How many calories are in salted butter?
A tablespoon of salted butter is 14.2 g and 102 calories. Per 100 g it runs 717 calories, which makes it the most calorie-dense thing in most refrigerators. The salt is almost beside the point: that same tablespoon carries 91 mg of sodium, under 4% of a day's worth.
You'd need to walk about 20 minutes to burn the 102 calories in one tablespoon (14.2 g).
How long does it take to burn off salted butter?
One tablespoon (14.2 g) is 102 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 102 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 20 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 13 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 15 min |
| Jogging | 12 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 23 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 (14.2 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Salted butter quick facts
- US servings, from a pat to a cup
- Sticks, tablespoons, pats and slightly salted
- Saturated fat, not sodium, is the row to watch
- How does salted butter compare?
- Most popular salted butter brands
- Salted butter FAQs
Salted butter quick facts
The numbers below come from SR Legacy 173410, "Butter, salted" — the analytical record for the plain wrapped stick sitting in the door of your refrigerator. There is a newer Foundation entry, "Butter, stick, salted" (790508), but it carries no energy value at all, so it cannot answer a calorie question. Everything on this page is scaled from the one complete record rather than blended across several.
One detail worth knowing before the table: US brand labels almost all print 100 calories per 14 g tablespoon, which works out to 714 per 100 g. USDA's analytical figure is 717. The three-calorie gap is label rounding, not a different butter.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 tbsp (14.2 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 717 | 102 | — |
| Total fat | 81.11 g | 11.5 g | 15% |
| Saturated fat | 51.37 g | 7.3 g | 36% |
| Carbohydrate | 0.06 g | 0.0 g | 0% |
| Dietary fiber | 0 g | 0.0 g | 0% |
| Total sugars | 0.06 g | 0.0 g | — |
| Protein | 0.85 g | 0.1 g | 0% |
| Sodium | 643 mg | 91 mg | 4% |
% 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 because the SR Legacy edition does not publish that value, and butter has none to speak of anyway — total sugars are 0.06 g per 100 g, which rounds to zero on any spoon you would actually use. Two rows that do matter are missing from the label-style table above: cholesterol is 215 mg per 100 g, or 31 mg per tablespoon (10% DV), and potassium is a negligible 24 mg per 100 g, 3 mg per tablespoon.
US servings, from a pat to a cup
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 pat (1" square, 1/3" high) | 5 g | 36 kcal |
| 1 tbsp | 14.2 g | 102 kcal |
| 1 oz | 28.35 g | 203 kcal |
| 1 stick, quarter pound | 113 g | 810 kcal |
| 1 cup, two sticks | 227 g | 1628 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 717 kcal |
The pat, the tablespoon, the stick and the cup are all USDA household measures attached to record 173410, so those weights are not our invention. The ounce is: 203 calories is our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not a USDA serving, because nobody sells butter by the loose ounce.
The gap between a stick and a cup is where home cooks lose track. A stick is 113 g and 810 calories; a cup is 227 g and 1,628. Read a recipe wrong, swap one for the other, and you have added 818 calories to the pan before anything else goes in. Cookie dough and pan sauces are the usual scenes of the crime.
Sticks, tablespoons, pats and slightly salted
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical piece | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salted butter, one stick | 717 kcal | 1 stick (113 g) | 810 kcal |
| Salted butter, one tablespoon | 717 kcal | 1 tbsp (14.2 g) | 102 kcal |
| Salted butter, one pat | 717 kcal | 1 pat (5 g) | 36 kcal |
| Slightly salted butter | 714 kcal | 1 Tbsp (14 g) | 100 kcal |
The pat is the honest portion. At 5 g it is 36 calories, the little foil-wrapped square a diner drops on your pancakes, and two of them still land under a single tablespoon. If you are spreading butter rather than cooking with it, the pat is the unit to think in.
"Slightly salted" changes the sodium, not the energy. The Lurpak record runs 714 calories per 100 g against 717 for standard salted butter — a difference you would never notice — while sodium drops from 643 mg per 100 g to 464 mg, about 28% less. Choose it for the salt shaker math, not the calorie math.
Brand labels are remarkably uniform here. Land O Lakes, Challenge, Casco Bay, Majestic, Wegmans and Country Delight all print 100 calories per 14 g tablespoon, which is 714 per 100 g. One outlier in USDA's branded set, Goya, lists 786 per 100 g and 110 calories for the same 14 g — worth noticing if you buy that brand, but it is not how the rest of the aisle labels butter.
Saturated fat, not sodium, is the row to watch
A tablespoon of butter uses up 36% of the Daily Value for saturated fat while spending only 102 of your calories. That ratio is unusual. Three tablespoons through the day — one on toast, one in the skillet, one melted over vegetables — is 306 calories and 21.9 g of saturated fat by our own arithmetic from the tablespoon figure, more than the 20 g Daily Value the FDA uses on the Nutrition Facts label. The calories barely register. The saturated fat column is already spent.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest keeping saturated fat under 10% of daily calories, which is about 22 g on a 2,000-calorie day. Butter gets you there faster than almost anything else in the kitchen, and MyPlate's dairy guidance treats it separately from milk and yogurt for exactly that reason. If saturated fat is what you are tracking, measure butter with a spoon rather than a knife.
Sodium is the opposite story. Salted butter sounds like a sodium problem and is not: 91 mg per tablespoon is 4% of the Daily Value, roughly a twenty-fifth of a teaspoon of table salt. You would have to eat a whole stick, 727 mg, to make a dent — and by then the 810 calories are the headline.
How does salted butter compare?
| Butter | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salted butter, USDA analytical | 717 kcal | 1 tbsp (14.2 g) | 102 kcal |
| Lurpak Slightly Salted Butter | 714 kcal | 1 Tbsp (14 g) | 100 kcal |
| Wegmans Salted Butter Sweet Cream | 714 kcal | 1 tbsp (14 g) | 100 kcal |
| Goya Salted Butter | 786 kcal | 1 Tablespoon (14 g) | 110 kcal |
Our take: for calorie counting, butter is butter. Three of the four records land within 3 calories of each other per 100 g, and the only one that breaks ranks is Goya at 786, which puts 10 more calories on the same 14 g tablespoon than the other two 14 g labels. Where the brands genuinely differ is sodium — Wegmans lists 679 mg per 100 g, Lurpak's slightly salted 464 mg, a 215 mg spread on identical energy. Pick on salt, log 100 calories a tablespoon, and you will be right almost every time.
Most popular salted butter 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) |
|---|---|
| Land O Lakes Salted Butter | 714 cal |
| Challenge Butter Salted Butter | 714 cal |
| Casco Bay Butter Co Salted Butter | 714 cal |
| Majestic Salted Butter | 714 cal |
| Wegmans Salted Butter Sweet Cream | 714 cal |
| Country Delight Salted Butter | 714 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Salted butter FAQs
How many calories are in 1 tablespoon of salted butter?
One tablespoon is 102 calories at 14.2 g, scaled from the USDA figure of 717 calories per 100 g. That spoonful also carries 11.5 g of fat, 7.3 g of it saturated, and 91 mg of sodium. Most US brand labels round the same tablespoon to 100 calories.
How many calories are in a stick of butter?
A standard quarter-pound stick weighs 113 g and holds 810 calories. Scaling the USDA 100 g record, that is about 91.7 g of fat, 58 g of it saturated, and roughly 727 mg of sodium — our own arithmetic from the 100 g figures. A stick is eight tablespoons.
How many calories are in a pat of butter?
A pat, the 1-inch square about a third of an inch high, weighs 5 g and is 36 calories. It brings roughly 4.1 g of fat, 2.6 g saturated, and 32 mg of sodium, our arithmetic from the 100 g record. Two pats are still less butter than one tablespoon, which is why the pat suits spreading.
How many calories are in 1 cup of butter?
One cup is 227 g and 1,628 calories, the single biggest butter number in any recipe. That is two sticks, so swapping a cup in where a stick was called for adds 818 calories. USDA lists the cup as a household measure for salted butter, so the weight is not our estimate.
How much sodium is in salted butter?
Salted butter has 643 mg of sodium per 100 g, which is 91 mg in a tablespoon, or 4% of the Daily Value. That is about a twenty-fifth of a teaspoon of table salt. A slightly salted record such as Lurpak drops to 464 mg per 100 g at the same calories.
Is salted butter higher in calories than unsalted butter?
Salted butter is 717 calories per 100 g and 102 in a tablespoon. USDA's unsalted record is not cited here, so we will not put a number on it, but salt itself carries no calories — the real difference sits in the sodium column, 643 mg per 100 g for salted butter against a trace amount for sweet butter.
How much saturated fat is in a tablespoon of butter?
A tablespoon holds 7.3 g of saturated fat, 36% of the 20 g Daily Value, out of 11.5 g of total fat. That is the striking part of butter: two tablespoons cover roughly three-quarters of the day's saturated fat allowance while costing only 204 calories, our arithmetic from the tablespoon figure.
Does salted butter have carbs or sugar?
Essentially none: 0.06 g of carbohydrate and 0.06 g of total sugars per 100 g, both rounding to 0.0 g in a tablespoon. There is no fiber and no protein worth logging either, at 0.85 g per 100 g. The USDA record publishes no added-sugars value, since butter is not a food that carries them.
Similar foods
- Butter — 102 cal per tbsp
- Yum yum sauce — 170 cal for 2 tbsp
- Olive Oil — 126 cal per tbsp
- Oat flour — 105 cal for 1/4 cup
- Cheese — 113 cal per slice
- Thousand Island Dressing — 216 cal per dipping-size container
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the plate and BodyPal counts the butter for you, pat, tablespoon or melted stick.
