How many ounces are in a pound?
Quick answer
There are 16 ounces in a pound. One pound equals about 453.6 grams, and one ounce is about 28.35 grams.
A quarter-pound burger patty weighs 4 ounces before cooking. That’s because the everyday pound used in the US and UK, the avoirdupois pound, is split into exactly 16 ounces.
Converter
Common pound to ounce conversions
| Pounds | Ounces | Grams (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| ¼ lb | 4 oz | 113 g |
| ½ lb | 8 oz | 227 g |
| 1 lb | 16 oz | 454 g |
| 2 lb | 32 oz | 907 g |
| 5 lb | 80 oz | 2,268 g |
Ounces vs fluid ounces
Why gold uses a different ounce
Precious metals are weighed in troy ounces, an older system used by jewelers and banks. A troy ounce is a little heavier than a regular one, about 31.1 grams instead of 28.35. But a troy pound has only 12 troy ounces, so it’s lighter overall at about 373 grams.
When you see the price of gold or silver “per ounce,” it always means the troy ounce.
Where the 16 comes from
The avoirdupois system, from an old French phrase meaning “goods of weight,” was used by medieval merchants to weigh everyday goods. A pound divided into 16 parts is easy to halve again and again, which made weighing goods on a balance scale simple. Since 1959, the pound has been defined as exactly 0.45359237 kilograms.
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