One pound of uncooked white rice is 2.4518506 cups, so converting pounds of uncooked white rice to cups means multiplying by 2.4518506. That factor is specific to this ingredient — it comes from its density, not from any relationship between the two units.
Water is the yardstick: 1 mL of it weighs 1 g. Uncooked white rice comes in at 0.78195 g per mL, or 78.19% of water, which is why a cup of it is 185 g rather than 236.6 g. Volume and weight only line up for water, and only in metric.
A cup of uncooked white rice is 185 g when it is measured the standard way, but how it gets into the cup changes the answer: between about 166.5 g and 222 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 white rice is bought rather than cooked, so this is the bag-size arithmetic: one pound is 2.452 cups, a 2 lb pack is 4.904 cups and a 5 lb sack is 12.26. That last figure is the one worth knowing before a large bake — it tells you whether one bag covers the recipe.
What the number depends on: Long grain, unrinsed and dry. It roughly triples in volume once cooked, so the dry cup is the measurement worth converting — a cup of cooked rice is a different quantity entirely.
The formula
pounds- The amount of uncooked white rice you are converting, in pounds
2.45185064865- Cups per pound for uncooked white rice, from its density of 0.78195 g/mL
cups- The equivalent quantity in cups
How it works, step by step
- Enter the quantity in pounds.
- It is multiplied by 2.45185064865, the cups-per-pound figure for uncooked white rice.
- The result appears in cups, with a second reading in tbsp beneath it.
- Use the measure table if you want a standard recipe quantity rather than a number you type in.
Worked examples
3/4 lb of uncooked white rice in cups
Take 3/4 lb of uncooked white rice: 0.75 × 2.4518506 gives 1.83889 cups. Doubling the batch takes it to 3.67778 cups, because the relationship is a straight proportion once the density is known.
1 1/2 lb of uncooked white rice in cups
1 1/2 lb of uncooked white rice weighs out at 3.67778 cups. Divide 3.67778 by 2.4518506 and you get back to 1 1/2 lb, which is the quickest check that the factor is the right way up.
3 lb of uncooked white rice in cups
Take 3 lb of uncooked white rice: 3 × 2.4518506 gives 7.35555 cups. Doubling the batch takes it to 14.7111 cups, because the relationship is a straight proportion once the density is known.
How to read your score
Frequently asked questions
How many cups are in 1 lb of uncooked white rice?
One pound of uncooked white rice is 2.4518506 cups. Half that quantity is 1.22593 cups and double it is 4.9037 cups, so the figure scales straight up and down — there is no offset in this conversion, only the factor.
Why is a cup of uncooked white rice not 236 g like water?
Because weight per cup depends on what is in the cup. Uncooked white rice has a density of 0.78195 g per mL where water has 1.00, so a cup of it weighs 185 g rather than 236.6 g. That is a difference of 51.6 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 white rice by roughly 20% — about 18.5 g either side of 185 g — because long grain, unrinsed and dry. Weighing removes the question entirely.
Is a fluid ounce of uncooked white 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 white rice weighs 0.8157 oz, so the two readings differ by 18.4%. 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 white rice would weigh 195.49 g instead of 185 g — 10.5 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 white rice — roughly 37 g on a 185 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 much does 2 cup of uncooked white rice weigh?
2 cup of uncooked white rice comes to 370 g, or 0.81571 pounds. This page runs that calculation in reverse — enter a weight and it returns the volume — and the cups-to-pounds page does it in the direction the question is usually asked.
Uncooked white rice in pounds and cups
| Pounds | Cups | Unrounded |
|---|---|---|
| 1/4 lb | 0.612963 cup | 0.6129626622 |
| 1/2 lb | 1.22593 cup | 1.225925324 |
| 3/4 lb | 1.83889 cup | 1.838887986 |
| 1 lb | 2.45185 cup | 2.451850649 |
| 1 1/2 lb | 3.67778 cup | 3.677775973 |
| 2 lb | 4.9037 cup | 4.903701297 |
| 3 lb | 7.35555 cup | 7.355551946 |
| 5 lb | 12.2593 cup | 12.25925324 |
Based on 185 g per cup of uncooked white rice. One pound of uncooked white rice is 2.4518506 cups.
| Measure | Grams | Ounces | Millilitres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cup | 185 g | 6.53 oz | 236.6 mL |
| 3/4 cup | 138.8 g | 4.89 oz | 177.4 mL |
| 2/3 cup | 123.3 g | 4.35 oz | 157.7 mL |
| 1/2 cup | 92.5 g | 3.26 oz | 118.3 mL |
| 1/3 cup | 61.67 g | 2.18 oz | 78.86 mL |
| 1/4 cup | 46.25 g | 1.63 oz | 59.15 mL |
| 1 tbsp | 11.56 g | 0.408 oz | 14.79 mL |
| 1 tsp | 3.854 g | 0.136 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semolina | 167 g | 5.891 oz | 0.7059 |
| Uncooked quinoa | 170 g | 5.997 oz | 0.7185 |
| Dry couscous | 170 g | 5.997 oz | 0.7185 |
| Uncooked white rice (this page) | 185 g | 6.526 oz | 0.7819 |
| Uncooked brown rice | 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 |
Ordered by weight. The spread across this group is why a single generic cups-to-grams factor cannot work.