Wondering how much does a banana weigh, a medium one is 118 grams

A medium banana weighs 118 grams once it's peeled, according to USDA nutrient data. That's about 4.2 ounces, and it's the honest short answer to how much does a banana weigh. Put the same banana on a scale with its skin still on, though, and you're closer to 180 grams.

That gap matters more than you'd expect. Recipes, calorie apps and grocery receipts each use a different version of banana weight, and mixing them up can throw off a loaf of banana bread or a food log by a third. The numbers below sort out which one you need and when.

How much does a banana weigh by size?

USDA sorts bananas into five sizes by length, measured along the outside curve. Each step up adds roughly 15 to 20 grams of fruit. These weights are for peeled, edible fruit, taken straight from the USDA National Nutrient Database report for raw bananas.

Most supermarket Cavendish bananas land in the medium or large row. If yours stretches past 9 inches, start from 152 grams instead.

Peeled vs unpeeled, the skin is a big share

Peel is the part most charts skip. A research review on banana peel, archived by the National Library of Medicine, puts the peel at about 35% of a banana's total weight. Work backward from 118 grams and a whole medium banana comes to roughly 180 grams on the scale.

Rule of thumb: multiply a peeled banana's weight by 1.5 to estimate the whole fruit with its skin, or multiply a whole banana by 0.65 to find the part you'll actually eat.

How many grams in a banana when you're baking

Banana bread recipes love to say "3 ripe bananas," which is a guess dressed up as a measurement. Three large bananas give you about 408 grams of fruit, while three small ones give only 303 grams. A 105 gram swing is plenty to turn a tender loaf dense and gummy.

So how many grams in a banana should you plan for? Use 118 per medium banana and write your recipes in grams. If an old recipe card is in ounces, the grams to ounces converter handles the switch in a second.

Sliced or mashed, the cup changes

USDA lists a cup of sliced banana at 150 grams and a cup of mashed banana at 225 grams. Mashing collapses the air gaps, so the same cup holds half again as much fruit. If a recipe says "1 cup banana" without saying which, weigh it.

Calories in a banana follow the gram weight

Calories in a banana track weight almost perfectly, because USDA lists raw banana at 89 calories per 100 grams. A small banana gives you 90 calories, a medium one 105, and an extra large one 135. Log every banana as "one medium" and you'll undercount big ones by 30 calories apiece.

Weighing helps most when bananas go into something else, like a smoothie or a bowl of oats. Our oatmeal serving size guide covers the other half of that breakfast.

Banana nutrition chart for one medium banana

The banana nutritional content per medium fruit is light on protein and fat but strong on potassium. All of these figures come from the same USDA report as the size table.

The nutritional value of bananas scales with weight: 89 calories and 358 mg of potassium in every 100 grams of peeled fruit. Weigh it and you can calculate any banana exactly.

How many bananas in a pound, and what each one costs

A pound is 453.6 grams. With the peel on, a medium banana weighs about 180 grams, so you get 2.5 medium bananas per pound. Small ones come closer to 3 per pound and large ones closer to 2.

Stores sell bananas by the whole-fruit pound, so you pay for the peel too. The U.S. city average price was $0.656 per pound in September 2026, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data on FRED. That puts a medium banana at about 26 cents at the register.

This is where the peel gets expensive. Since about 35% of what you pay for ends up in the compost, the edible fruit really costs about $1.01 per pound. Bananas are still cheap produce, but that's the fair number to use when you compare them to frozen banana chunks or fruit cups priced by edible weight.

Buying the right bunch by weight

Need 350 grams of banana for a recipe? Grab a bunch that reads about 540 grams on the produce scale. That's 350 divided by 0.65, and it saves you a second trip.

At $0.656 per pound, a 3 pound bunch costs about $1.97, and roughly $0.69 of that is peel you'll throw away.

Estimating average banana weight without a scale

No scale on the counter? Length is your best clue. Measure along the outside curve and match it to the USDA size bands, since a medium banana runs 7 to 7 7/8 inches.

The average banana weight people quote, around 118 grams, only holds for that medium band. For other everyday reference objects, our guide to what weighs 100 grams has handy comparisons, and a quick photo in the app can estimate the rest.

Banana weight questions people ask

How much does a banana weigh in ounces?

A medium peeled banana is 118 grams, which is about 4.2 ounces. With the peel it's roughly 6.4 ounces. A large peeled banana comes to about 4.8 ounces.

Is banana nutrition the same for every size?

Per gram, yes. The nutrients per 100 grams stay the same, so a bigger banana simply gives you more of everything. An extra large banana has 135 calories and 544 mg of potassium, against 72 calories and 290 mg for an extra small one.

How many grams of banana is one serving?

The standard labeling serving, listed as the NLEA serving in USDA data, is 126 grams of peeled banana. That's a little more than one medium fruit, and it carries 112 calories and 451 mg of potassium.

Need to weigh a banana fast? Download Scale for Grams, snap a photo of the fruit and get an AI-powered weight estimate in grams or ounces in seconds. Get the app here: iOS.