How many grams are in a cup of chocolate chips?

Chocolate chips cups to grams: quick conversion table

These approximate amounts use our reference of 170g per US cup of regular chocolate chips, rounded to the nearest gram.

For example, if a cookie recipe calls for 2 cups of chocolate chips, use 340g. If it calls for ¾ cup, use 128g.

These are weights for regular chocolate chips, not cocoa powder, melted chocolate or chocolate-flavoured cake decorations.

If the recipe already gives a weight in grams, follow that figure instead of converting the cups again.

What are 'semisweet chocolate chips' in the UK?

They're chocolate chips with some sweetness but a stronger cocoa flavour than typical milk chocolate chips.

Semisweet is a familiar description on American baking chocolate. In the UK, you're more likely to see dark chocolate chips, plain chocolate chips or a dark chocolate bar.

For a chocolate chip cookie recipe, dark or plain chocolate chips are often a sensible UK starting point. But semisweet isn't one exact cocoa percentage, and not every dark chocolate tastes the same. Read the pack and choose a sweetness and chocolate intensity that suits the recipe.

You can also chop a dark chocolate bar into pieces. That gives you a different texture from neatly shaped chips, which may be exactly what you want in a cookie.

If the recipe specifies milk chocolate chips, use milk chocolate instead. And if it specifies unsweetened chocolate, don't substitute ordinary semisweet chips: the sweetness and composition are different.

American recipes sometimes call chocolate chips morsels. That doesn't mean you need a separate ingredient; it's another common name for small baking chips.

Are chocolate chips and chopped chocolate interchangeable?

Often in cookies, yes — by weight — but expect a different result.

Chocolate chips are designed to hold their little shapes reasonably well during baking. Chopped chocolate tends to create more irregular pieces and can melt into larger, softer pockets.

That difference affects the look and feel of a biscuit, even when the amount of chocolate is the same.

For example, if an American recipe asks for 1 cup of chocolate chips (about 170g), you can choose to weigh 170g of chopped dark chocolate instead for a more melted, chocolate-chunk style cookie. It's a substitution in the recipe, not a claim that every cup of chopped pieces will weigh precisely the same as a cup of regular chips.

If you're making a recipe where the chocolate must keep its shape, follow the recipe rather than assuming any chopped bar will work identically.

UK recipes frequently use grams of chopped chocolate. BBC Good Food's easy chocolate chip cookies, for instance, use 150g of dark chocolate cut into chunks. That's the recipe's tested amount: don't change it to 170g just because another recipe uses a cup.

Do mini chocolate chips weigh the same as regular ones?

Not quite. The pieces are smaller, so they can settle differently in a cup.

Our existing converter keeps these chocolate ingredients separate:

These weights follow King Arthur Baking's ingredient chart. They're useful reference amounts, not a promise that every brand or size will weigh exactly that much.

If you're measuring ½ cup of mini chips using our separate 177g reference, that's approximately 89g to the nearest gram, rather than the 85g for regular chips.

Choose the correct ingredient in the Cupstograms converter when you can. The numbers may be close, but there's no advantage in pretending all chocolate pieces pack into a cup in exactly the same way.

What if the recipe asks for 6oz or 12oz of chocolate chips?

Those are usually ounces by weight, not fluid ounces.

King Arthur Baking's chart gives 6oz by weight for a cup of regular chocolate chips, rounded to 170g. Twice that amount is 12oz by weight, or about 340g, which corresponds to our two-cup reference.

So if an American recipe says 6oz chocolate chips, weighing about 170g is straightforward.

Don't confuse this with 6 US fluid ounces, which measures a volume of liquid. And don't assume that the fluid ounce markings on a jug tell you the mass of chocolate chips.

For UK cooking, grams are the simplest way to avoid the mix-up.

How should I measure chocolate chips if I only have cups?

If you have scales, weigh the chocolate directly into a bowl:

1. Put the empty bowl on the scales and press zero.
2. Pour in the chips until you reach 170g for one US cup or 85g for half a cup.
3. Add them to the mixture when the recipe tells you to.

If you're using a US measuring cup, pour the chips in and level the top. There's no need to crush them down or pack them tightly.

The exact weight can vary with chip size, shape and how much space sits between the pieces. That's one reason we describe 170g as an approximate reference, not a universal measurement for every bag of chocolate.

If you have a 200g packet and need one US cup, simply weigh out 170g. You'll have about 30g left. You don't need to work out how full an unfamiliar measuring cup should look.

Is a US cup the same as a 250ml measuring cup?

No. A standard US recipe cup holds about 237ml, while some metric measuring cups are marked at 250ml.

Those are volumes, not gram weights. One US cup of chocolate chips has spaces between the pieces, so it certainly doesn't follow that 237ml of chocolate chips must weigh 237g.

The simplest UK solution is to use the recipe's gram amount if it has one, or our 170g-per-US-cup reference for ordinary chocolate chips.

Where our figures come from

Our standard 170g per US cup comes from King Arthur Baking's ingredient weight chart (opens in a new tab). It also lists 177g for mini chocolate chips and 170g each for white chocolate chips and chopped chocolate.

For the practical difference between chip shapes and chopped bars, see King Arthur Baking's discussion of the best chocolate for chocolate chip cookies (opens in a new tab) and its guide to types of chocolate (opens in a new tab).

For the UK context, BBC Good Food's easy chocolate chip cookies (opens in a new tab) use dark chocolate chopped into chunks, while its cookie-making tips (opens in a new tab) discuss choosing chocolate for the taste and texture you want.

To convert a different amount, use our Cups to Grams converter and choose Chocolate chips, Mini chocolate chips or another matching chocolate ingredient.

The takeaway: in Cupstograms, one US cup of regular chocolate chips is about 170g, and half a cup is 85g. Weigh the chocolate when you can, check whether the American recipe means semisweet or milk chocolate, and choose chips or chunks based on the result you're after.