Water to Rice Ratio and Yield Calculator
Enter dry rice in cups or grams and get the water needed, the cooked volume it makes, and how many people that feeds.
Covers seven rice types.
Two questions get asked together and answered separately almost everywhere: how much water goes in, and how much rice comes out. This page does both, because the second one is what you actually need when you are deciding whether one cup of dry rice will feed four people.
These figures are for a covered pan on the stovetop. A pan lid vents steam; a rice cooker lid effectively does not, and a pressure cooker loses almost nothing, so both want less water than the table below. The rice cooker water ratio calculator carries the same rice types with a separate column for each method.
The two formulas:
Water (cups) = Dry rice (cups) × Water ratio
Cooked rice (cups) = Dry rice (cups) × Yield factor
Stovetop ratios and yields by rice type:
| Rice Type | Water Ratio | Cooked Yield | Cook Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long-grain white | 1.75 : 1 | 3.0× | 15–20 min |
| Short-grain white | 1.5 : 1 | 2.5× | 15–20 min |
| Basmati | 1.75 : 1 | 3.0× | 15–20 min |
| Jasmine | 1.5 : 1 | 3.0× | 15–20 min |
| Brown rice | 2.25 : 1 | 2.5× | 40–50 min |
| Wild rice | 3.5 : 1 | 3.5× | 45–60 min |
| Sushi rice | 1.25 : 1 | 2.5× | 15–20 min |
Notice that water ratio and yield are not the same number and do not move together. Jasmine takes a quarter-cup less water per cup than basmati yet finishes at exactly the same volume, because jasmine is the softer grain and absorbs what it is given instead of letting some boil off. Brown rice is the opposite case: it drinks the second-most water on the list and returns the least, since a good part of that water is spent softening the bran rather than swelling the grain.
Worked example:
Cooking 3 cups of jasmine on the stovetop:
Water = 3 × 1.5 = 4.5 cups
Cooked = 3 × 3.0 = 9 cups, which is roughly 12 side-dish portions of ¾ cup each.
Stovetop method:
- Bring rice and water to a full boil uncovered
- Drop the heat to its lowest setting and cover tightly
- Cook for the time in the table, without lifting the lid
- Off the heat, rest 10 minutes with the lid still on
- Fluff with a fork, never a spoon
The rest at the end is not optional padding. It lets the moisture even out between the wet grains at the bottom and the drier ones on top, and skipping it is the difference between fluffy rice and rice that is gluey underneath.
Weighing instead of measuring:
1 cup of uncooked long-grain rice is about 185 g; short-grain and sushi rice run closer to 190 g, brown around 195 g, and wild rice only about 160 g because the grains are long and thin and pack badly. Switch the input above to grams if you would rather weigh, which is the more reliable route for wild rice in particular.
Practical tips:
- Rinse white rice until the water runs clear, which strips surface starch and stops the grains gluing together
- Do not rinse Italian or Japanese rice for risotto and sushi. That starch is doing a job
- Toasting the dry rice in the pan for 2–3 minutes before the water goes in adds a nutty edge
- Above about 900 m (3,000 ft), add 2–3 tablespoons of extra water per cup and give it about 5 minutes longer
How we build and check this calculator
This calculator runs entirely in your browser, so the numbers you enter stay on your device. The math behind it is written by hand and tested against worked examples and standard references before the page goes live.
SuperGlobalCalculator is independently built and maintained. See how we build and verify our calculators.