Oil SAP Value Reference Chart
Saponification values for common cold-process soap-making oils and fats.
| Oil / fat | NaOH SAP (g/g) | KOH SAP (g/g) |
|---|---|---|
| Olive Oil | 0.134 | 0.188 |
| Coconut Oil (76°F melt point) An earlier version of this table listed 0.183 for coconut oil — corrected by a domain-expert review to 0.190 to match SoapCalc's and soap-making-resource.com's own published figures (both around 0.190-0.191), the two sources this table is corroborated against. Refined 92° coconut oil is sometimes listed with a slightly different SAP value by suppliers — confirm which grade you have before relying on this exact figure for a large batch. | 0.190 | 0.267 |
| Palm Oil | 0.141 | 0.198 |
| Castor Oil | 0.128 | 0.180 |
| Cocoa Butter | 0.137 | 0.192 |
| Shea Butter | 0.128 | 0.180 |
| Sunflower Oil | 0.134 | 0.188 |
| Canola Oil (low-erucic rapeseed) An earlier version of this table listed 0.124 — a domain-expert review found that figure is the traditional HIGH-erucic rapeseed SAP value, not modern canola. Canola is specifically bred to be low-erucic (under 2% erucic acid, the origin of the name "canola"), and replacing erucic acid (a C22 fatty acid) with shorter C18 acids raises the SAP value — modern canola oil (what's sold in stores today) saponifies closer to 0.133, in line with its similarity to sunflower and avocado oil. | 0.133 | 0.187 |
| Sweet Almond Oil | 0.136 | 0.191 |
| Avocado Oil | 0.133 | 0.187 |
| Lard | 0.138 | 0.194 |
| Tallow (Beef) | 0.140 | 0.196 |
Retrieved via web research and cross-corroborated across multiple sources, cited in this project’slib/oil-sap-reference.ts(see also docs/domain-reference.md for the full domain-expert review and confidence notes) — not independently re-verified against a laboratory titration for every entry. Use the lye calculator to apply these values to a recipe.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a SAP value?
- The saponification value is the amount of lye (grams of NaOH per gram of oil, in the table below) needed to fully convert that oil into soap. Every oil has its own SAP value based on its specific fatty-acid makeup.
- How is the KOH value calculated?
- KOH values here are computed from the sourced NaOH value using the standard molar-mass conversion factor (×1.403), not sourced separately per oil — see this project's lib/oil-sap-reference.ts for the full explanation.
- Can I trust these values for a large batch?
- These are cross-corroborated across multiple independent soap-making references and were checked by a domain-expert review (see docs/domain-reference.md for the full breakdown, including two figures the review corrected), but natural oils vary slightly by source and season. For a large or commercial batch, confirm against your specific supplier's own SAP value if they publish one.