Ingredient Intelligence

How Many Apples Are in a Pound?

updated Oct 4, 2023
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stack of 3 apples, largest on bottom, medium-sized in middle, and smallest on top
Credit: Photo: Paola + Murray; Food Styling: Olivia Mack McCool

Whether you’re shopping on a budget or with a particular dish in mind, it’s helpful to know how many apples are in a pound. After all, most grocers price apples by weight, and recipes call for a certain number of pounds of apples (in that case, four).

Why? Because apples vary in size. Some varieties are known for being larger than others, but there’s even diversity within each type of apple. A Red Delicious, for example, can measure anywhere from 2.3 to 3.6 inches in diameter. Given these variables, it makes sense for retailers and recipe writers to specify a weight rather than number of apples.

Credit: Photo: Paola + Murray; Food Styling: Olivia Mack McCool

How Many Apples are in a Pound?

One pound of apples is about three medium-sized apples. To qualify as medium, each apple must be about the size of a tennis ball or something you can hold comfortably in the palm of your hand. From here it’s pretty easy to scale up depending on what you need.

How Many Small Apples are in a Pound?

Keep in mind that, in general, three medium-sized apples equals out to about one pound. That said, though, this ratio will change depending the size of apples available to you. When it comes apples on the small side, around four small apples make a pound. A small apples is generally one that you can hold and almost completely cover with one hand.

How Many Large Apples Are in a Pound?

Since we know that three medium-sized apples (or four small ones) make a pound, you can use this as a guide to know how many large apples make up a pound. In general, 2 large apples can often make up a pound, with large apples that are close in size to a softball.

(Image credit: Samantha Bolton)

How Many Apples Are in a Cup, or a Peck?

Moments will arise when you need to buy apples by another form of measurement. If you’re shopping at an orchard, farmstand, or bulk retailer, you may see apples priced by the peck, a volume measurement. One peck of apples is equivalent to approximately 13 pounds of apples.

Cups are a trickier form of measurement. If a recipe calls for one cup of peeled and chopped apples, for example, the size of your dice and fineness of your cuts will affect how you convert from pounds. Generally speaking, one pound of roughly chopped apples yields four cups. If you finely chop your apples, expect one pound to equal about three cups.