How many calories are in spinach?
A US cup of raw spinach leaves weighs only 25 grams and carries 7 calories. Per 100 grams the same leaves come to 27 calories. Spinach is mostly water and air once it lands in a measuring cup, which is why the unit you count in matters more here than with almost any other vegetable on the produce shelf.
On this page
- Spinach quick facts
- US servings, from one leaf to a five-ounce bag
- Cooked, frozen and canned spinach
- Creamed spinach and spinach cooked in oil
- Baby spinach versus mature spinach
- Sodium is the row to watch
- How does spinach compare?
- Most popular spinach brands
- Spinach FAQs
Spinach quick facts
The numbers below come from FNDDS 2709614, "Spinach, raw". That record was picked over the older analytical one because it is the only raw spinach entry that ships with the household measures Americans actually use — one leaf, one cup, a salad amount — so the cup figures on this page are USDA's own portion weights rather than a guess about how tightly leaves pack.
Added sugars and trans fat are not in this FNDDS release, so those rows are left out; raw spinach has no added sugar to report in any case. Cholesterol is 0 mg. Potassium is the quiet standout at 582 mg per 100 grams, 12% of the Daily Value, though a single 25 gram cup only delivers 146 mg of it.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 cup raw (25 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 27 | 7 | — |
| Total fat | 0.62 g | 0.2 g | 0% |
| Saturated fat | 0.06 g | 0.0 g | 0% |
| Carbohydrate | 2.41 g | 0.6 g | 0% |
| Dietary fiber | 1.6 g | 0.4 g | 1% |
| Total sugars | 0.42 g | 0.1 g | — |
| Protein | 2.85 g | 0.7 g | 1% |
| Sodium | 111 mg | 28 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 →
Every percentage above is worked against the FDA Daily Values printed on the Nutrition Facts label. At a cup at a time, spinach barely registers on any of them, which is the whole point of it.
US servings, from one leaf to a five-ounce bag
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 leaf | 10 g | 3 kcal |
| 1 oz raw | 28 g | 8 kcal |
| 1 cup raw | 25 g | 7 kcal |
| 2 cups raw, salad amount | 50 g | 14 kcal |
| 3 cups raw | 75 g | 20 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 27 kcal |
The leaf, the cup and the two-cup salad amount are USDA household measures attached to the record itself. The ounce and the three-cup pile are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 gram figure, not USDA servings.
Here is the practical version. A whole 5 ounce (142 g) clamshell — the standard bagged size in American supermarkets — is about 38 calories, again our own scaling from the 100 gram number. That is the entire container. People routinely log a salad's worth of spinach as if it were a starch side, and it is closer, calorically, to a stick of gum.
Cooked, frozen and canned spinach
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical cup | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh, cooked, no added fat | 33 kcal | 1 cup (185 g) | 61 kcal |
| Frozen, cooked, no added fat | 34 kcal | 1 cup (220 g) | 75 kcal |
| Canned, drained, no added fat | 23 kcal | 1 cup (220 g) | 51 kcal |
Cooking raises the per-gram number without adding a thing: fresh spinach cooked with no added fat runs 33 calories per 100 grams against 27 raw, because water leaves and everything else concentrates. The cup weights come from the FNDDS portions on the neighboring cooked records, so the per-cup calories here are our arithmetic on those weights rather than a printed USDA serving.
The cup is where the real trap sits. A raw cup is 25 grams; a cooked cup is 185 grams of collapsed leaves. Same measuring cup, same vegetable, and the count goes from 7 to 61.
Frozen spinach is the sleeper of the three. Because it is blanched and packed dense, a cooked cup carries 8.1 grams of fiber — 29% of the Daily Value — against 3.5 grams for a cup of fresh cooked. Canned, drained spinach is the one cooked form that comes in lighter per gram than raw leaves, at 23 against 27, but it pays for that in salt, which is the next section.
Creamed spinach and spinach cooked in oil
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical cup | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh, sauteed in oil | 63 kcal | 1 cup (185 g) | 117 kcal |
| Canned, cooked with oil | 49 kcal | 1 cup (220 g) | 108 kcal |
| Creamed spinach | 90 kcal | 1 cup (200 g) | 180 kcal |
Fresh spinach goes from 33 to 63 calories per 100 grams the moment oil hits the pan. That 30 calorie gap is the oil, not the leaf — spinach cannot get denser on its own. It is the clearest illustration you will find of why "I ate a vegetable" and "I ate a vegetable cooked in fat" are different log entries.
Creamed spinach is a different food again at 90 calories per 100 grams. A 1 cup (200 g) side carries 12.2 grams of fat, 6.6 grams of saturated fat — 33% of the Daily Value — and 900 mg of sodium. Steakhouse portions of it are often larger than a cup. Treat it as a cream sauce that happens to be green, and log it that way.
Baby spinach versus mature spinach
| Record | Per 100 g | Protein | Fiber |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spinach, baby (Foundation 1750352) | 26.6 kcal | 2.85 g | 1.56 g |
| Spinach, mature (Foundation 1750353) | 27.63 kcal | 2.91 g | 1.59 g |
| Spinach, raw (FNDDS 2709614) | 27 kcal | 2.85 g | 1.6 g |
| Spinach, raw (SR Legacy 168462) | 23 kcal | 2.86 g | 2.2 g |
Baby spinach and mature spinach differ by one calorie across a whole 100 grams. That is inside the noise of any kitchen scale most people own, so pick the leaf you like chewing.
The row worth explaining is the last one. Plenty of charts and apps show spinach at 23 calories, and they are not wrong — they are quoting the older SR Legacy analytical sample, which also reported more fiber (2.2 g) and much less sodium (79 mg) than the current FNDDS entry. Two labs, two batches of leaves, four calories apart. Nothing to fix; just know which one your app is quoting before you argue with it.
Bagged retail spinach labels land in the same neighborhood, mostly 20 to 25 calories per 100 grams, with one canned leaf spinach declaring 17. Label numbers are rounded under FDA labeling rules, so small gaps against USDA are expected and not worth chasing.
Sodium is the row to watch
Raw spinach carries 111 mg of sodium per 100 grams, which is unusually high for a fresh vegetable but trivial in practice: a cup is 28 mg, 1% of the Daily Value.
Canned spinach is another story. At 322 mg per 100 grams, a 220 gram cup delivers 708 mg of sodium — 31% of the Daily Value in one side dish, about a third of a teaspoon of table salt. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans put the ceiling at 2,300 mg a day, so a cup of canned spinach and a sandwich can walk you most of the way there before dinner. Rinsing drained canned greens helps; buying frozen instead helps more, at 212 mg per 100 grams.
If you are counting calories, spinach is free in any form. If you are watching sodium, fresh and frozen beat canned, and creamed loses to all of them. Spinach counts toward the dark-green vegetable subgroup in MyPlate, where two raw cups count as one cup-equivalent — which, at 14 calories, is one of the cheapest cup-equivalents in the vegetable aisle.
How does spinach compare?
| Version | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spinach, raw | 27 kcal | 1 cup (25 g) | 7 kcal |
| Spinach, cooked, form not specified | 59 kcal | 1 cup (185 g) | 109 kcal |
| Canned spinach, cooked with oil | 49 kcal | 1 cup (220 g) | 108 kcal |
| Creamed spinach | 90 kcal | 1 cup (200 g) | 180 kcal |
The second row is the one most people are unknowingly logging. USDA's generic "cooked spinach" record folds together everyone's butter and oil, so it lands at 59 calories per 100 grams — nearly double the 33 of spinach cooked with nothing added.
Our take: log raw spinach as a rounding error and stop thinking about it, because at 7 calories a cup no amount of salad is going to move your day. Spend the attention on the pan instead. The gap between a cup of plain cooked spinach and a cup of creamed spinach is 119 calories, and the gap between raw and creamed is a factor of twenty-six. Spinach never costs much; what you cook it in does.
Most popular spinach 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) |
|---|---|
| Fresh Attitude Baby Spinach | 20 cal |
| Signature Farms Baby Spinach | 24 cal |
| True Leaf Farms Spinach | 24 cal |
| Muzzi Family Farms Spinach | 24 cal |
| Allens Spinach Leaf | 25 cal |
| Popeye Leaf Spinach | 17 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Spinach FAQs
How many calories are in 1 cup of raw spinach?
7 calories. A US cup of raw spinach leaves weighs only 25 grams, and at 27 calories per 100 grams that works out to 7. Two cups, the amount most people build a side salad from, weigh 50 grams and come to 14 calories with 0.8 grams of fiber.
How many calories are in 1 cup of cooked spinach?
61 calories for a cup of fresh spinach cooked with no added fat, because a cooked cup weighs 185 grams instead of 25. USDA's generic cooked spinach record, which folds in the versions people finish with butter or oil, runs 109 calories for that same cup.
How many calories are in a 5 oz bag of spinach?
About 38 calories for a whole 5-ounce (142 g) clamshell of raw leaves, our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 gram figure rather than a USDA serving. The same bag carries roughly 4.0 grams of protein and 2.3 grams of fiber, which is 8% of the Daily Value.
Does cooking spinach change its calories?
Per 100 grams it does: raw spinach is 27 calories and fresh spinach cooked without fat is 33, because water leaves the leaf and the rest concentrates. Per cup the jump is far bigger, from 7 to 61, since a cup of cooked leaves holds 185 grams rather than 25.
Is baby spinach lower in calories than mature spinach?
Barely: USDA's Foundation records put baby spinach at 26.6 calories per 100 grams and mature spinach at 27.63, a gap of one calorie across a full 100 grams. Protein is 2.85 grams against 2.91. Buy whichever leaf you prefer to eat; the calorie math will not notice.
How much protein is in spinach?
2.85 grams per 100 grams of raw spinach, which is 6% of the Daily Value, and 0.7 grams in a single cup. Cooking concentrates it to 3.41 grams per 100 grams, so a 185 gram cooked cup delivers 6.3 grams of protein, or 13% of the Daily Value.
How much sodium is in canned spinach?
322 mg per 100 grams for canned spinach heated without added fat, which is 708 mg in a 220 gram cup — 31% of the 2,300 mg Daily Value, or about a third of a teaspoon of table salt. Raw spinach is 111 mg per 100 grams.
How many calories are in creamed spinach?
180 calories in a 1 cup (200 g) portion, at 90 calories per 100 grams. Cream and butter do that: the same cup carries 12.2 grams of fat and 6.6 grams of saturated fat, 33% of the Daily Value, plus 900 mg of sodium.
Similar foods
- Bamboo Shoots — 41 cal per cup sliced
- Bell Pepper — 31 cal per medium
- Bell Pepper — 24 cal green, 31 red
- Cabbage — 22 cal per cup chopped
- Cauliflower — 27 cal per cup chopped
- Salad — 23 cal per side salad
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the plate and BodyPal counts the spinach for you, pan fat and all.
