How much coffee per cup?
The single biggest lever on how your coffee tastes is the ratio of coffee to water. Pick your method and batch size and we’ll give you the grams — based on the ratios in our brewing guides.
Use
28–32 g coffee
to 480 g (≈480 ml) water
That’s a 1:15–1:17 ratio for pour-over (v60) — a starting point. If the cup tastes weak, add a little more coffee; if it’s overpowering, use a little less.
Why ratio by weight beats scoops
A “scoop per cup” varies wildly with grind size and how the scoop is loaded — enough to shift your ratio by 30%. Weighing coffee and water on a kitchen scale is the one habit that makes your cup repeatable. These ratios are starting points: nudge toward more coffee if the cup tastes weak or watery, less if it tastes harsh or overpowering.
The numbers here match our method guides — see how to use a pour-over and how to use a French press for the full technique, and the coffee grind size & ratio chart for how grind interacts with ratio. Pulling shots instead? Espresso uses a different dose-to-yield convention — see our espresso-to-water ratio guide.
Dial it in with the right gear
Consistent grind matters as much as ratio: a good burr grinder keeps every brew even. Browse our best burr grinders under $200 and the full coffee beans section to match beans to your method. Then keep your machine healthy with the descaling calculator and check your pod spend with the cost-per-cup calculator.