How many calories are in a sweet potato?
A medium baked sweet potato has about 103 calories. That's 114 g of flesh, without the skin, from a potato about 5 inches (13 cm) long. It has 23.6 g of carbs, 2.3 g of protein and almost no fat.
A small one has around 54 calories and a large one around 162. Boiled sweet potato is a little lower per 100 g than baked, and raw sits in between.
Sweet potato calories by size
USDA FoodData Central lists baked sweet potato (flesh, no salt) at 90 calories per 100 g, with a standard weight for each size (USDA FoodData Central, Sweet potato, baked in skin). Calories and carbs are calculated from those per-100 g values and rounded.
| Baked sweet potato | Weight of flesh | Calories | Carbs | Fiber |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 60 g | 54 | 12.4 g | 2.0 g |
| Medium | 114 g | 103 | 23.6 g | 3.8 g |
| Large | 180 g | 162 | 37.3 g | 5.9 g |
| 1 cup | 200 g | 180 | 41.4 g | 6.6 g |
Baked, boiled or raw
Per 100 g, the cooking method changes the number a bit. Values from USDA: raw, baked and boiled without skin.
| Sweet potato, 100 g | Calories | Carbs | Protein | Water |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raw | 86 | 20.1 g | 1.6 g | 77 % |
| Baked | 90 | 20.7 g | 2.0 g | 76 % |
| Boiled, no skin | 76 | 17.7 g | 1.4 g | 80 % |
The calories in the potato don't change much. What changes is the water. Baking dries it out a little, so each gram carries slightly more. Boiling adds water, so each gram carries a bit less.
USDA also gives whole portions for the other two. A medium boiled sweet potato (151 g) comes to about 115 calories, and a raw 5-inch sweet potato (130 g) to about 112.
How to weigh it
USDA's medium baked sweet potato is described as 5 inches long raw, but the 114 g is the cooked flesh you eat. Part of the weight goes with the skin and part with the water that bakes off. So the scale reading changes depending on when you weigh.
Pick one moment and stick to it. If you weigh it raw, use 86 per 100 g. If you weigh the flesh after baking, use 90. The difference is small, but mixing them up adds up over a week.
Good to know
Sweet potato is very high in vitamin A. USDA lists 961 µg per 100 g of baked sweet potato, so a medium one has about 1,100 µg. That's more than the 900 µg Daily Value the FDA uses on food labels.
Toppings are where the calories pile up. A tablespoon of butter adds about 102 calories, which is as much as the potato itself. Comparing with regular potatoes? See calories in a potato.
Track it the easy way
You don't need to weigh every potato. With Calorie AI, just say what you ate, for example "a large baked sweet potato with butter," and the app estimates the calories and macros for you. It's an estimate, so say "small" or "large" when you can. Size makes the biggest difference here.