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Teaspoon to Grams

Grams of Salt to Teaspoons Calculator

Convert grams of salt to teaspoons for table, kosher and sea salt. One level teaspoon of fine table salt weighs 6.0 g — but kosher salt weighs as little as 2.8 g.

gramsteaspoons
Common amounts:

Table salt · 10 grams equals

1.666teaspoons

The densest common kitchen ingredient by teaspoon — fine crystals leave almost no air gaps.

Formula: grams ÷ 6.0 = teaspoons

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Level teaspoons

1.666 tsp

1 tsp table salt = 6.0 g

One level teaspoon of table salt (fine) weighs approximately 6.0 grams, based on a bulk density of 1.2175 grams per millilitre and a US teaspoon of 4.93 millilitres.

  • Based on standard culinary reference values
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Last updated · Reviewed by the Ali Raza

How many grams of salt are in a teaspoon?

One level teaspoon of fine table salt weighs about 6.0 grams — the heaviest common dry ingredient by the spoonful. To convert grams of salt to teaspoons, divide by 6.0: 10 g is 1.666 teaspoons and 20 g is 3.333 teaspoons. Kosher salt is far lighter: Diamond Crystal is only 2.8 g per teaspoon.

Every salt here is chemically identical — sodium chloride. What changes is crystal shape. Table salt is milled into dense cubes that pack with almost no air between them. Diamond Crystal is made as hollow flakes that stack loosely, so the same spoon holds less than half as much.

That makes salt the most error-prone conversion in the kitchen: swapping brands at the same teaspoon count can more than double the salt in a dish. Kosher and table salt are not interchangeable spoon for spoon. When a recipe names a brand, it is naming a weight.

How it's calculated

The salt reference values, and how to use them

The method is one division: grams ÷ grams-per-teaspoon = teaspoons. What makes salt unusually error-prone is that the divisor changes by more than a factor of two depending on which box is in your cupboard.

Every salt here is chemically the same thing — sodium chloride. What differs is crystal shape. Table salt is milled into tiny dense cubes that pack with almost no air between them, giving 6.0 g per teaspoon. Diamond Crystal kosher salt is made by a process that produces hollow, flaky pyramids which stack loosely and trap air, so the same teaspoon holds only 2.8 g. Morton kosher salt is rolled flat rather than hollow, landing in between at 4.8 g.

Reference weight of one level teaspoon
One level teaspoon of…Weighs
Table salt (fine)6.0 g
Sea salt (fine)5.5 g
Kosher salt — Morton4.8 g
Kosher salt — Diamond Crystal2.8 g

The salt trap

Why salt brands are not interchangeable

The same teaspoon can hold anywhere from 2.8 g to 6.0 g of salt. Nothing else in the kitchen varies this much.

Salt is the one ingredient where measuring by volume without naming the brand is close to meaningless. A teaspoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt contains 2.8 g of salt; a teaspoon of fine table salt contains 6.0 g. Following the same recipe with each produces dishes that are not slightly different but more than twice as salty in one direction.

This is why serious recipe writing either specifies the brand or gives salt by weight. If a recipe just says “1 tsp salt” with no further detail, it almost certainly means fine table salt — but if the dish tastes under-seasoned with kosher salt, this is why.

  • Substituting by volume: 1 tsp of table salt (6.0 g) is roughly 2 tsp of Diamond Crystal or 1¼ tsp of Morton. Converting through grams is more reliable than memorising ratios.

  • Salt and sodium are different numbers. Sodium is 39% of salt by weight, so 1 g of table salt supplies about 390 mg of sodium. A nutrition label giving sodium in milligrams is not giving you salt in milligrams.

  • Brining and curing must be done by weight. These recipes work on salt as a percentage of the water or meat, and a volume error compounds across the whole batch. Use a scale.

  • “A pinch” is not a unit. It is loosely taken as about 1/16 teaspoon — roughly 0.4 g of table salt — but it varies with the size of the hand doing the pinching.

Quick answers

Straight answers to the exact amounts people ask about

How many teaspoons is 10 grams of salt?
1.666 teaspoons of table salt (about 1¾), but 3.571 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal kosher salt.
How many teaspoons is 20 grams of salt?
3.333 teaspoons of table salt, 4.166 of Morton kosher, or 7.143 of Diamond Crystal.
How many teaspoons is 5 grams of salt?
0.8332 teaspoons of table salt — just over three-quarters of a teaspoon.
How many teaspoons is 1 gram of salt?
0.1666 teaspoons of table salt — about one sixth of a teaspoon, or a generous pinch.
How many grams is 1 teaspoon of salt?
6.0 g of table salt, 5.5 g of fine sea salt, 4.8 g of Morton kosher salt, or 2.8 g of Diamond Crystal kosher salt.
How many grams is 2 teaspoons of salt?
12 g of table salt, or 5.6 g of Diamond Crystal kosher salt.
How many grams is a tablespoon of salt?
18 g of table salt, since 3 teaspoons make 1 tablespoon. Diamond Crystal comes to 8.4 g.
How much salt is 2,300 mg of sodium?
About 5.8 g of table salt — just under one level teaspoon. Sodium is only 39% of salt by weight, so the two figures are not interchangeable.

Accuracy & assumptions

What these numbers assume

All values assume level teaspoons of dry, free-flowing salt. Table salt and fine sea salt are consistent and easy to measure. Kosher and flaked salts are not: their weight per teaspoon depends on how the flakes happen to settle, and shaking or tapping the spoon can change the reading by several percent.

The two kosher salt brands deserve stating plainly, because it is the single most consequential measurement difference in an American kitchen: Diamond Crystal is 2.8 g per teaspoon and Morton is 4.8 g. A recipe developed with Diamond Crystal and made with Morton by volume comes out roughly 70% saltier. Recipe writers who care about this specify the brand.

Coarse sea salt and flaky finishing salts vary too widely between producers for a single reference figure to be honest, so they are not listed. If a recipe calls for a specific weight of coarse salt, weigh it — or dissolve it and measure by taste.

Who should use this

Where this conversion matters

  • Cooks following metric recipes

    Bread, brine and cure recipes list salt in grams because the ratio to flour or water is what matters. This converts it to the spoons in your drawer.

  • Anyone switching salt brands

    Diamond Crystal and Morton are not interchangeable by volume. Converting through grams is the only reliable way to move a recipe between them.

  • People managing sodium intake

    Dietary guidance is given in milligrams of sodium; kitchens work in teaspoons of salt. This bridges the two without guesswork.

FAQs

Questions about this conversion

One level teaspoon of fine table salt weighs about 6.0 grams — the heaviest common dry kitchen ingredient by the spoonful. Kosher and coarse salts weigh far less for the same volume because their flakes stack loosely.

Ten grams of table salt is 1.7 teaspoons, or about 1¾ level teaspoons. If you are using Diamond Crystal kosher salt, the same 10 g fills 3.6 teaspoons — more than double, which is why salt brands are not interchangeable by volume.

Twenty grams of table salt is 3.3 teaspoons, or 1 tablespoon plus ¼ teaspoon. In Diamond Crystal kosher salt that same weight is 7.1 teaspoons, and in Morton kosher salt it is 4.2 teaspoons.

It depends on the brand. One teaspoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt weighs about 2.8 g, while Morton kosher salt weighs about 4.8 g — nearly double. Recipes developed with one brand will be noticeably over- or under-salted with the other.

One gram of table salt is 0.17 teaspoons — a generous pinch, or about one sixth of a level teaspoon. For reference, the daily sodium limit of 2,300 mg corresponds to about 5.8 g of table salt, or just under one level teaspoon.

Browse every question on the FAQ hub.

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Get the salt right

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