What is glycemic load?

Glycemic load (GL) accounts for both the quality (GI) and quantity of carbohydrates in a serving. A food can have a high GI but a low GL if the serving contains few carbs — watermelon is a classic example.

What is a low vs. high glycemic load?

GL ≤ 10 is considered low, 11–19 medium, and ≥ 20 high per meal. A daily total GL under 80 is generally considered a low-GL diet.

How is glycemic load different from glycemic index?

GI measures how quickly a carbohydrate raises blood sugar on a 50 g carb reference dose. GL scales that impact to your actual serving size, making it a more practical measure.

Are the GI values in the reference table reliable?

Values are drawn from peer-reviewed GI databases (University of Sydney / Atkinson et al., 2008). GI can vary by ripeness, cooking method, and brand, so treat them as estimates.

Net carbs = total carbohydrates − dietary fiber. Fiber is not digested into glucose, so it does not raise blood sugar and is excluded from the GL calculation.

Glycemic Load Calculator

Enter a food's glycemic index and carbohydrate grams to instantly compute its glycemic load and see whether it is low, medium, or high.

Calculate Glycemic Load

Food name (optional label)

Glycemic Index (GI) 0–100

Use the reference table below to find GI values.

Net Carbohydrates (g)

Net carbs = total carbs − dietary fiber.

Common Foods — GI Reference

Food	GI	Serving	Carbs (g)	GL	Use

GI values from University of Sydney database (Atkinson et al., 2008). Typical serving carbs are approximate.

Summary

Glycemic load (GL) is a more practical measure of a food's blood-sugar impact than glycemic index alone because it accounts for actual serving size. Use this calculator to compute GL = GI × net carbs ÷ 100 for any food and classify the result as low (≤10), medium (11–19), or high (≥20). A built-in reference table of 30+ common foods with verified GI values makes it easy to look up values without external sources.

How it works

Enter or pick a food from the reference table to auto-fill its glycemic index.
Enter the net carbohydrate grams for your portion size.
Click Calculate to compute GL = GI × carbs ÷ 100.
Read the classification: Low (GL ≤ 10), Medium (GL 11–19), or High (GL ≥ 20).
Use the food reference table to look up GI values for common foods.

Use cases

Plan meals that keep blood sugar stable throughout the day.
Compare two foods with similar carb counts but different glycemic impacts.
Help manage type 2 diabetes or prediabetes with evidence-based food choices.
Evaluate whether a high-GI food still has a low GL at a realistic serving size.
Build a low-GL diet without eliminating entire food groups.
Understand why watermelon (high GI) can have a low GL per serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Last updated: 2026-06-11 · Reviewed by Nham Vu