How many calories are in a Persian cucumber?
One Persian cucumber weighs about 85 g and carries 13 calories. Per 100 g, raw cucumber with the peel on runs 15 calories, about as low as solid food goes. Sliced into a cup you get 16. Almost all of that weight is water, and the peel is where the potassium sits.
On this page
- Persian cucumber quick facts
- US servings from one ounce to a whole slicer
- Peeled cooked pickled and dressed
- Potassium and sodium are the rows to watch
- How does a Persian cucumber compare
- Most popular persian cucumber brands
- FAQ
Persian cucumber quick facts
USDA has no record called "Persian cucumber." The one that fits what you are holding is SR Legacy 168409, "Cucumber, with peel, raw", because a Persian cucumber is eaten raw, unpeeled, and whole. There is a newer Foundation record with the same description, but it is missing sugars, saturated fat and fiber, and its calorie figure is calculated rather than measured. So the older, complete row wins.
The 85 g piece below is the serving printed on US mini Persian cucumber labels; the nutrient values for it are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not a USDA household serving.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 Persian cucumber (85 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 15 | 13 | — |
| Total fat | 0.11 g | 0.1 g | 0% |
| Saturated fat | 0.04 g | 0.0 g | 0% |
| Carbohydrate | 3.63 g | 3.1 g | 1% |
| Dietary fiber | 0.5 g | 0.4 g | 2% |
| Total sugars | 1.67 g | 1.4 g | — |
| Protein | 0.65 g | 0.6 g | 1% |
| Sodium | 2 mg | 2 mg | 0% |
| Cholesterol | 0 mg | 0 mg | 0% |
| Potassium | 147 mg | 125 mg | 3% |
% 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 row here. The SR Legacy edition does not carry that field, and a raw cucumber has no added sugar to declare, so the line is left out rather than filled with a guess. The 1.4 g of sugar in one cucumber is what the plant put there.
Two things stand out on the table. The first is how little of anything is present: 0.1 g of fat, 2 mg of sodium, 0.6 g of protein. The second is that the carbohydrate figure, 3.1 g per cucumber, is a rounding error against the 275 g Daily Value the FDA uses for the Nutrition Facts label. Cucumber is one of the few foods where the honest answer to "how many calories" is "barely worth logging, but here they are."
US servings from one ounce to a whole slicer
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 oz | 28 g | 4 kcal |
| 1/2 cup slices | 52 g | 8 kcal |
| One Persian cucumber | 85 g | 13 kcal |
| 1 cup slices | 104 g | 16 kcal |
| One 8-1/4-inch slicing cucumber | 301 g | 45 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 15 kcal |
Only two of those are USDA household measures: the half cup of slices at 52 g and the big 8-1/4-inch slicing cucumber at 301 g. The 85 g piece, the full cup at 104 g and the ounce are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure.
The cup trap is worth naming. A cup of slices sounds like a lot more food than one cucumber, but it is 104 g against 85 g, a difference of three calories. Meanwhile the standard American slicing cucumber, the waxed one sold by the piece, weighs 301 g, which is nearly three cups of slices and 45 calories. People who log "1 cucumber" without checking which cucumber can be off by more than a factor of three. Not that it matters much at these numbers, but the same habit applied to avocado or sweet potato is expensive.
Retail labels agree with the arithmetic. First Street lists one mini Persian cucumber at 85 g, United With Earth uses a half cup at 52 g, and Topline Farms splits the difference at 67.5 g. All of them land between 8 and 10 calories per serving, and all of them declare between 12 and 15 calories per 100 g.
Peeled cooked pickled and dressed
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical portion | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw with peel, the Persian default | 15 kcal | 1 cucumber, 85 g | 13 kcal |
| Peeled, raw | 10 kcal | 1 cucumber, 85 g | 9 kcal |
| Cucumber, raw, FNDDS survey row | 16 kcal | 1 miniature, 65 g | 10 kcal |
| Cooked | 45 kcal | 100 g | 45 kcal |
| Dill pickles | 12 kcal | 100 g | 12 kcal |
| Cucumber salad with vinegar | 34 kcal | 1 cup, 159 g | 54 kcal |
| Cucumber salad with Italian dressing | 120 kcal | 1 cup, 159 g | 191 kcal |
Peeling is the only version that lowers the count, and it lowers it by four calories on an 85 g cucumber. It also takes the potassium down from 147 mg to 136 mg per 100 g. For a Persian cucumber, whose skin is thin and never waxed, that is a bad trade for a rounding error.
Cooked cucumber triples the number to 45 calories per 100 g, and the reason is not the vegetable. The survey record assumes fat added in the pan: 3.2 g of it per 100 g, against 0.11 g raw. Sodium moves the same way, from 2 mg to 145 mg. Nothing about heat adds calories to a cucumber; the skillet does.
Then there are the two salads, and they are a lesson in dressing. A cup of cucumber in vinegar is 54 calories, most of it from the sugar in a sweetened vinegar dressing, 5.33 g per 100 g. The same cup in Italian dressing is 191 calories, because the oil brings 9.96 g of fat per 100 g. That is a 137-calorie gap created entirely by what you poured over it, and the cucumber underneath is identical in both bowls.
Dill pickles stay cheap on calories at 12 per 100 g. Their price is paid in a different row entirely.
Potassium and sodium are the rows to watch
One Persian cucumber gives you 125 mg of potassium, 3% of the 4,700 mg Daily Value, and 2 mg of sodium, which rounds to 0%. That ratio, a lot of potassium relative to almost no sodium, is the actual nutritional argument for eating them, and it is the one the calorie count hides.
Now pickle the same 85 g and the sodium becomes 688 mg, 30% of the Daily Value, from a food that still contains only 10 calories. Three spears of dill pickle with a sandwich costs you nothing on the calorie line and close to a third of a day's sodium. If you are watching sodium rather than calories, that is the swap that matters: fresh cucumber over pickled, every time.
Fiber is the row people over-credit. At 0.4 g per cucumber, 2% of the 28 g Daily Value, cucumber is not a fiber food. It is a water and volume food, which is a real thing to want on a plate but a different thing. MyPlate counts it toward your daily vegetables at the same rate as any other raw vegetable, one cup of slices for one cup of vegetables, and that is probably the best way to think about it: cheap volume that gets you closer to a target you were going to miss.
How does a Persian cucumber compare
| Cucumber form | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Persian cucumber, raw with peel | 15 kcal | one cucumber, 85 g | 13 kcal |
| Cucumber, peeled, raw | 10 kcal | 85 g | 9 kcal |
| Cucumber, cooked | 45 kcal | 85 g | 38 kcal |
| Dill pickles | 12 kcal | 85 g | 10 kcal |
The 85 g portions for the peeled, cooked and pickled rows are our own arithmetic from each record's 100 g figure, so the four are directly comparable.
Our take: eat them raw with the skin on and stop thinking about it. Every alternative here is either a four-calorie saving that costs you potassium, or a 25-calorie increase that comes from cooking fat, or a pickle that keeps the calories and adds 688 mg of sodium. Across the whole table the spread is 9 to 38 calories per 85 g, which is smaller than the margin of error on most portion guesses. Persian cucumbers are one of the few foods where the tracking effort is not worth the calories saved, and that is a compliment.
Most popular persian cucumber 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) |
|---|---|
| Topline Farms Mini Cucumbers | 15 cal |
| Double Diamond Farms Mini Cucumbers | 12 cal |
| First Street Mini Persian Cucumbers | 12 cal |
| United With Earth Persian Cucumber | 15 cal |
| Farm to Club Cucumbers | 15 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Persian cucumber FAQs
How many calories are in one Persian cucumber?
One Persian cucumber weighing 85 g has 13 calories, scaled from USDA's 15 calories per 100 g for raw cucumber with the peel. That 85 g figure is the serving printed on US mini Persian cucumber labels. Three of them across an afternoon still land under 40 calories total.
How many calories in a cup of sliced Persian cucumbers?
A cup of sliced cucumber weighs 104 g and comes to 16 calories, our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure. Half a cup is a USDA household serving at 52 g and 8 calories. Slicing adds nothing; the weight on the plate is what moves the number.
Are Persian cucumbers the same as mini cucumbers?
In the produce aisle, yes: US labels use both names for the same 85 g snacking cucumber, and USDA branded records back that up at 12 to 15 calories per 100 g. There is no separate USDA entry for Persian cucumber, so the raw cucumber with peel record covers it.
How many carbs are in a Persian cucumber?
3.1 g of carbohydrate in one 85 g cucumber, of which 0.4 g is fiber and 1.4 g is naturally occurring sugar. That is 1% of the Daily Value. Per 100 g the figure is 3.63 g; peeled cucumber is lower at 2.16 g, because the skin goes in the trash with some of the carbohydrate.
Are Persian cucumbers keto friendly?
One 85 g cucumber has 3.1 g of carbohydrate and 0.4 g of fiber, so about 2.7 g of net carbs by our own subtraction. A full cup of slices at 104 g is 3.8 g of carbohydrate. If you are counting carbs tightly, cucumber is one of the cheapest crunchy things you can put on a plate.
Do you need to peel Persian cucumbers?
No, and the trade is a poor one: peeled cucumber runs 10 calories per 100 g against 15 with the peel, so peeling an 85 g cucumber saves about 4 calories while dropping potassium from 147 mg to 136 mg per 100 g. The thin Persian skin is not bitter, which is why most people leave it on.
How much potassium is in a Persian cucumber?
125 mg of potassium in one 85 g cucumber, 3% of the 4,700 mg Daily Value, scaled from 147 mg per 100 g. A cup of slices gives about 153 mg. It is a small contribution on its own, but it arrives for 13 and 16 calories respectively, which is the point of a snack vegetable.
How much fiber is in a Persian cucumber?
0.4 g of fiber in one 85 g cucumber, roughly 2% of the 28 g Daily Value, from 0.5 g per 100 g. A cup of slices adds about 0.5 g. Cucumber is a water and volume food rather than a fiber food, so let beans, berries and whole grains do that work.
Similar foods
- Cucumber — 45 cal per whole cucumber
- Lettuce — 10 cal per cup shredded
- Pico de gallo — 41 cal per cup
- Mushrooms — 15 cal per cup sliced
- Salad — 23 cal per side salad
- Cabbage — 22 cal per cup chopped
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the plate and BodyPal counts the cucumber, the dressing and everything else on it.
