The short answer
Cake cups are the smallest and most stable. Sugar cones are taller and pointed. Waffle cones are the largest and hold the most.
No maker we looked at publishes a capacity in ounces or milliliters. Joy Cone’s spec sheets list height, mouth width and inside diameter only. Any volume you see below is our own arithmetic, not a maker’s figure.
Cake cone sizes
Cake cones are the flat-bottomed cups that stand up on a counter. Joy Cone numbers its cups so that #10 is the smallest and #80 the largest. The company says the cups are built for portion control. It also says portion control “varies from cone to cone and competitor to competitor,” so a #40 from one brand may not match a #40 from another.
Here are the cake cone sizes from Joy Cone’s spec sheet:
| Cup | Height | Mouth width | Inside diameter |
|---|---|---|---|
| #10 | 2-5/8 in | 2-5/16 in | 1-1/2 in |
| #22 | 2-7/8 in | 2-3/8 in | 1-9/16 in |
| #30 | 3-1/16 in | 2-1/2 in | 1-11/16 in |
| #40 | 3-3/16 in | 2-5/8 in | 1-7/8 in |
| #60 | 3-13/16 in | 2-7/8 in | 1-7/8 in |
| #80 | 4-1/2 in | 3-1/8 in | 2-1/16 in |
The same sheet lists a few other shapes. The pointed #1 cake cone is 4-11/16 inches tall with a 2-5/16 inch mouth. The Kids Cone is just 1-3/4 inches tall with a 1-1/2 inch mouth. The Twin Scoops cone is 4-13/16 inches tall with an oval mouth of 3-5/16 by 1-11/16 inches, made for two scoops side by side.
Sugar cone size
Joy Cone’s #310 and #415 sugar cones share one size: 4-5/8 inches tall, a 1-7/8 inch mouth, a 1-11/16 inch inside diameter and a pointed tip. Joy says its sugar cones use more sugar than cake cones and are baked with brown sugar.
For tastings, Joy’s 450S sampler cone runs 2.87 to 3.11 inches tall, with an outside diameter of 1.24 to 1.4 inches.
Waffle cone size
Waffle cones come in the widest range of sizes. From Joy Cone’s spec sheet:
| Waffle cone | Height | Mouth width | Inside diameter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic Small #5294 | 5-1/4 in | 2-1/4 in | 2 in |
| Regular #6160 | 6 in | 2-5/8 in | 2-3/8 in |
| Large #7196 | 7 in | 3 in | 2-3/4 in |
| Wide Waffle Large W7140 | 7 in | 3-1/4 in | 3 in |
Joy says its waffle cones have a sharper angle that shows more of the serving, which it presents as an aid to portion control. It also says waffle cones are more fragile than sugar cones because of their high sugar content. That matters if you are shipping, stacking or handing cones to small children.
How much does each cone hold
By our arithmetic, a true geometric cone with the sugar cone’s inside diameter and height holds about 3.4 cubic inches if filled to the rim. That is about 56 mL, or 1.9 fl oz. The waffle Regular works out to about 8.9 cubic inches (about 145 mL, or 4.9 fl oz). The waffle Large works out to about 13.9 cubic inches (about 227 mL, or 7.7 fl oz).
Treat these as upper limits. Real cones have thick walls and rolled edges, so they hold less inside. The scoop also sits on top of the cone, so these figures are not scoop counts.
For scale, the Institute of Child Nutrition’s portion scoop poster gives these sizes:
- #16 scoop: 1/4 cup (2 fl oz)
- #12 scoop: 1/3 cup
- #8 scoop: 1/2 cup (4 fl oz)
The FDA’s serving reference amount for ice cream is 2/3 cup. FDA labeling rules treat an ice cream cone itself as one unit.
Our reading is that a sugar cone’s interior is roughly one #16 scoop at most, which is one reason most of a serving rides on top. For more on scoops, use the See the scoop chart button near the top of this page.
Choosing cones for a party or a stand
A few suggestions:
- Small children: a Kids Cone or a #10 or #22 cake cup. They stand up, and they keep portions small.
- Mixed crowds: cake cups in the #40 to #60 range or standard sugar cones keep lines moving and cost less per serving.
- Big single servings: waffle cones. Plan for some breakage, since Joy calls them more fragile.
- Tastings or sampling events: sampler cones.
Demand matters too. In a 2026 International Dairy Foods Association survey, 30% of adults named waffle cones as their favorite way to eat ice cream, ahead of bowls at 23%, waffle bowls at 12% and sugar cones at 11%. If you can only stock one specialty cone, that points toward waffle.
To work out how much ice cream to buy, open the Scoop Planner from the button near the top. The calculators run in your browser, and the numbers you type are not sent to our server.
FAQ
What is the standard waffle cone size?
There is no single standard. Joy Cone’s Regular waffle cone is 6 inches tall with a 2-5/8 inch mouth, and its Large is 7 inches tall with a 3 inch mouth.
How many ounces does a sugar cone hold?
Makers do not publish this. By our arithmetic, the inside of a standard sugar cone holds at most about 1.9 fl oz, plus whatever scoop sits on top.
Do cake cone numbers mean the same thing across brands?
Not reliably. Joy Cone says portion control varies from competitor to competitor, so check each maker’s dimensions.
Which cone breaks the least?
Joy says waffle cones are more fragile than sugar cones. The sources we use do not rank cake cones for breakage, but their flat bottoms let them stand on their own.
Which cone do people like most?
In the International Dairy Foods Association’s 2026 survey, waffle cones were the favorite way to eat ice cream for 30% of adults.