Canning Sugar Syrup Calculator
Calculate water and sugar for light (20%), medium (30%), and heavy (40%) canning syrups by jar count and size.
Includes honey and corn syrup substitutions.
When canning fruit, sugar syrup serves as the packing liquid. It preserves color, texture, and flavor while preventing fruit from floating in the jar. The USDA defines standard syrup concentrations for home canning.
Standard Syrup Concentrations. These are the USDA batch quantities, which make roughly 7 cups, enough for 5 to 6 quarts of fruit. The last column is what the calculator works from.
| Syrup Type | Sugar (%) | Water | Sugar | Yield | Sugar per Cup Water | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extra Light | 10% | 6½ cups | 1¼ cups | 7 cups | 3 tbsp | Naturally sweet fruit |
| Light | 20% | 5¾ cups | 1½ cups | 6½ cups | 4 tbsp (¼ cup) | Sweet berries, cherries |
| Medium | 30% | 5¼ cups | 2¼ cups | 6½ cups | 7 tbsp | Peaches, pears, apricots |
| Heavy | 40% | 5 cups | 3¼ cups | 7 cups | 10½ tbsp | Tart fruit, sour cherries |
| Extra Heavy | 50% | 4¼ cups | 4¼ cups | 7 cups | 16 tbsp (1 cup) | Very tart fruit |
The percentages are approximate sugar by weight, and they are rounder than the recipes behind them. Medium works out nearer 27% than 30%, heavy nearer 36% than 40%. Nobody adjusts for that, and neither does this page, but it explains why two charts can label the same syrup differently.
Formula: Sugar (cups) = Water (cups) × Sugar Ratio Total Volume = Water Volume + Sugar Volume (sugar dissolves and adds ~60% of its dry volume)
That 60% is not a guess. Take the medium row: 5¼ cups of water plus 2¼ of sugar should give 5.25 + 2.25 × 0.6 = 6.6 cups, and the USDA yield for that batch is 6½. The same check lands within a quarter cup on all five rows.
Syrup Needed per Jar: Each jar needs enough syrup to fill the space between fruit pieces.
| Jar Size | Syrup Needed (approx.) |
|---|---|
| Half-pint (8 oz) | ⅓ – ½ cup |
| Pint (16 oz) | ½ – ¾ cup |
| Quart (32 oz) | ¾ – 1¼ cups |
These amounts assume raw-pack (cold fruit placed in jars). Hot-pack (pre-heated fruit) requires slightly less syrup because the fruit compresses during heating.
Worked example: 7 quart jars, medium syrup, raw pack
- Syrup per jar: 1 cup → 7 cups
- Overproduce by 15%: 7 × 1.15 = 8.1 cups of finished syrup
- Medium is 0.43 cups of sugar per cup of water, and the sugar adds 60% of its own volume, so a cup of water becomes 1 + 0.43 × 0.6 = 1.26 cups of syrup
- Water: 8.1 / 1.26 = 6.4 cups
- Sugar: 6.4 × 0.43 = 2.8 cups, about 550 g or 1.2 lb
Tips:
- Always make 10–15% extra syrup to account for spillage and settling. The figures below carry 15%.
- Heat water to boiling, add sugar, stir until dissolved. Keep hot for packing.
- You can substitute honey for up to half the sugar in light and medium syrups.
- Fruit juice (apple, white grape) can replace all or part of the syrup for a no-added-sugar option.
Not the syrup you were looking for? Beekeepers also make sugar syrup, and they describe it a completely different way: as a ratio by weight, 1:1 in spring and 2:1 in autumn. A 2:1 bee syrup is 67% sugar by weight, well past the heaviest canning syrup here. That one is the bee feeding sugar syrup calculator. Do not feed canning syrup to a hive, and do not pack peaches in 2:1.
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