Nuts and Dried Fruit: Grams to Cups for Every Common Kind
Whole almonds are 143 g per cup, sliced are 92 g. Chopping and slicing change the volume so much that weight is the only reliable measure.
Whole almonds are 143 g per cup, sliced are 92 g. Chopping and slicing change the volume so much that weight is the only reliable measure.
Nuts and dried fruit are chunky, irregular and full of gaps, which makes them among the least reliable things to measure by volume. The weight of a cup depends almost entirely on the size and shape of the pieces.
Nuts by the cup
Look at almonds: whole is 143 g per cup, sliced is 92 g. That is a 36% difference for the same nut, purely because of how it was cut. Sliced almonds are thin flat pieces that stack with a great deal of air between them.
Walnuts go the other way — chopped weighs more than halves, because the smaller pieces fill the gaps that halves leave.
The comma that changes the recipe
This is worth internalising, because it appears constantly and almost nobody notices it.
"1 cup chopped walnuts" — chop the walnuts, then measure a cup of the chopped pieces. You get 125 g.
"1 cup walnuts, chopped" — measure a cup of whole walnut halves, then chop them. You get 117 g.
Seeds and nut butters
Ground flax is lighter per cup than whole flax, which is the opposite of what most people expect. Grinding turns dense little seeds into a fluffy meal that holds more air.
Nut butters are dense and sticky, and both facts matter. A cup of peanut butter is 258 g — heavier than a cup of butter — and a meaningful amount of it stays in the measuring cup. Oil the cup first, or weigh it directly into the bowl.
Dried fruit
Raisins are dense and pack well. Dried cranberries are larger, flatter and leave far more space, so a cup weighs a third less.
Dates are the heaviest here because chopped dates are sticky and compress under their own weight in the cup — which also means they measure inconsistently. Weigh them.
Coconut
Sweetened shredded coconut is heavier because of the added sugar and its higher moisture content. These are not interchangeable by volume in a recipe that depends on sweetness — swapping sweetened for unsweetened removes a noticeable amount of sugar.
Toasting changes the weight
Toasting drives off moisture. Nuts typically lose a few percent of their weight in the oven, and they become slightly more brittle, which changes how they break when chopped.
For baking purposes the difference is small enough to ignore. Toast the nuts, then measure — the flavour gain is far more significant than the weight change.
Toast at 175 °C for 8–10 minutes, shaking the tray once, until they smell nutty. Watch them: nuts go from perfect to burnt in under a minute, and pine nuts are the fastest of all.
Substituting nuts
In most baking, nuts contribute fat, crunch and flavour rather than structure, so swapping is generally safe — by weight, not by cup.
Walnuts ↔ pecans: nearly identical in behaviour, very similar weight per cup
Almonds ↔ hazelnuts: both firmer and crunchier than walnuts
Frequently asked questions
How many grams is a cup of walnuts?
About 117 g for halves and 125 g for chopped walnuts. Chopping fills the gaps between the pieces, so chopped weighs more per cup.
How many grams is a cup of raisins?
About 165 g. Dried cranberries are much lighter at about 110 g per cup because the pieces are larger and hold more air.
Does 'one cup of chopped nuts' mean chopped before or after measuring?
'One cup chopped walnuts' means chop first, then measure. 'One cup walnuts, chopped' means measure whole, then chop. The comma changes the amount by roughly 7%.
How many grams is a cup of almond flour?
About 96 g. It is much lighter than wheat flour because ground almonds are coarser and hold more air.
Can I swap one nut for another by weight?
In most baking, yes — nuts contribute fat, texture and flavour rather than structure. Swap by weight rather than by cup, since cup volumes vary a great deal between nuts.