How Much Rice Per Person? A Simple Cooking Guide
Cooking rice for a group turns into guesswork fast, because the raw amount and the cooked amount look nothing alike — a small scoop of dry rice triples in the pot. Undershoot and you’re short at dinner; overshoot and you’ve got a rice cooker full of leftovers. Here’s the simple per-person math, the raw-to-cooked ratio, and how much to make for any headcount.
Plan about ½ cup of uncooked rice per person, which cooks up to roughly 1 cup (about 200g) — one full bowl. Rice triples when cooked, so 1 cup dry makes ~3 cups cooked. For a Korean meal where rice is the staple with every dish, lean toward the higher end.
The raw-to-cooked ratio
The number that trips people up: rice roughly triples in volume as it cooks. One cup of uncooked rice yields about three cups cooked. So a half-cup of dry rice per person becomes a generous single serving. If you’re feeding a crowd and want the numbers alongside your meat and sides, our Korean meal portion calculator scales everything to your headcount at once.
| People | Uncooked rice | Cooked (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 cup | ~3 cups (2 bowls) |
| 4 | 2 cups | ~6 cups (4 bowls) |
| 6 | 3 cups | ~9 cups (6 bowls) |
| 8 | 4 cups | ~12 cups (8 bowls) |
Why Korean meals need a little more
In many Western meals rice is a side, but in a Korean meal it’s the anchor — you eat it with almost every bite, wrapped, mixed, or alongside stews and banchan. That means people go through more of it than they would as a plain side. If you’re hosting a Korean dinner, planning a full bowl per person (rather than a half) leaves room for second helpings without scrambling to cook more mid-meal.
Leftover rice, done right
Made too much? Cooked rice keeps in the fridge for a few days and freezes beautifully — portion it into flat bags while still warm, cool, then freeze. Day-old refrigerated rice is actually ideal for fried rice, since fresh rice turns mushy. So a slight overshoot isn’t waste; it’s tomorrow’s meal. Just cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate it within an hour or two — cooked rice left sitting at room temperature for too long can grow bacteria and isn’t safe to reheat later.
Frequently asked questions
How much rice do I cook per person?
About ½ cup uncooked per person, which makes roughly 1 cup (a full bowl) cooked. Bump it up slightly for big eaters or a rice-centric Korean meal.
How much does 1 cup of uncooked rice make?
Around 3 cups cooked — rice roughly triples in volume. That’s enough for about 3 modest servings.
Can I freeze cooked rice?
Yes. Portion it warm into flat bags, cool, and freeze. Reheat with a splash of water. It’s one of the best-freezing leftovers there is.
Half a cup of dry rice per person, cooked to a full bowl, with a little extra for a Korean spread. It triples in the pot and freezes well, so err slightly high. Scale rice, meat, and sides together with our portion calculator.