A medium apple has about 95 calories. That’s for a whole, raw apple with the skin on, weighing roughly 200 grams (about 7 ounces). The exact count shifts depending on the size of the apple and whether you eat the peel.
Calories by Apple Size
Apple sizes vary more than you might expect, and so does the calorie count. A small apple (around 150 grams) comes in closer to 70 calories, while a large one (around 240 grams) can reach 115 or more. Most nutrition labels and databases use a “medium” apple as the standard serving, landing at roughly 95 calories.
Nearly all of those calories come from carbohydrates, primarily natural sugars like fructose and glucose. Apples contain almost no fat or protein. A medium apple delivers about 25 grams of total carbs, with around 4.2 grams of dietary fiber and roughly 19 grams of sugar.
Why Apples Feel More Filling Than Their Calories Suggest
For a 95-calorie snack, an apple keeps you surprisingly satisfied. That’s largely thanks to pectin, a type of soluble fiber concentrated in the flesh and skin. Pectin forms a gel-like substance in your stomach that slows digestion, delays gastric emptying, and reduces the blood sugar spike you’d get from eating the same amount of sugar in another form. Research on adults with obesity found that pectin significantly increased feelings of fullness and slowed the rate at which food left the stomach.
The European Food Safety Authority has recognized a direct relationship between pectin consumption and both reduced blood sugar spikes after meals and increased satiety that leads to eating less overall. You won’t get a therapeutic dose of pectin from a single apple, but the combination of fiber, water content (apples are about 86% water), and the physical act of chewing all work together to make apples one of the more filling fruits calorie-for-calorie.
Blood Sugar Impact
Apples have a glycemic index of about 39, which is considered low. For context, anything under 55 counts as low-glycemic, meaning the sugars are absorbed gradually rather than flooding your bloodstream. The glycemic load of a whole apple is just 6, which is also low. So despite containing 19 grams of sugar, a whole apple produces a modest, steady rise in blood sugar rather than a sharp spike. The fiber and the physical structure of the fruit slow everything down.
Whole Apple vs. Apple Juice
A cup of unsweetened apple juice (about 248 grams) has 114 calories, while a medium apple with the skin has 85 to 95 calories depending on the source and exact size. The bigger difference is fiber: that cup of juice contains just 0.5 grams of fiber, compared to 4.2 grams in a whole apple. Without the fiber, juice delivers its sugars much faster, and you lose the satiety benefits that make a whole apple feel like a real snack. You can drink a glass of juice in 30 seconds, but eating an apple takes several minutes, which gives your body more time to register fullness.
Does Peeling Change the Nutrition?
Peeling an apple doesn’t change the calorie count in a meaningful way, since the skin itself is very light. But it does strip away a significant portion of the nutrients. A raw apple with its skin contains up to 332% more vitamin K, 142% more vitamin A, and 115% more vitamin C compared to a peeled apple. Up to one-third of an apple’s total fiber sits in or just beneath the skin. If you’re eating apples partly for the fiber and fullness benefits, leave the peel on.
Calories Across Popular Varieties
Sweeter varieties like Fuji and Gala tend to sit at the higher end of the calorie range because they contain slightly more sugar. Tart varieties like Granny Smith are slightly lower. The differences are small, though, typically within 10 to 15 calories for similarly sized apples. Pick whichever variety you enjoy eating, because the nutritional profile is broadly similar across all of them.
- Granny Smith (medium): ~80 calories
- Gala (medium): ~95 calories
- Fuji (medium): ~95 to 100 calories
- Honeycrisp (medium): ~95 calories
- Red Delicious (medium): ~90 calories
Dried apple rings are a different story. Because the water has been removed, the calories concentrate. A cup of dried apple rings can pack 200 or more calories, and the sugar content per bite is much higher. If you’re tracking calories, weigh dried fruit rather than eyeballing a portion.