How Much Sugar Is in a Banana?
A medium banana has about 14 g of sugar — all natural fruit sugar, bundled with 3 g of fibre, potassium, and vitamin B6.
in 1 medium banana (118 g) · about 3.3 teaspoons
- Per serving
- 14 g
- Per 100 g
- 12 g
- Type
- Natural sugar
- In teaspoons
- ≈ 3.3 tsp
Fine in a portion — worth keeping an eye on.
A medium banana holds roughly 14 g of sugar, which sounds like a lot until you compare it to a can of soda's 39 g. The difference is what comes with it: about 3 g of fibre plus potassium, magnesium, and vitamin B6. The fibre slows how fast that sugar hits your bloodstream, so you avoid the spike-and-crash you'd get from the same sugar in liquid form.
Ripeness matters. A green-tipped banana has more resistant starch and tastes less sweet; a heavily spotted one has converted more of that starch to sugar and will read a little higher. For most people a banana a day is a genuinely good choice — the sugar in whole fruit behaves very differently from added sugar.
Lower-sugar swaps
- Half a banana with a spoon of peanut butter for less sugar and more staying power
- Berries — a cup of strawberries is about half the sugar
Frequently asked questions
- Is the sugar in a banana bad for you?
- No. It's natural fruit sugar packaged with fibre, potassium, and vitamins, so it digests slowly. That's very different from the added sugar in sweets and soda.
- How many teaspoons of sugar is that?
- About 3.3 teaspoons — but roughly a third of it is glucose and fructose held back by the banana's fibre.
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Sugar values from USDA FoodData Central; actual amounts vary by brand, ripeness, and recipe. Last updated 2026-07-21.