Sucralose vs Stevioside: what is the difference?

How they differ

One is made in a factory from sugar and the other is extracted from a leaf, and that is the difference most shoppers are actually asking about. Sucralose is sucrose with three chlorines substituted in, indigestible and about 600 times as sweet as sugar. Stevioside is a steviol glycoside from the Stevia rebaudiana leaf, a much larger molecule at 804.9 against 397.6, around 200 times as sweet, and it carries a liquorice bitterness in the aftertaste that sucralose does not have. Most commercial stevia products are purified away from stevioside toward rebaudioside A precisely to lose that bitterness. Both pass through largely unmetabolised, which is why both contribute essentially no calories.

Side by side

Common questions

What is the difference between Sucralose and Stevioside?

One is made in a factory from sugar and the other is extracted from a leaf, and that is the difference most shoppers are actually asking about. Sucralose is sucrose with three chlorines substituted in, indigestible and about 600 times as sweet as sugar. Stevioside is a steviol glycoside from the Stevia rebaudiana leaf, a much larger molecule at 804.9 against 397.6, around 200 times as sweet, and it carries a liquorice bitterness in the aftertaste that sucralose does not have.

Is Sucralose bigger than Stevioside?

Stevioside is the heavier molecule, 804.9 g/mol against 397.6 g/mol for Sucralose. Sucralose is C12H19Cl3O8 and Stevioside is C38H60O18.

Is Sucralose sweeter than Stevioside?

Sucralose is the sweeter of the two, about 600 times as sweet as table sugar against about 200 times for Stevioside. Sweetness here is measured against sucrose, which is defined as 1.