Dried fruits top the list, with raisins packing 70 grams of carbohydrates per 100 grams and dates close behind at 65 grams. Among fresh fruits, bananas and grapes lead at about 15 grams per 100 grams, followed by mangoes at 14 grams and apples at 12 grams. Whether these numbers matter to you depends on your goals: managing blood sugar, following a low-carb diet, or simply understanding what you’re eating.
Dried Fruits Have the Most Carbs by Far
Drying fruit removes water and concentrates everything else, including sugar. The result is a dramatic jump in carbohydrates per bite compared to the fresh version of the same fruit. Here’s how the highest-carb fruits compare per 100 grams:
- Raisins and sultanas: 70g carbs
- Dates: 65g carbs
- Dried figs: 49g carbs
- Dried apricots: 37g carbs
- Prunes: 34g carbs
To put that in perspective, 100 grams of raisins contains roughly the same amount of carbohydrates as four and a half slices of white bread. A small snack box of raisins (about 43 grams) still delivers around 30 grams of carbs. Dried fruits are easy to overeat because they’re small and don’t fill you up the way fresh fruit does, so the carbs can add up quickly without you noticing.
The Highest-Carb Fresh Fruits
Fresh fruits contain far fewer carbohydrates than dried ones, but there’s still a meaningful range. Bananas and grapes sit at the top with about 15 grams of carbs per 100 grams, while berries and melons hover around 7 to 8 grams. That difference matters if you’re counting carbs, since every 15 grams counts as one carbohydrate serving.
Bananas are worth a closer look because their carb composition actually shifts as they ripen. A green banana stores 15% to 35% of its weight as starch, a complex carbohydrate that your body breaks down more slowly. As the banana ripens and turns yellow (then spotted), that starch converts into simple sugars. The total carbs stay roughly the same, but a ripe banana will spike your blood sugar faster than a green one. If you’re trying to manage blood sugar, choosing a slightly less ripe banana is a practical move.
Mangoes deserve attention too. At 14 grams of carbs per 100 grams, they’re close to bananas, but a typical mango weighs around 200 grams of edible flesh. Eat a whole one and you’re looking at roughly 28 grams of carbs. Pineapple comes in at about 11 grams per 100 grams (a half cup), making it moderately high among tropical fruits.
Lower-Carb Fruits for Comparison
If you’re trying to keep carbs low, certain fruits give you a lot more volume for fewer grams. Strawberries deliver just over 7 grams of carbs per cup of slices. Watermelon has 7.5 grams per 100 grams, cantaloupe about 8 grams, and blackberries less than 10 grams per cup. A single medium plum has only 7.6 grams.
Avocado, technically a fruit, contains just 8.5 grams of carbs per 100 grams, and much of that is fiber your body doesn’t absorb as sugar. For people on a ketogenic diet or strict low-carb plan, berries, melons, and avocados are the fruits that fit most easily into daily limits.
Fiber Changes the Picture
Not all carbohydrates in fruit act the same way in your body. Fiber is technically a carbohydrate, but your body can’t digest it into sugar, so many people subtract fiber from total carbs to get “net carbs,” the portion that actually affects blood sugar.
Raspberries are the standout here: one cup contains 8 grams of fiber, which offsets a large chunk of their total carbs. A medium pear has 5.5 grams of fiber, and a medium apple (with skin) has 4.5 grams. Bananas, despite their higher total carbs, have only about 3 grams of fiber per medium fruit, so their net carb count stays relatively high.
This is one reason nutritionists don’t treat fruit carbs the same as, say, candy carbs. The fiber in whole fruit slows digestion, which means sugar enters your bloodstream more gradually. That’s a meaningful difference for blood sugar control compared to eating the same amount of sugar from juice or processed food.
Glycemic Index and Real-World Impact
The glycemic index (GI) measures how quickly a food raises your blood sugar on a scale from 0 to 100. Foods below 55 are considered low GI, and 56 to 69 is moderate. Most whole fruits fall in the low to moderate range, even the higher-carb ones. Bananas have a GI of 55, and pineapple comes in at 58.
But GI alone can be misleading because it doesn’t account for how much you actually eat. That’s where glycemic load (GL) comes in, which factors in portion size. A half cup of pineapple has a GL of 11, and a cup of banana has a GL of 13. Both are considered moderate. For context, a GL under 10 is low, 11 to 19 is moderate, and 20 or above is high. Most reasonable servings of fresh fruit land in the low to moderate range, which is why fruit rarely causes the kind of blood sugar spikes that processed carbs do.
Dried fruit is a different story. Because you tend to eat more of it and the sugar is so concentrated, the glycemic load per serving climbs quickly. A quarter cup of raisins can push into high GL territory.
How Serving Size Shifts the Math
Per-100-gram comparisons are useful for ranking fruits, but real portions vary widely. A medium banana weighs about 118 grams and delivers roughly 24 grams of carbs. A medium apple weighs around 182 grams but still has fewer carbs than the banana because its per-gram carb density is lower. A cup of grapes (about 150 grams) gives you around 23 grams of carbs, similar to a banana.
The practical takeaway: if you’re tracking carbs, weigh or measure your fruit rather than guessing. “One serving of fruit” can mean anywhere from 7 to 30 grams of carbs depending on which fruit you pick and how much you eat. A cup of strawberries and a cup of banana slices are very different nutritional choices, even though they look like similar portions on a plate.
Why High-Carb Fruits Still Belong in Your Diet
Fruit carbs come packaged with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and plant compounds that you can’t get from a supplement. Bananas are one of the richest food sources of potassium. Mangoes deliver a full day’s worth of vitamin C and significant vitamin A. Dates are high in iron and magnesium. Even the highest-carb fruits deliver their sugar alongside nutrients that support heart health, digestion, and immune function.
Harvard’s School of Public Health groups fruits alongside whole grains, vegetables, and beans as among the healthiest sources of carbohydrates, precisely because they come with fiber and micronutrients that refined carbs lack. For most people, the goal isn’t to avoid high-carb fruits but to be aware of portion sizes, especially with dried fruit, and to eat a variety rather than relying on just one or two types.