Moka pot size chart: water, yield and coffee for each size
A 6 cup Bialetti Moka Express makes about 250 ml of coffee, which is 0.7 of a 12 oz mug. It takes 270 ml of water and roughly 26 to 33 g of coffee. The "cup" is an espresso cup, so the sizes below are small. This chart covers the Bialetti Moka Express only. Other brands count cups differently.
Moka Express sizes
| Size | Brewed coffee | Water in boiler | Coffee dose | 12 oz mugs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cup | 60 ml | not published | no source | 0.2 |
| 2 cup | 90 ml | not published | no source | 0.3 |
| 3 cup | 130 ml | 130 ml | 13–18 g open with 16 g |
0.4 |
| 4 cup | 185 ml | not published | no source | 0.5 |
| 6 cup | 250 ml | 270 ml | 26–33 g open with 30 g |
0.7 |
| 9 cup | 410 ml | not published | 38–48 g open with 43 g |
1.2 |
| 12 cup | 595 ml | not published | about 50 g open with 50 g |
1.7 |
| 18 cup | 800 ml | not published | no source | 2.3 |
Brewed coffee is the "approximate brewed coffee volume" on Bialetti's Moka Express page. Water is the boiler capacity Bialetti lists for the 3 and 6 cup pots (4.4 and 9.1 oz, also on the US page). I found no figure for the other sizes. The coffee dose is a range from home-barista guides, not manufacturer data: Barista Life gives 13, 26, 38 and 50 g for the 3, 6, 9 and 12 cup, and Miss Vickie gives 15–18, 28–33 and 42–48 g for the first three. A mug is 355 ml.
What a moka cup is
Bialetti says a cup is an espresso cup of about 30 ml. The pots make more than that per cup: 130 ml for 3 cups is 43 ml each, and 595 ml for 12 cups is 50 ml each. In practice one "cup" is somewhere between 30 and 60 ml, depending on the size.
Either way it is a small serving. A 3 cup pot makes 0.4 of a 12 oz mug (130 / 355), so with mugs, plan on a 6 cup pot per drinker (0.7 mug) or a 12 cup pot for two or three (1.7 mugs).
Why a 6 cup shows 250, 270 or 300 ml
These numbers measure different things. 250 ml is what ends up in the cup. 270 ml is the water you pour into the boiler, and the grounds hold some of it back. Some shops list the 6 cup as 300 ml. I could not match that to any Bialetti page, so I read it as a rounded figure. For the 3 cup, Bialetti gives 130 ml for both the boiler and the brewed coffee, so expect a little less in the cup than the table shows.
Some brands and shops count a cup as 50 ml instead of 30. Check which cup a brand means before you compare pots.
Filling the pot
- Water goes up to the lower edge of the safety valve, no higher.
- Fill the funnel with coffee without pressing it down, and level the top.
- Bialetti publishes no gram dose, so the ranges above differ. Fill the basket level once, weigh it, and use that number from then on.
- As a check, 130 ml of water over 16 g of coffee is 1:8, the ratio on the moka pot ratio page.
Want to try your own dose? Enter it in the moka pot calculator. Other vessels: French press size chart and 12 cup coffee maker.