How many calories are in a marshmallow?
A full cup of marshmallows weighs only 40 g and carries 127 calories. Per 100 g the candy runs 318 calories, and one regular-size marshmallow, about 8 g, is 25. Marshmallow is sugar, corn syrup, gelatin and air, and the air is why the cup weighs so little.
You'd need to walk about 25 minutes to burn the 127 calories in a 1-cup (40 g) serving.
How long does it take to burn off marshmallows?
A 1-cup (40 g) serving is 127 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 127 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 25 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 16 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 18 min |
| Jogging | 15 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 28 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 (40 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Marshmallow quick facts
- US servings from one mini to a full cup
- Marshmallow variants worth knowing
- Sugar is the whole label
- How does a marshmallow compare?
- Most popular marshmallow brands
- FAQ
Marshmallow quick facts
The record that matches what you are actually holding is FNDDS 2710353, "Candy, marshmallow" — the plain white or pink marshmallow out of a bag, not a cookie or a cereal bar built around one. USDA gives it household measures for a single piece and for a cup, which is exactly how people log it.
The older SR Legacy entry 167995 reports the same values line for line, so nothing moves depending on which release you land on. The column below is built on a 1-cup serving, 40 g, because that is the measure most home cooks reach for when a recipe or a hot chocolate calls for marshmallows.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 cup (40 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 318 | 127 | — |
| Total fat | 0.2 g | 0.1 g | 0% |
| Saturated fat | 0.06 g | 0.0 g | 0% |
| Carbohydrate | 81.3 g | 32.5 g | 12% |
| Dietary fiber | 0.1 g | 0.0 g | 0% |
| Total sugars | 57.56 g | 23.0 g | — |
| Protein | 1.8 g | 0.7 g | 1% |
| Sodium | 80 mg | 32 mg | 1% |
% 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 →
Two rows you might expect are missing. There is no added-sugars line, because this FNDDS release does not split added sugars out of the total for the record, and no trans fat line for the same reason. Cholesterol is 0 mg and potassium is 5 mg per 100 g, which is 2 mg in a cup — small enough that neither is worth a row. The Daily Values used above are the FDA reference amounts for adults.
US servings from one mini to a full cup
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 miniature, bite size | 1 g | 3 kcal |
| 1 piece, regular | 8 g | 25 kcal |
| 1 oz | 28 g | 90 kcal |
| 1 cup | 40 g | 127 kcal |
| 1 single-serve package | 40 g | 127 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 318 kcal |
The miniature, the regular piece, the cup and the package are all USDA household measures for this record. The ounce is our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not a USDA serving — useful if you weigh candy on a kitchen scale instead of scooping it.
The cup is the number people get wrong. A cup of marshmallows weighs 40 g, a fifth to a third of what a cup of denser sweets weighs, because the candy is mostly whipped air. So the cup that looks enormous in a mug of cocoa is 127 calories, and the four pieces you eat standing at the counter are 100.
Counting by piece is where the day quietly slides. One marshmallow is 25 calories, which feels like nothing. A bowl filled with them holds about 15, roughly 120 g, which is about 382 calories by our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure — more than a slice of most cakes. The pile is what you should be logging, not the piece.
Marshmallow variants worth knowing
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical piece | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mini marshmallows | 318 kcal | 1 miniature, 1 g | 3 kcal |
| Marshmallow creme, fluff | 322 kcal | 1 oz, 28 g | 91 kcal |
| Marshmallow rice cereal treat | 417 kcal | 1 medium bar, 38 g | 158 kcal |
| S'more, graham and chocolate | 465 kcal | 1 medium cookie, 42 g | 195 kcal |
| Marshmallow pie, moon pie | 421 kcal | 1 moon pie, 78 g | 328 kcal |
| Chocolate marshmallow fudge | 453 kcal | 1 oz, 28 g | 128 kcal |
Minis and regulars are the same candy at the same 318 calories per 100 g; only the piece size changes, and a mini is about 1 g against 8 g for a regular. Count them by the cup and the distinction disappears entirely.
Marshmallow creme, the jar you spoon into fudge or a fluffernutter, sits at 322 calories per 100 g — barely above the bagged candy, and lower in total sugars at 46.8 g per 100 g, since the creme is whipped with syrup rather than set into pieces. An ounce is 91 calories, our own scaling from the USDA 100 g figure.
Everything after that is not really marshmallow anymore. A rice cereal treat is marshmallow melted with butter, which is why it jumps to 417 calories per 100 g and 351 mg of sodium. The s'more is the biggest jump of all at 465, and the moon pie, at 78 g for a single pie, gets to 328 calories on size as much as on density.
Branded bags land close to the generic record. Jet-Puffed lists 100 calories for four pieces, 29 g, which works out to 345 per 100 g, and Peeps chicks list 110 for four chicks, 34 g, or 324 per 100 g. Marshmallow Fluff lists 40 calories for 2 tablespoons, 12 g. Label rounding explains most of the spread between those and the USDA 318.
Sugar is the whole label
Strip a marshmallow down and there is almost nothing on the label except carbohydrate. A cup gives 32.5 g of carbohydrate, 12% of the Daily Value, of which 23.0 g is total sugars. Protein is 0.7 g, fiber rounds to zero, and fat is 0.1 g.
That last figure is worth pausing on. Marshmallows are one of the rare candies with effectively no fat: 0.2 g per 100 g, and 0.02 g in a single piece scaled from that figure. Under FDA labeling rules a serving with less than 0.5 g of fat can be called fat free, so a bag of plain marshmallows clears the bar easily. Saturated fat is 0.06 g per 100 g, which is 0% of the Daily Value at any realistic serving.
Fat free is not the same as light, though. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans put added sugars at under 10% of daily calories, which is 200 calories on a 2,000-calorie day. USDA does not publish an added-sugars value for this record, so we can't say what share of the 23.0 g in a cup counts against that — but marshmallow is sugar, corn syrup and gelatin, and there is no fruit or dairy in it. Treat the cup as a dessert, not as a snack that happens to be fat free. MyPlate files it exactly there.
Sodium is a non-issue at 32 mg a cup, 1% of the Daily Value. The rice cereal treat is the one to watch on that row instead, at 351 mg per 100 g, because of the butter and the cereal.
How does a marshmallow compare?
| Food | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marshmallow | 318 kcal | 1 cup, 40 g | 127 kcal |
| Rice cereal treat | 417 kcal | 1 medium bar, 38 g | 158 kcal |
| Marshmallow pie, chocolate covered | 421 kcal | 1 moon pie, 78 g | 328 kcal |
| S'mores cookie | 465 kcal | 1 medium cookie, 42 g | 195 kcal |
Our take: plain marshmallow is the lightest of these four per gram, and by the serving it is lighter still, because 40 g of it fills a cup while 42 g of s'more fits in one hand. If you want a sweet that costs the least per bite, eat the marshmallows on their own — four pieces for 100 calories is a genuinely cheap dessert. The moment butter, graham cracker or a chocolate coating joins in, the rate per 100 g climbs by a third to a half: the moon pie at 328 calories is more than two and a half cups of marshmallows. For satiety, none of these will do anything for you; they are sugar with no fiber and next to no protein, so eat them as dessert after a real meal rather than instead of one.
Most popular marshmallow 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) |
|---|---|
| Marshmallow Fluff | 333 cal |
| Jet-Puffed Marshmallows | 345 cal |
| Jet-Puffed S'moremallows | 333 cal |
| Jet-Puffed Marshmallows Chocolate Swirl | 333 cal |
| Jet-Puffed Heartmallows Strawberry | 323 cal |
| Peeps Marshmallow Chicks | 324 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Marshmallow FAQs
How many calories are in one marshmallow?
One regular marshmallow weighs 8 g and gives 25 calories, from the USDA rate of 318 calories per 100 g. Miniature marshmallows weigh about 1 g each, so they land near 3 calories apiece. Four regular pieces, roughly a handful, come to 100 calories.
How many calories in a cup of mini marshmallows?
USDA puts one cup of marshmallows at 40 g, which is 127 calories, whether the cup is filled with minis or with a few regular pieces. That cup carries 32.5 g of carbohydrate and 23.0 g of total sugars. Minis pack tighter, so a heaped cup can weigh more than 40 g.
Are marshmallows fat free?
Close to it: 0.2 g of fat per 100 g, which is 0.1 g in a 40 g cup and about 0.02 g in one piece. FDA labeling lets a serving with less than 0.5 g of fat be called fat free, so bagged marshmallows qualify. Saturated fat is 0.06 g per 100 g.
How much sugar is in a marshmallow?
One 8 g marshmallow holds about 4.6 g of total sugars, scaled from the USDA figure of 57.56 g per 100 g, and a 40 g cup holds 23.0 g. USDA does not split added sugars out of this record, so there is no added-sugars line here to set against the Daily Value.
Do roasted marshmallows have more calories?
No - an 8 g marshmallow is 25 calories before the fire and 25 after. Roasting caramelizes the surface sugar and drives off a little water; nothing is added, and USDA publishes no separate record for a roasted one. The number only moves when it meets graham cracker and chocolate.
How many calories in a s'more?
A medium s'more cookie of 42 g is 195 calories, at 465 calories per 100 g. It carries 18.57 g of fat and 9.96 g of saturated fat per 100 g, and essentially all of that comes from the chocolate and the graham cracker, since the marshmallow itself brings 0.2 g.
How many calories in Jet-Puffed marshmallows?
The Kraft Heinz label lists 100 calories for four pieces, 29 g, which works out to 345 calories per 100 g against the 318 in the USDA generic record. S'moremallows list 110 calories for two pieces, 33 g. Label rounding accounts for most of that gap.
How many calories in marshmallow fluff?
Marshmallow Fluff lists 40 calories for 2 tablespoons, 12 g. The USDA record for marshmallow creme is 322 calories per 100 g, so an ounce, 28 g, is 91 calories by our own arithmetic. Creme is a shade denser than bagged marshmallows but lower in total sugars, at 46.8 g per 100 g.
Similar foods
- Coconut Shrimp — 250 cal for 4 shrimp
- Italian sub — 610 cal per regular sub
- Sausage Link — 75 cal per link
- Sausage — 210 cal per link
- Falafel — 170 cal for 3 patties
- Brie — 95 cal per oz
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the bowl and BodyPal counts the marshmallows for you, minis included.
