You’re standing over a bowl of muffin batter, phone in one hand, a sticky teaspoon in the other. The recipe calls for 5 grams of baking powder. You have a spoon. You don’t have a scale. Or maybe you do have a scale, but the battery died right when you needed it most. We’ve all been there. It’s one of those tiny daily frustrations that feels like it should have a simpler answer.
But here is the thing: asking how many g in a tsp is a bit like asking how many people fit in a car. Are we talking about a Smart car or a tour bus? Are the people toddlers or linebackers?
In the world of culinary physics, "grams" measure mass. "Teaspoons" measure volume. They are two entirely different languages. If you try to swap them without a translator, your cake is going to sink, or your soup will taste like a salt lick. Honestly, most people just guess. They shouldn't.
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The Density Problem Nobody Mentions
The fundamental reason you can’t just give one number for g in a tsp is density. Water is the gold standard. In a perfect world, 1 milliliter of water weighs exactly 1 gram. Since a standard US teaspoon is roughly 4.93 milliliters (let’s just call it 5 for sanity's sake), a teaspoon of water weighs 5 grams.
But you aren't usually measuring water in a teaspoon. You’re measuring flour. Or sugar. Or heavy lead-shot (hopefully not).
Take salt, for example. If you use fine table salt, you’re packing a lot of tiny crystals into that spoon. If you use Kosher salt, the flakes are huge and jagged. They don't sit close together. There is a lot of air in that spoon. A teaspoon of Diamond Crystal Kosher salt weighs about 2.8 grams, while a teaspoon of Morton Table Salt weighs roughly 5.7 grams. That is more than double the saltiness for the exact same volume! This is how recipes get ruined. Professional chefs like J. Kenji López-Alt have spent years yelling into the void about this, and they are right. You have to know what you’re scooping.
White Sugar vs. Flour
Granulated sugar is surprisingly consistent. It’s heavy. It’s dense. Generally, you’re looking at about 4.2 grams per teaspoon.
Flour is a nightmare.
Flour is the reason "grams" became the darling of the baking world. If you dip your measuring spoon into a bag of flour and pack it down, you might get 6 or 7 grams in a tsp. If you sift that flour first and gently spoon it in, you might only get 3 grams. That 100% variance is why your homemade bread sometimes feels like a brick and other times feels like a cloud. It’s not your technique; it’s your math.
Common Kitchen Conversions That Actually Work
If you are in a rush and just need a "close enough" guide for g in a tsp, here is the breakdown of the stuff you actually use.
For baking soda and baking powder, the numbers are tighter because we use small amounts. Baking powder usually lands around 4.8 grams per teaspoon. Baking soda is a bit heavier, closer to 5 or 6 grams depending on the brand and how long it’s been sitting in your cupboard absorbing moisture.
Yeast? That’s about 3 grams per teaspoon.
Cocoa powder is the light-weight champion. It is incredibly airy. You’ll find that a teaspoon of cocoa powder is barely 2.5 grams. If you try to use the "5 grams equals 1 teaspoon" rule for cocoa, you will end up with twice as much chocolate as you need. Actually, maybe that’s not a bad thing. But for the texture of the bake, it’s a disaster.
Then there’s fats. Room temperature butter? About 4.7 grams per teaspoon. Honey or molasses? Now we are talking heavy hitters. Those liquids are much denser than water. A teaspoon of honey can easily tip the scales at 7 grams.
Why the "US Teaspoon" Isn't Universal
To make matters more annoying, not every country agrees on what a teaspoon is.
- US Teaspoon: 4.93 ml
- UK/Canadian/Australian Teaspoon: 5 ml
- Metric Teaspoon: 5 ml
In practice, that 0.07 ml difference doesn't matter for a batch of cookies. But if you are measuring potent medicine or high-intensity chemicals for a hobby project, those fractions add up. Always check if your recipe is using imperial or metric standards. Most modern digital scales allow you to toggle, but your plastic spoons don't have a "settings" menu.
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The Scientific Reality of Weight vs. Volume
Let’s get nerdy for a second. The formula for this is $Mass = Density \times Volume$.
When you search for g in a tsp, you are looking for the mass. The volume is fixed (the spoon). The variable that ruins your day is the density.
Humidity plays a massive role here too. Flour is hygroscopic. That is a fancy way of saying it sucks water out of the air. On a rainy day in Seattle, your flour is heavier than it is on a dry day in Phoenix. A teaspoon of "wet" flour contains more mass but the same amount of actual grain. This is why the best bakers in the world—people like Stella Parks—insist on using a scale for everything. A scale doesn't care about humidity or how hard you packed the spoon. A gram is a gram is a gram.
When You Absolutely Must Convert Without a Scale
Look, I get it. You don't want to buy a scale. You just want to finish your dinner. If you have to convert g in a tsp manually, follow the "Dip and Sweep" method for dry goods.
- Aerate the ingredient first. Take a fork and fluff up the flour or cocoa.
- Gently spoon the ingredient into the measuring spoon until it overflows. Do not shake it. Do not tap it on the counter.
- Use the back of a straight knife to level it off.
This gets you the closest to the "standard" weight used by recipe developers. Most developers assume a "leveled" teaspoon, not a "heaped" or "rounded" one. A "heaped" teaspoon can actually hold up to 2.5 times the amount of a leveled one. That’s a massive margin of error.
Spices: The Wild Card
Spices are all over the map. Ground cinnamon is about 2.6 grams per teaspoon. Ground black pepper is roughly 2.3 grams. Dried herbs like oregano? They weigh almost nothing—maybe 1 gram if you’re lucky. If a recipe says "5g of dried oregano," and you try to measure that by eye, you’re going to be eating a bowl of leaves.
Liquid Gold: Oils and Syrups
Oils are an interesting case. We think of oil as "heavy," but it’s actually less dense than water. That’s why it floats. A teaspoon of olive oil usually weighs about 4.4 to 4.5 grams. If you are tracking macros or calories, this matters. Those few fractions of a gram add up to calories you might not be counting.
Stop Guessing and Start Weighing
Honestly? Just buy a digital scale. They cost fifteen bucks.
The stress of wondering about g in a tsp goes away the moment you can just pour until the number hits 5. It saves dishes too. Instead of washing five different spoons, you just put your bowl on the scale, tare it to zero, and pour.
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If you're stuck without one, keep a cheat sheet. Write it on the inside of your pantry door.
- Water/Milk: 5g
- Salt (Table): 6g
- Salt (Kosher): 3g
- Sugar: 4g
- Flour: 2.6g
- Baking Powder: 5g
These are averages. They aren't perfect. But they are better than a blind guess.
The next time you're deep in a recipe and the units don't match your tools, remember that air is the enemy of accuracy. Pack your fats, fluff your flours, and level your spoons. Better yet, embrace the metric system. It’s the only way to be sure that your 5 grams of salt today is the same as your 5 grams of salt next week.
Kitchen success isn't about luck. It’s about controlling the variables. Now that you know the gap between volume and mass, you're already ahead of most home cooks. Get a scale, stop the guesswork, and keep your ratios in check.