How much coffee for a 100 cup urn?
A full 100-cup urn takes about 6½ to 7 cups of ground coffee — 478 to 515 g, or about 17.5 oz (1.1 lb) — by Hamilton Beach’s chart. Its 100 “cups” are 5 oz each: about 62 eight-ounce mugs.
How to work it out
- 100 drinkers × 1 × 5 oz = 3.9 gal = 100 cups at 5 oz
- Hamilton Beach chart, 100 cups: 17.5 oz of grounds (≈ 6.7 cups)
A 100-cup urn is the church-basement classic: Sunday fellowship, funerals, reunions and fundraisers. Two numbers matter — how much coffee goes in the basket, and how many people 100 urn cups really serve.
Adjust for your project
- In measuring cups of grounds (approx.)
- 6.7 cups
- Urn “cups” of water (5 oz each)
- 100 cups
- Water
- 3.9 gal
- Urn size
- a 100-cup urn
- Brewing time (approx.)
- about 100 minutes (about 1 minute per cup), plus warming
- Fill the urn with water to the cup line first, then add the grounds to the basket. Do not fill past the top line.
- Hot coffee and kids do not mix: keep the urn at the back of the table, with the cord out of reach.
Coffee by number of drinkers (cups each and size as above)
| Coffee drinkers | Ground coffee | Urn “cups” of water (5 oz each) | Water |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 2.3 oz | 10 cups | 0.4 gal |
| 25 | 5.5 oz | 25 cups | 1 gal |
| 50 | 9.7 oz | 50 cups | 2 gal |
| 75 | 13.5 oz | 75 cups | 2.9 gal |
| 100 | 17.5 oz | 100 cups | 3.9 gal |
| 150 | 26.3 oz | 150 cups | 5.9 gal |
Grounds for a 100-cup urn
Hamilton Beach’s commercial urn manual gives 6½ to 7 cups of ground coffee, 478 to 515 g, for the 100-cup line. That is a little over a pound of ground coffee per full urn — check the net weight on the bag or can you buy. Use the lower end for a milder brew and the top for stronger coffee, and buy a grind made for percolators, which is coarser than drip.
| Urn filled to | Grounds (Hamilton Beach) | 8 oz mugs it fills |
|---|---|---|
| 40 cups | 3–3½ cups (221–257 g) | about 25 |
| 60 cups | 4–4½ cups (294–331 g) | about 37 |
| 80 cups | 5¼–5¾ cups (386–423 g) | about 50 |
| 100 cups | 6½–7 cups (478–515 g) | about 62 |
How many people 100 cups serves
Because an urn cup is 5 oz, a 100-cup urn makes 500 oz. Poured into 8 oz cups, that is about 62; into 12 oz to-go cups, about 41. If most of your guests drink one 8 oz cup, a full urn serves about sixty people — for a hundred coffee drinkers, plan on two urns, or a second batch brewed while the first is served.
- Brew time: Hamilton Beach’s 45-cup manual allows about a minute per cup; at that rate a full 100-cup urn needs well over an hour from cold. Start it before the doors open.
- Keep it hot, not stewing: coffee held for hours turns bitter; brew a second, smaller batch for later in the event.
- Decaf: a smaller 30- or 40-cup urn, labelled clearly.
With dessert: how many people does a half sheet cake feed. The rest of the drinks: how much punch for 50 people.
Different size? Use the full Coffee for a Crowd Calculator.
What you’ll need
- Coffee urn (100 cup)Mid-range price
Brews and holds coffee for a crowd. Check how many cups it actually makes and how long it takes to brew before guests arrive.
See options on Amazon (opens in a new tab) - Plastic party cups (16 oz)Budget price
Guests lose track of their cup, so plan two or three per person. A marker by the stack helps.
See options on Amazon (opens in a new tab)
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Links to products are affiliate links — they cost you nothing extra and help keep these calculators free.
Frequently asked questions
How much coffee for a 50 cup urn?
About 9.7 oz of grounds (≈ 3.7 cups) by the Hamilton Beach chart.
How much coffee for a 30 cup urn?
About 6.5 oz of grounds (≈ 2.5 cups).
How much coffee for 100 people drinking 8 oz cups?
About 28 oz of grounds for 160 cups of 5 oz — two 100-cup urns, or one brewed twice.
Sources
- Hamilton Beach — Commercial coffee urn (40, 60 and 100 cup) use and care manual (opens in a new tab) — 1 cup = 5 oz (150 ml). Ground coffee by water level: 20 cups 1½–2 cups (110–147 g) … 100 cups 6½–7 cups (478–515 g). Percolates within 8 minutes.
- Hamilton Beach — 45 cup coffee urn manual (opens in a new tab) — Brew at least 15 cups; allow about one minute per cup of brewing time.
- Specialty Coffee Association — Understanding coffee sweetness (opens in a new tab) — Brewing at a ratio of 55 g of coffee per litre.
- University of Missouri Extension — In a Pinch: Food Yields (MP563) (opens in a new tab) — 1 lb of coffee makes about 40 to 50 servings.
- Clay County, Minnesota — Amounts of food to serve fifty (opens in a new tab) — Coffee cream: 1 to 1½ qt for 50.