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Grind Guide

How fine should you grind for your brewer?

Pick a brewer to see its grind under a magnifier and on the scale from finest to coarsest, plus what going too fine or too coarse tastes like.

1 mm

Drawn to the 1 mm scale bar. An illustration of a typical spread, not a photo or a measurement.

Every grinder makes a spread of sizes, not one size. The range above is where most of the coffee should sit; the dark bar is the fines, which extract fastest. Blade grinders make far more fines and boulders. An illustrative shape, not a measured distribution.

Medium-fine

like table salt · about 450–650 µm

Signs it's too fine
It usually drains slower than this recipe's 4:00, and can taste bitter or dry.
Signs it's too coarse
It usually drains faster than 3:00, and can taste sour or thin.

Taste is the judge: water, freshness and pouring cause the same tastes. Fix My Coffee helps sort it out.

Find the setting on your grinder Brew Guide
Grind size by brew method micrometers (µm), typical ranges

Grind size chart

BrewerGrindFeels likeAbout
TurkishExtra finelike flourflour75–125 µm1
EspressoFinelike powdered sugarpowdered sugar200–300 µm
Moka potMedium-fine (coarser than espresso)like fine sandfine sand300–450 µm
PhinFinelike sandsand300–450 µm2
AeroPressMedium-finelike fine sandfine sand350–500 µm
V60Medium-finelike table salttable salt450–650 µm
Kalita WaveMediumlike sandsand500–700 µm
ChemexMediumlike coarse sandcoarse sand550–750 µm
Drip machineMediumlike sandsand600–900 µm
Cold brewCoarselike kosher saltkosher salt800–1100 µm
French pressExtra coarselike coarse sea saltcoarse sea salt900–1200 µm

A micrometer (µm) is a thousandth of a millimeter. Ranges are typical starting points; every grinder's numbers differ, so use the Grind Calibrator for your model, then adjust by taste and brew time.

1 Türkiye's registration of Turkish Coffee as a traditional product name (TÜRKPATENT, No. G8, 2026) sets the ground coffee's average particle size at 75–125 µm. 2 Our estimate: Nguyen Coffee Supply's phin recipe asks for a fine grind, "like sand", and likens it to a moka pot grind, so the phin borrows the moka pot's range.

Why grind size matters so much

Grinding sets how much surface the water can reach and how fast it flows. Finer grounds extract faster and slow the water down; coarser grounds extract slower and let it run. That's why the same beans can taste sour from one grind and bitter from another, and why brew time is a useful clue to whether you're too fine or too coarse.

Consistency matters too. Every grinder makes a spread of sizes, including some fines (dust), and Scott Rao calls that spread the most significant indicator of grind quality: a wider spread holds more fines and boulders, and in his account fines over-extract quickly, adding bitterness and astringency, while boulders tend to under-extract. A blade grinder chops rather than grinds, so its spread is far wider, from dust to large chunks, and the coffee can extract unevenly. A burr grinder gives a narrower, more even spread.

Adjusting from a starting point

Related guides

Sources