For an 8-ounce cup, use about 15g of ground coffee: roughly 3 level tablespoons, or 1½ standard coffee scoops. That is a 1:16 ratio, the same one the drip, pourover, and French press recipes on this site start from.
A scale gets you that 15g exactly. A spoon gets you close, and close is a perfectly good place to start. This guide gives you the spoon measurements, explains why they drift, and shows how to make them more reliable without buying anything.
Coffee for every cup size
Cup sizes are fluid ounces of water: 6 ounces is a “cup” on many coffee makers, 8 ounces is one measuring cup, and 12 to 16 ounces is a typical mug. Tablespoons (Tbsp) are level, of ground coffee, at about 5g each; a standard coffee scoop holds two.
| Cup | Coffee | Tbsp | Scoops | Water |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 oz | 11g | 2 | 1 | 177g |
| 8 oz | 15g | 3 | 1½ | 237g |
| 12 oz | 22g | 4½ | 2¼ | 355g |
| 16 oz | 30g | 6 | 3 | 473g |
These amounts are for the 1:16 baseline. For stronger coffee, down to 1:11, see making it stronger or weaker. For other sizes, the ratio calculator gives you grams; divide by 5 for tablespoons.
That 5g figure is the conventional one: the old Specialty Coffee Association of America guideline of 10g of coffee per 6-ounce cup was usually described as about two tablespoons. The National Coffee Association gives a wider range of one to two tablespoons per 6 ounces of water, which you can read as permission to adjust.
A “cup” on your coffee maker is not a cup
This mix-up is behind a lot of weak or overpowering pots.
- A measuring cup holds 8 fluid ounces.
- A “cup” on a drip coffee maker is usually 5 or 6 ounces, depending on the brand. A 12-cup machine holds about 60 to 72 ounces of water, not 96. Check the manual if you want to know yours.
- A “cup” on a French press is about 4 ounces, which is why a “3-cup” press makes one generous mug. See the French press sizing table.
So if you fill a coffee maker to the 8-cup line and add coffee for eight 8-ounce cups, you have used 30 to 60 percent too much. Measure by the machine’s own lines instead:
Use one level standard scoop (two tablespoons) per cup marked on the machine. With 5-ounce cups that works out to about 1:15; with 6-ounce cups, about 1:18. Both are sensible places to start. A full 12-cup pot takes 12 scoops: 24 tablespoons, or about 120g.
Why spoons are only approximate
A tablespoon measures space, not weight, and ground coffee does not fill space evenly. A level tablespoon can weigh anywhere from about 4g to 7g:
- Grind size. Fine coffee packs more tightly than coarse coffee, so a spoonful weighs more.
- Roast level. Dark roasts lose more mass in the roaster and puff up, so a spoonful of dark roast is lighter than the same spoon of light roast.
- Level versus heaped. A heaped spoon holds far more than a level one. Always level it off with a knife.
- Your scoop. Many scoops hold two tablespoons, but the ones packed in coffee tins often hold only one.
This is why the troubleshooting guide’s first fix for an inconsistent cup is to weigh the coffee: the same three spoons can differ by several grams from one bag to the next.
The measurements in this guide are for ground coffee. Whole beans pack differently, so if you grind fresh, measure after grinding or weigh the beans.
Calibrate your scoop once
You can take most of the guesswork out of a scoop without owning a scale.
First, find out what your scoop holds. Count how many level tablespoons of water it takes to fill it. Most hold one or two.
Then use the bag as your scale. A standard 12-ounce bag holds 340g of coffee. The next time you open a new bag of ground coffee, count the level scoops as you use it. Divide 340 by that count and you know what your scoop weighs with that coffee. If the bag lasted 34 scoops, each one was 10g.
If you have a kitchen scale for anything else, it is quicker still: weigh three level tablespoons of your usual coffee once and note the number.
Water is the easy half
One millilitre of water weighs one gram, so a liquid measuring cup is as accurate as a scale for water. One US cup is 237ml, or 237g.
To learn what your mug holds, fill it to where you normally stop and pour that into a measuring cup. Do it once and you will never have to guess the water again.
Making it stronger or weaker
Strength comes from the ratio of coffee to water: the lower the second number, the stronger the cup. Here is the range from very strong to light, for one 8-ounce cup:
| Ratio | Coffee | Tbsp | Tastes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1:11 | 22g | A generous 4 | Very strong |
| 1:12 | 20g | 4 | Strong |
| 1:13 | 18g | A generous 3½ | Strong |
| 1:14 | 17g | A scant 3½ | Bold |
| 1:15 | 16g | A generous 3 | A little stronger |
| 1:16 | 15g | 3 | The baseline |
| 1:17 | 14g | A scant 3 | Lighter |
| 1:18 | 13g | About 2½ | Lightest |
The strong end is for those who like a very bold cup of coffee. Some recipes on this site start there: the AeroPress baseline is 1:12, ready-to-drink cold brew runs 1:10 to 1:12, and the drip and French press ranges reach down to 1:14. At the light end, 1:18 is close to the Specialty Coffee Association’s long-standing brewing standard of 55g of coffee per litre of water.
Notice how small each step is: one row to the next is only 1 to 2g, less than half a tablespoon. The usual filter range, 1:15 to 1:18, spans about half a tablespoon per cup in total. That is well within the error of a single scoop, which is the honest case for a scale.
Before you change the amount, make sure strength is really the problem. A cup that tastes pleasant but watery needs more coffee. A cup that tastes sour needs a finer grind first. The two are easy to confuse; see weak versus sour.
Coffee for each brewing method
The baseline recipes on this site, converted to spoons:
| Method | Recipe | Tbsp |
|---|---|---|
| AeroPress | 15g coffee, 180g water | 3 |
| Pourover | 20g coffee, 320g water | 4 |
| Drip | 30g coffee, 480g water | 6 |
| French press | 30g coffee, 480g water | 6 to 7 |
| Cold brew | 60g coffee, 600g water | 12 to 13 (about ¾ cup) |
| Vietnamese coffee | 16g coffee, 120g water | 3 |
| Turkish coffee | 7g coffee, 70g water | 1 heaped teaspoon |
French press and cold brew use a coarse grind, which usually weighs a little less per spoon, so start at the higher count. Turkish coffee is the opposite: it is traditionally measured as one heaped teaspoon per cup, because its powder-fine grind packs far more tightly than the 5g tablespoon assumes.
Two methods do not suit spoons at all:
- Moka pot. The basket sets the dose: fill it level, without pressing it down.
- Espresso. The recipe calls for 18g, and half a tablespoon either way changes the dose by about 14%, which is enough to change the shot noticeably. Espresso needs a scale.
How far a bag goes
At 15g per 8-ounce cup:
- A 12-ounce bag (340g) makes about 22 cups.
- A 1-pound bag (454g) makes about 30 cups.
- A 2-pound bag (907g) makes about 60 cups.
Buying only what you can finish while it still tastes fresh matters more than buying in bulk. See how to store coffee beans.
Do you need a scale?
No. The spoon measures above will make good coffee, especially once you have calibrated your scoop.
A scale earns its place when you want the same cup every day, when you are fixing a problem and need to change one thing at a time, or when you start making espresso. A basic kitchen scale that reads in 1g steps is enough for everything on this site except espresso, which benefits from one that reads to 0.1g.