Coffee calculator

Enter your water, pick your method and strength. The calculator returns your coffee dose in grams, level tablespoons and standard scoops.

How this coffee calculator works

Every result comes from one simple rule: a brew ratio. That is the weight of water divided by the weight of coffee. For drip and pour-over, the golden-ratio range runs from 1:15 to 1:17. The calculator uses 1:16 as its balanced default, which works out to about 60 grams of coffee per liter of water.

Strength here means how much coffee meets the water, not caffeine. "Strong" moves the ratio to 1:15, so more coffee per cup. "Mild" stretches it to 1:17. Small numbers, big difference in the cup.

No scale yet? The tablespoon and scoop counts assume a level tablespoon holds about 5 grams of ground coffee, and a standard coffee scoop holds two tablespoons, about 10 grams. A printable chart of every ratio lives on the charts page.

Pick the calculator for your brewer

• How Much Coffee for 12 Cups? Grams, Scoops, Spoons

  How much coffee for 12 cups: about 110 g, or 22 level tablespoons, or 11 scoops for a standard 12-cup drip carafe.

• Cold Brew Coffee Calculator: Concentrate and Ratios

  The cold brew coffee calculator gives grams of coffee for concentrate or ready to drink batches, plus grind, steep time and dilution.

• How Much Coffee Per Cup? Scoops, Tablespoons, Grams

  How much coffee per cup: about 9 g for a 5 oz coffee maker cup, 15 g for an 8 oz mug, with scoop counts.

• Pour Over Coffee Calculator: Dose, Water and Timing

  The pour over coffee calculator sets your dose from a 1:16 ratio, then this page covers grind, bloom, pour stages and total brew time.

• French Press Coffee Calculator: Dose, Water and Time

  The french press coffee calculator sets your dose at a 1:14 ratio, then this page covers press sizes, grind, steep time and strength.

• Coffee to Water Ratio Calculator (Grams, Cups, Scoops)

  Use the coffee to water ratio calculator to get exact grams of coffee and water for any brew method, starting from a 1:16 default.

Why a cup is not a cup

The single biggest source of confusion in coffee math: your coffee maker's "cup" is 5 fluid ounces (148 ml), not the 8-ounce measuring cup in your kitchen drawer. A "12-cup" carafe holds about 60 ounces of water, not 96. Every calculator on this site uses the 5-ounce coffee-maker cup and says so, which is why the numbers here may look different from a guess based on kitchen cups.

Weight beats volume for the coffee itself, too. Beans differ in density, so a scoop of a light roast weighs more than a scoop of a dark roast. If your coffee is inconsistent from day to day and the grind is not the problem, measuring by grams usually is the fix.

When the numbers are right but the taste is wrong

The ratio sets how strong the cup is. Extraction sets how it tastes. If your coffee is bitter or harsh, it is usually over-extracted: the grind is too fine, the water too hot, or the contact time too long. If it is sour or thin, it is under-extracted. The fix guides walk through both, one variable at a time.

And if you are not sure your gear matches how you actually drink coffee, the two-minute setup quiz on our homepage matches you to a brewer, a grinder and a starting recipe.