How many carbs are in a potato?

A medium baked potato has 37g of carbs. Russet, red, sweet, fries, and mashed compared.

Written by

Carb Lens Editorial

Nutrition writers & product team

Medically reviewed by

Dr. Alicia Nguyen, RD, CDCES

Registered Dietitian · Certified Diabetes Care & Education Specialist · 12+ years clinical experience

Published June 6, 2026 4 min readEditorial policy

A medium baked russet potato (173g, with skin) has 37g of carbs and 4g of fiber. Sweet potatoes are similar at 27g. How it's cooked changes the carb count surprisingly little — but the glycemic impact a lot.

By type (medium, ~175g, cooked)

Potato	Carbs	Fiber	Net carbs
Russet, baked	37g	4g	33g
Red potato, boiled	34g	3g	31g
Yukon gold, boiled	34g	2g	32g
Sweet potato, baked	27g	4g	23g
Fingerling, roasted	30g	3g	27g
Purple potato	33g	4g	29g

Preparation matters

Preparation	Serving	Carbs
Baked potato w/ skin	1 medium	37g
Mashed potatoes (with milk + butter)	1 cup	35g
French fries (medium)	117g	48g
Steak fries	6 oz	53g
Tater tots	9 pieces	22g
Hash browns	1 cup	16g
Potato chips	1 oz	15g
Sweet potato fries	6 oz	41g

The cold-potato trick

A boiled potato cooled overnight develops resistant starch — it acts more like fiber than sugar. Cold potato salad has roughly 25% lower effective carbs than hot mashed potato made from the same spud.

Glycemic differences

Boiled potato: GI ~78
Baked russet: GI ~85
Instant mashed: GI ~87 (highest)
Sweet potato: GI ~63 (lower)
Cold cooked potato: GI ~55

About the author

Carb Lens Editorial — Nutrition writers & product team. The Carb Lens editorial team writes practical, source-checked guides on carbs, blood sugar, and everyday nutrition. Every article is drafted by our writers and cross-referenced against USDA FoodData Central and peer-reviewed clinical guidelines.

How we source and review this article

Nutrition figures come from the USDA FoodData Central database. Blood-sugar and glycemic-load framing follows guidance from the American Diabetes Association and World Health Organization healthy-diet recommendations. Every article is medically reviewed by Dr. Alicia Nguyen, RD, CDCES before publishing and re-checked on a rolling basis. See our full editorial & medical review policy.

This article is for general information and is not a substitute for medical advice. If you're managing diabetes or another condition, always defer to your care team.