples
2 tbsp of rice flour in grams
A recipe calling for 2 tbsp of rice flour needs 19.75 grams on the scale. The arithmetic is 2 × 9.875 = 19.75, and halving the recipe halves the weight to 9.875 grams.
4 tbsp of rice flour in grams
A recipe calling for 4 tbsp of rice flour needs 39.5 grams on the scale. The arithmetic is 4 × 9.875 = 39.5, and halving the recipe halves the weight to 19.75 grams.
12 tbsp of rice flour in grams
A recipe calling for 12 tbsp of rice flour needs 118.5 grams on the scale. The arithmetic is 12 × 9.875 = 118.5, and halving the recipe halves the weight to 59.25 grams.
How to read your score
Frequently asked questions
How many grams are in 1 tbsp of rice flour?
One tablespoon of rice flour is 9.875 grams. Half that quantity is 4.9375 grams and double it is 19.75 grams, so the figure scales straight up and down — there is no offset in this conversion, only the factor.
Why is a cup of rice flour not 236 g like water?
Because weight per cup depends on what is in the cup. Rice flour has a density of 0.66783 g per mL where water has 1.00, so a cup of it weighs 158 g rather than 236.6 g. That is a difference of 78.6 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 rice flour by roughly 20% — about 15.8 g either side of 158 g — because fine, dense and gluten-free. Weighing removes the question entirely.
Is a fluid ounce of rice flour 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 rice flour weighs 0.6967 oz, so the two readings differ by 30.3%. 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 rice flour would weigh 166.96 g instead of 158 g — 8.96 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 rice flour — roughly 31.6 g on a 158 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 tablespoons of rice flour is 500 g?
500 g of rice flour is 50.633 tablespoons — 0.101266 tablespoons to one gram, so 500 × 0.101266 = 50.633. Going that way is a division by 9.875, or a multiplication by 0.101266 if you prefer.
Rice flour in tablespoons and grams
| Tablespoons | Grams | Unrounded |
|---|---|---|
| 1/2 tbsp | 4.9375 g | 4.9375 |
| 1 tbsp | 9.875 g | 9.875 |
| 2 tbsp | 19.75 g | 19.75 |
| 3 tbsp | 29.625 g | 29.625 |
| 4 tbsp | 39.5 g | 39.5 |
| 6 tbsp | 59.25 g | 59.25 |
| 8 tbsp | 79 g | 79 |
| 12 tbsp | 118.5 g | 118.5 |
| 16 tbsp | 158 g | 158 |
Based on 158 g per cup of rice flour. One tablespoon of rice flour is 9.875 grams.
| Measure | Grams | Ounces | Millilitres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cup | 158 g | 5.57 oz | 236.6 mL |
| 1 tbsp | 9.875 g | 0.348 oz | 14.79 mL |
| 2 tsp | 6.583 g | 0.232 oz | 9.858 mL |
| 1 tsp | 3.292 g | 0.116 oz | 4.929 mL |
| 3/4 tsp | 2.469 g | 0.0871 oz | 3.697 mL |
| 1/2 tsp | 1.646 g | 0.0581 oz | 2.464 mL |
| 1/4 tsp | 0.8229 g | 0.029 oz | 1.232 mL |
| 1/8 tsp | 0.4115 g | 0.0145 oz | 0.6161 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cornstarch | 128 g | 4.515 oz | 0.541 |
| Cornmeal | 138 g | 4.868 oz | 0.5833 |
| Graham cracker crumbs | 142 g | 5.009 oz | 0.6002 |
| Rice flour (this page) | 158 g | 5.573 oz | 0.6678 |
| Potato starch | 160 g | 5.644 oz | 0.6763 |
| Steel-cut oats | 160 g | 5.644 oz | 0.6763 |
| Semolina | 167 g | 5.891 oz | 0.7059 |
Ordered by weight. The spread across this group is why a single generic cups-to-grams factor cannot work.