Guide

Weed measurements: grams, eighths, ounces and the 30 g limit

An ounce of weed is 28 grams in everyday use (the exact figure is 28.35 g). An eighth is 3.5 g, a quarter is 7 g and a half is 14 g. In Canada, an adult can carry up to 30 g of dried cannabis in public, and other forms count against that limit by an equivalency schedule in the Cannabis Act.

Cannabis portions labelled 1 g, 3.5 g, 7 g and 28 g beside a bag marked 30 g legal limit

6 min read · Updated September 21, 2026 · WeedDB editors

Weed is sold by weight, and the names for those weights come from the ounce: an eighth is an eighth of an ounce, a quarter is a quarter of one, and so on. Here is what each size is in grams, what the slang means, and how Canada's 30 g public limit works for flower, edibles and concentrates.

How much is an ounce of weed?

An ounce of weed is 28 grams. Strictly, a standard ounce is 28.35 g, but cannabis is rounded down to 28 g because the numbers divide cleanly into eighths, quarters and halves. Many people still call it "an ounce" even when the bag says 28 g, and that small gap is normal.

A pound is 16 ounces, or about 454 g. Because it is 16 ounces, a "quarter pound" is 4 ounces and a "half pound" is 8. Those sizes are far above anything an individual can carry in public in Canada, so you will mostly see them as wholesale weights.

Name	Grams	Slang
Gram	1 g	G, gee
Eighth (1/8 oz)	3.5 g	Eighth, 8th, "an eight"
Quarter (1/4 oz)	7 g	Quarter, QO
Half (1/2 oz)	14 g	Half, half oz
Ounce	28 g	Oz, zip, O
Quarter pound (4 oz)	About 113 g	QP
Half pound (8 oz)	About 227 g	HP
Pound (16 oz)	About 454 g	Pound, P, lb

Common weed measurements in grams, with the usual slang. Slang changes by region and some of it is dated.

What are an eighth, a quarter and a half?

They are fractions of an ounce. An eighth is 1/8 of an ounce, or 3.5 g. A quarter is 1/4 of an ounce, or 7 g. A half is 1/2 an ounce, or 14 g. Four eighths make a half, and two halves make an ounce.

It is easy to mix up a quarter with a "quarter pound". A quarter is 7 g. A quarter pound (QP) is 4 ounces, about 113 g, sixteen times larger.

Canadian legal stores sell flower in grams rather than in these fractions, though you will see 3.5 g and 7 g everywhere because they match the eighth and the quarter. Package sizes vary by producer and province, so check the label or the store listing for what is on offer.

What do zip, dub, dime and QP mean?

These are slang terms, and none of them is a legal or standard unit. Some are weights and some are prices, which is why they confuse people.

Zip: slang for an ounce (28 g). It is thought to come from "Z", short for ounce.
QP: a quarter pound, 4 ounces or about 113 g.
Dub: a $20 amount, a "dub sack". How much weed that bought changed by place and year.
Dime bag: a $10 amount, the same idea at a lower price.
Dank, nug, bud: descriptions of the flower, not amounts. See our weed slang glossary for more.

Price-based terms such as dub and dime do not map to a set weight. In the illegal market the amount could vary, and in a legal store you are buying by the gram at a listed price.

What is the 30 gram limit in Canada?

Under the Cannabis Act, an adult (18 or older, or the provincial minimum age) may possess up to 30 g of dried cannabis, or the equivalent in other forms, in a public place. Possessing more than that in public can be an offence. The Act sets a lower threshold of 5 g of dried cannabis equivalent for a young person.

The rule applies to what you carry in public, including in a bag or a vehicle. It is a total across everything you have, not 30 g of each type. Federal law does not set a limit for what you keep at home, though provinces and territories may set their own rules about home possession and storage.

The Cannabis Regulations also limit how much one retail package can hold: an immediate container can't hold more than the equivalent of 30 g of dried cannabis. It is a cap on a single package, separate from the limit on what a person can carry.

How are edibles, oils and concentrates counted against 30 g?

Schedule 3 of the Act turns every form into dried-cannabis grams so that one limit works for all of them. The weight counted is the weight of the whole product, not just the cannabis in it. A 100 g chocolate bar counts as 100 ÷ 15, or about 6.7 g of dried cannabis.

Concentrates stack up fastest. A single gram of concentrate counts as 4 g of dried cannabis, so 7.5 g of concentrate uses your full allowance. For a look at how those products differ, see rosin, live resin and distillate and kief and trichomes.

To work out your total, convert each item and add them up. For example, 14 g of flower (14 g) plus 1 g of concentrate (4 g) plus 150 g of chocolate (10 g) comes to 28 g, just under the limit.

Form	Equals 1 g dried	30 g equivalent
Dried cannabis	1 g	30 g
Fresh cannabis	5 g	150 g
Solids containing cannabis (such as most edibles)	15 g	450 g
Non-solids containing cannabis, other than beverages	70 g	2,100 g
Cannabis concentrates	0.25 g	7.5 g
Cannabis beverages	570 g	17,100 g
Cannabis plant seeds	1 seed	30 seeds

Cannabis Act Schedule 3: the amount of each form that counts as 1 g of dried cannabis, and the most you could carry in public (30 g equivalent).

What sizes do legal stores sell in Canada?

Provincial retailers list dried flower by the gram, and common sizes run from 1 g up to 28 g, with 3.5 g, 7 g and 14 g in between. Which sizes you can buy depends on the province and the producer, and not every store carries every size, so treat these as typical rather than guaranteed.

The weight on the package is the net weight of the dried flower. The label also shows Total THC, which is covered in our guide to reading cannabis labels and THCA vs THC.

Pre-rolls are labelled by the number of joints and the weight of each, for example a pack of five at 0.5 g each. That is a good reminder that a gram of flower is not a lot: it is usually one or two joints' worth, depending on how you roll. For joint sizes, see spliff vs joint vs blunt.

How can you tell how much weed you actually have?

Use a scale. A small digital scale that reads to 0.1 g or finer is cheap and settles the question. Flower loses water as it dries, so the same bud can weigh a little less after a few weeks, which is one reason a bag can read slightly under what it did on purchase. Our guide on whether weed expires covers storage and drying.

Eyeballing is unreliable because density varies. Tightly packed, dense buds take up less space than fluffy ones of the same weight. A gram can look like a pinch or a small handful depending on the strain and how it was trimmed.

If you are close to the limit, remember to weigh the whole thing you are carrying where it counts: the Act counts the product, not just the flower. When in doubt, bring less.

Maui Wowie strain — Strains people look up most

Blue Dream strain — Strains people look up most

Sources: laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, canada.ca, en.wikipedia.org

Common questions

How many grams is an ounce of weed?

An ounce of weed is 28 grams in everyday use. The exact measure is 28.35 grams, but cannabis is rounded to 28 g so that eighths, quarters and halves come out as even numbers.

How many grams is an eighth?

An eighth is 3.5 grams, which is one eighth of an ounce. A quarter is 7 grams and a half is 14 grams.

What is a QP of weed?

QP stands for quarter pound, which is 4 ounces or about 113 grams. It is not the same as a quarter, which is 7 grams.

How much weed can you carry in Canada?

An adult can carry up to 30 grams of dried cannabis, or the equivalent in other forms, in a public place. The Cannabis Act's Schedule 3 sets the equivalents, for example 7.5 g of concentrate or 450 g of solid edibles equals 30 g of dried cannabis.

What is a zip?

A zip is slang for an ounce, 28 grams. A dub is slang for a $20 amount rather than a weight, and the quantity it bought varied.

How many joints are in a gram?

It depends on how big you roll. Legal pre-rolls are commonly sold at about 0.5 g to 1 g each, so a gram is usually one or two joints.

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