How to Make Cannabutter

Cannabutter is butter that has had cannabinoids dissolved into its fat. That is the whole idea, and every decision below follows from it: cannabinoids are fat soluble, they are not water soluble, and they are not active until heat has converted the acid forms into THC and CBD.

This page gives you the numbers. Temperature, time, ratio, yield and what to do when a batch comes out wrong.

The short version

Step	What	Numbers
1	Decarboxylate the flower	110 to 115 C for 30 to 40 minutes
2	Infuse into butter	70 to 85 C for 2 to 3 hours, never boiling
3	Strain	fine mesh, press gently, do not wring
4	Store	fridge 2 weeks, freezer several months

Standard batch: 7 to 10 g of dried flower to 200 g of unsalted butter, with 1 tablespoon of sunflower lecithin if you want it.

Step 1: decarboxylation, and why the temperature matters

Raw cannabis carries THCA and CBDA. Neither is active. Heat removes a carboxyl group and converts them to THC and CBD, which is why the step is called decarboxylation and why skipping it produces butter that does almost nothing.

The window is narrow at both ends. Too cool and the conversion is incomplete. Too hot and THC begins degrading to CBN, which is sedative rather than psychoactive, and the terpenes that carry the smell and much of the character boil off.

Temperature	Time	Result
100 C	60 to 70 min	slower, gentler, keeps more terpenes
110 to 115 C	30 to 40 min	the usual target, near-complete conversion
120 C	20 to 25 min	faster, more terpene loss
above 135 C	any	measurable THC to CBN degradation, avoid

Grind coarsely, not to powder. You want surface area, not dust that scorches and passes through the filter. Our decarboxylation temperature chart has the full curve if you want to see where those numbers come from.

The colour reference

Colour is the field test when you have no thermometer you trust.

Colour	Meaning
Bright green, fresh smell	not started
Olive green, drier, nutty smell	correctly decarbed, stop here
Light brown, toasted smell	over the line, some degradation
Dark brown to black, burnt smell	ruined, cannabinoids destroyed

Step 2: infusion, and the ratio that decides strength

Cannabinoids move out of the plant and into the fat. Butter is about 80 percent fat, so 200 g of butter carries roughly 160 g of fat to dissolve into.

Flower per 200 g butter	Strength	Suits
3 to 5 g	mild	first time, daytime, cooking for guests
7 to 10 g	standard	the default on this page
14 g (half ounce)	strong	experienced, small doses
28 g (one ounce)	very strong	dosing by the teaspoon, not the tablespoon

Hold the mixture at 70 to 85 C for 2 to 3 hours. Below 70 C the transfer is slow and incomplete. Above 95 C you are back in degradation territory and the water in the butter starts to spit.

Sunflower lecithin is optional. It is an emulsifier: it helps the cannabinoids stay bound to the fat and disperse evenly, which mostly shows up as a more consistent dose per spoonful rather than a stronger batch.

How strong is it? The arithmetic

You need four numbers and one multiplication.

1. Flower weight in grams. Say 7 g.
2. THC percentage of that flower. Say 20 percent. Use the label, or assume 15 to 20 percent for decent flower.
3. Decarboxylation conversion. THCA converts to THC at about 0.877 by mass, and no home decarb is perfect, so about 0.80 of the theoretical maximum is a realistic figure.
4. Infusion efficiency. A good butter infusion recovers roughly 60 to 70 percent of what is in the plant. Use 0.65.

7 g x 1000 = 7000 mg of flower. 7000 x 0.20 = 1400 mg THCA. 1400 x 0.877 x 0.80 = 982 mg after decarb. 982 x 0.65 = 638 mg THC in the finished butter.

Spread across 200 g of butter, that is about 3.2 mg per gram, so a 14 g tablespoon carries roughly 45 mg. That is a large dose. A quarter tablespoon is a more sensible place to start.

Run your own numbers in the cannabutter calculator, which also works backwards from the dose you want, or the edible dosage calculator for a finished recipe, rather than trusting a batch you have not measured.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
Barely any effect	decarb skipped, too cool, or too short	redo the decarb step with a thermometer, not a guess
Harsh, grassy, bitter	plant matter squeezed through the filter	strain again, press gently, never wring the cloth
Sedative rather than uplifting	overheated, THC converted to CBN	lower the temperature, shorten the time
Strength varies spoon to spoon	poor emulsion, butter separated	melt, stir thoroughly, add lecithin next time
Butter is watery	water from the butter has not cooked off	chill, lift the solid butter off the water layer, discard the water
Smells burnt	over 135 C at some point	start again, that batch is finished

Storage

Sealed container in the fridge for up to two weeks, or the freezer for several months. Portion it before freezing so you are not thawing the whole block for one recipe. Label it clearly and keep it away from anything a child or a guest might reach for.

Using it

Cannabutter substitutes for regular butter in almost anything, with one rule: keep the temperature under 150 C where you can, because baking hot enough for long enough continues the degradation you were careful about in step 1. Brownies, cookies and banana bread are the classics. It also works in savoury cooking, stirred into pasta sauce, mashed potatoes or a roux.

If butter is not the right carrier for what you are cooking, see cannabutter vs cannaoil and the best oils for infusion.

Frequently asked

Last reviewed: September 2026.

This process can be performed with the NOIDS Herb Lab, which holds the decarboxylation and infusion temperatures for you.