Sodium in Salt Calculator — Salt to Sodium Converter
Table salt is 39.3% sodium by weight. Enter an amount of salt (in grams, teaspoons or tablespoons) to see exactly how many milligrams of sodium it contains — or go the other way and find out how much salt you would need to deliver a given sodium intake.
Conversion direction
Measure
Sodium in the entered salt amount — 39.3% of salt weight
- 1
Na fraction of NaCl
22.99 ÷ 58.44 = 39.34%Sodium makes up 39.34% of table salt by weight. - 2
Sodium content
5 g × 393.4 = 1,967
How does this calculator work?
Salt (NaCl) is 39.34% sodium by weight: sodium (mg) = salt (g) × 393.4. One teaspoon of table salt (≈ 5.7 g) delivers about 2300 mg sodium — nearly the full daily recommended maximum. The WHO limit is 2000 mg/day. Use this calculator to convert label values (which show sodium) back to the equivalent salt, or to check how much sodium any measured amount of salt provides.
Formula
How this is calculated
Table salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) is a compound of two elements: sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl). From their atomic weights — sodium 22.99 g/mol and chlorine 35.45 g/mol — the molecular weight of NaCl is 58.44 g/mol. Sodium therefore makes up 22.99/58.44 = 39.34% of salt by weight. This means every gram of table salt contains approximately 393 mg of sodium, and every 2.54 g of salt contains 1000 mg (1 g) of sodium.
A standard US teaspoon holds about 5.69 g of table salt, equivalent to roughly 2300 mg of sodium — nearly the entire US Dietary Guidelines recommended daily maximum of 2300 mg (as of 2020). The WHO recommends an even stricter limit of 2000 mg per day. One tablespoon (≈ 17.1 g salt) exceeds 6700 mg sodium — well over three times the daily limit in one measure.
The calculator works in both directions: enter a salt quantity (by weight or volume measure) to find its sodium content, or enter a sodium amount from a nutrition label to find out how much salt that corresponds to. This is useful when comparing packaged food labels, scaling recipes, or managing a low-sodium diet. Note that sea salt, kosher salt and other specialty salts differ in crystal density (volume per gram) but have the same elemental composition — the chemistry is identical.
Frequently asked questions
One level US teaspoon of table salt weighs approximately 5.69 g and contains roughly 2300 mg of sodium — essentially the entire recommended daily maximum for most adults. Half a teaspoon contains about 1150 mg. These are approximate because crystal size and packing affect volume.
No. Sea salt, Himalayan pink salt, and regular table salt are all sodium chloride (NaCl) and contain the same percentage of sodium by weight (≈39.3%). Sea salt crystals are often larger, so a teaspoon by volume weighs less — giving fewer milligrams per teaspoon. By weight, however, the sodium content is identical.
The WHO recommends consuming less than 2000 mg of sodium per day (equivalent to about 5 g of salt). The US 2020–2025 Dietary Guidelines set the limit at 2300 mg (≈ 1 teaspoon of salt). Most adults in high-income countries consume 3400–4000 mg per day — nearly double the recommended level.
Also known as
TG we-Calculate Editorial Team. (2026). Sodium in Salt Calculator — Salt to Sodium Converter [Online calculator]. TG we-Calculate. https://we-calculate.com/calculator/sodium-in-salt-calculator
TG we-Calculate Editorial Team. "Sodium in Salt Calculator — Salt to Sodium Converter." TG we-Calculate. 2026. https://we-calculate.com/calculator/sodium-in-salt-calculator.
TG we-Calculate Editorial Team, "Sodium in Salt Calculator — Salt to Sodium Converter," TG we-Calculate, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://we-calculate.com/calculator/sodium-in-salt-calculator
@misc{wecalculate_sodium_in_salt_calculator, title = {Sodium in Salt Calculator — Salt to Sodium Converter}, author = {{TG we-Calculate Editorial Team}}, howpublished = {\url{https://we-calculate.com/calculator/sodium-in-salt-calculator}}, year = {2026}, note = {TG we-Calculate} }
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