How many calories are in cranberry sauce?
A 1/4 cup of canned cranberry sauce — the serving printed on the can — is 111 calories, and per 100 g the sauce runs 159 calories. It is one of the sweetest things on a Thanksgiving plate: 22.2 g of sugar in that quarter cup, with almost no fat, protein or sodium behind it.
You'd need to walk about 22 minutes to burn the 111 calories in a 1/4 cup (70 g) serving.
How long does it take to burn off 111 kcal of cranberry sauce?
A 1/4 cup (70 g) serving is 111 kcal. Enter your weight and the amount you ate to see how long it takes you to burn that off:
lb
| Activity | Time to burn 111 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 22 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 14 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 16 min |
| Jogging | 13 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 25 min |
Times are for a 155 lb adult at a steady pace; change the weight to see yours. The amount is set to the portion in the text (70 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Cranberry sauce quick facts
- Servings from one ounce to the whole can
- Jellied vs whole-berry vs raw cranberries
- Sugar is the row to watch
- How does cranberry sauce compare?
- Most popular cranberry sauce brands
- FAQ
Cranberry sauce quick facts
The row that matches the can in your hand is SR Legacy 173961, "Cranberry sauce, canned, sweetened". It is the full laboratory record, it carries the household measures people actually use — a cup and a half-inch slice — and it covers both styles of canned sauce before you pick jellied or whole-berry. USDA's FNDDS edition of the same food (2709280) reports identical numbers with a shorter nutrient list, so nothing is gained by switching.
Quantities below are per 100 g and per the 70 g quarter cup that canned sauce lists as its serving.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1/4 cup (70 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 159 | 111 | — |
| Total fat | 0.15 g | 0.1 g | 0% |
| Saturated fat | 0.01 g | 0.0 g | 0% |
| Carbohydrate | 40.4 g | 28.3 g | 10% |
| Dietary fiber | 1.1 g | 0.8 g | 3% |
| Total sugars | 31.75 g | 22.2 g | — |
| Protein | 0.9 g | 0.6 g | 1% |
| Sodium | 5 mg | 4 mg | 0% |
% Daily Value is based on a 2,000-calorie diet.
Verified nutrition data
Numbers on this page come from USDA FoodData Central, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food composition database, and from manufacturer labels where a branded product is named. Last verified September 2026. How we verify our data →
There is no added sugars line above because USDA does not publish added sugars for this record, and total sugars have no Daily Value of their own. Cholesterol is 0 mg and potassium is 28 mg per 100 g, 20 mg in a quarter cup, which is well under 1% of the FDA Daily Value of 4,700 mg. Everything except carbohydrate lands between 0% and 3% of a day.
Servings from one ounce to the whole can
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 oz | 28.3 g | 45 kcal |
| 2 tablespoons | 35 g | 56 kcal |
| 1 slice, 1/2 inch thick | 57 g | 91 kcal |
| 1/4 cup, the label serving | 70 g | 111 kcal |
| 1 cup | 277 g | 440 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 159 kcal |
The quarter cup, the slice and the full cup are USDA household measures for this record. The 2 tablespoons and the ounce are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not USDA servings — useful because a spooned dollop next to turkey is usually closer to two tablespoons than to a measured quarter cup.
The spread is what matters here. A cup is 440 calories, four times the label serving, and people who ladle sauce out of a bowl rarely stop at 70 g. Slice the jellied cylinder instead and each round is 91 calories, with a visible edge telling you when one helping ends. That is the cheapest portion trick on the whole table: the container does the measuring.
Jellied vs whole-berry vs raw cranberries
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jellied, canned | 160 kcal | 1/4 cup, 70 g | 112 kcal |
| Whole-berry, canned | 158 kcal | 1/4 cup, 70 g | 111 kcal |
| Canned sauce as eaten (FNDDS) | 159 kcal | 1 slice, 50 g | 80 kcal |
| Raw cranberries, unsweetened | 46 kcal | 1/4 cup, 70 g | 32 kcal |
Jellied and whole-berry are two calories apart per 100 g, one calorie apart on a quarter cup. Nobody should choose between them on calories. The difference is texture and a sliver of fiber: whole-berry keeps the skins and reports 1.2 g of fiber per 100 g, while jellied is strained and reports 1 g.
Raw cranberries are the honest comparison. At 46 calories per 100 g they are less than a third of the sauce, because the sauce is mostly sugar added to fruit that almost nobody eats plain. Sweeten your own and you land somewhere between the two, though how far depends entirely on the sugar you pour in — USDA has no record for homemade unsweetened sauce, so we can't put a number on it.
Store labels sit close to the laboratory rows. USDA's Branded records put Ocean Spray jellied and whole-berry at 157 calories per 100 g, 110 per labeled quarter cup, and Natural Directions jellied lower at 143 per 100 g and 100 a serving. The outlier is a relish-style sauce, Saucy Susan, at 216 calories per 100 g with a smaller 2-tablespoon (37 g) serving of 80 calories.
Sugar is the row to watch
Of the 40.4 g of carbohydrate in 100 g of canned sauce, 31.75 g are sugars. That is close to a third of the jar by weight, and it is why a quarter cup carries 111 calories while the same weight of raw cranberries carries 32. Fiber does not rescue it: 1.1 g per 100 g is 0.8 g in a serving, 3% of the 28 g Daily Value.
USDA does not publish added sugars for this record, so we can't give you a percentage on that line. What the canned labels say is that most of the sugar in sweetened sauce was added rather than grown, which is the part the Dietary Guidelines ask Americans to keep an eye on. It is also the reason MyPlate's fruit advice steers toward whole fruit first.
The flip side is that cranberry sauce is clean everywhere else. Fat is 0.15 g per 100 g. Sodium is 5 mg per 100 g, 4 mg a serving — a rounding error against the 2,300 mg Daily Value, nothing at all next to the stuffing and gravy sharing the plate. If you're watching sodium at a holiday meal, this is the one dish on the table you can ignore.
How does cranberry sauce compare?
| Food | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cranberry sauce, canned | 159 kcal | 1/4 cup, 70 g | 111 kcal |
| Cranberries, raw | 46 kcal | 1/4 cup, 70 g | 32 kcal |
| Blueberries, raw | 64 kcal | 1/4 cup, 70 g | 45 kcal |
| Blueberries, canned | 88 kcal | 1/4 cup, 70 g | 62 kcal |
Serving weights in this table are 70 g throughout so the columns compare like with like; the 70 g quarter cup is a USDA measure for the sauce and our own arithmetic for the three berry rows.
Our take: cranberry sauce is the heaviest of the four by a wide margin, nearly three and a half times raw cranberries per gram, and even canned blueberries in syrup are lighter. Treat it as a sweet condiment, not a fruit side. If you want the flavor with fewer calories, keep the helping to one 57 g slice at 91 calories rather than a spooned cup at 440 — that single decision is worth more than any jellied-versus-whole-berry debate.
Most popular cranberry sauce brands in the United States
Ranked by how widely each product appears among foods sold in the United States, from the BodyPal food database of over 3.3 million products. Calories are the figures printed on each Nutrition Facts label, checked against USDA FoodData Central.
| Product | Calories (per 100 g) |
|---|---|
| Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce | 157 cal |
| Ocean Spray Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce | 157 cal |
| Saucy Susan The Original Cranberry Sauce | 216 cal |
| Tipton Grove Jellied Cranberry Sauce | 157 cal |
| Schnucks Whole Cranberry Sauce | 157 cal |
| Natural Directions Jellied Cranberry Sauce | 143 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Cranberry sauce FAQs
How many calories are in 1/4 cup of cranberry sauce?
111 calories for the 70 g quarter cup that canned sauce lists as a serving. That works out to 159 calories per 100 g. Carbohydrate does all the work: 28.3 g in that quarter cup, of which 22.2 g is sugar. Fat, protein and sodium round to nothing.
How much sugar is in cranberry sauce?
22.2 g of total sugars in a 1/4 cup, or 31.75 g per 100 g — close to a third of the sauce by weight. USDA does not publish added sugars for this record, so there is no %DV to give, though canned sauce labels declare most of that sugar as added.
Is jellied or whole berry cranberry sauce lower in calories?
Whole-berry, by two calories per 100 g: 158 against 160 for jellied. On a 1/4 cup that is 111 versus 112 — a rounding difference, not a choice. The real gap is fiber, 1.2 g per 100 g in whole-berry against 1 g in the strained jellied version.
How many calories are in a whole can of cranberry sauce?
About 725 calories. USDA lists a 1/2-inch slice at 57 g and roughly eight slices per can, which puts the can near 456 g; at 159 calories per 100 g that is 725. This is our own arithmetic from the USDA figures, not a USDA serving.
How many carbs are in cranberry sauce?
28.3 g in a 1/4 cup, which is 10% of the FDA Daily Value of 275 g, and 40.4 g per 100 g. Fiber accounts for only 0.8 g of the quarter cup, so almost all of it is sugar and starch that counts toward your day's carbohydrate.
How many calories in Ocean Spray cranberry sauce?
110 calories per 1/4 cup on the label for both the jellied and the whole-berry can, from USDA's Branded records at 157 calories per 100 g. USDA's own laboratory rows for the same two products land at 160 and 158 per 100 g. Same sauce, different rounding.
Is cranberry sauce healthy?
It is a condiment with 22.2 g of sugar per 1/4 cup, so treat it as one. The upside is small: 0.8 g fiber, 4 mg sodium, no fat. Raw cranberries are 46 calories per 100 g against 159 for the sauce, and MyPlate's fruit advice points to whole fruit first.
How many calories in one slice of jellied cranberry sauce?
91 calories for a 1/2-inch slice weighing 57 g, using the jellied row at 160 calories per 100 g. The generic canned row gives the same 91. A slice is the easiest helping to keep track of, about 20 calories under the quarter cup poured from a bowl.
Similar foods
- Avocado — 322 cal per avocado
- Hass Avocado — 114 cal for 1/2 avocado
- Banana — 105 cal per medium banana
- Grapes — 104 cal per cup
- Bartlett Pear — 112 cal per medium pear
- Bing Cherries — 97 cal per cup without pits
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the plate and BodyPal counts the sauce for you, slice or spoonful.
