AeroPress Grind Size: 5 Settings to Try
Quick answer: medium-fine, about the texture of table salt. For most AeroPress recipes that means 12 to 14 clicks on a Timemore Chestnut C2, 60 to 70 clicks on a 1Zpresso J-Ultra, or a setting between filter and espresso on an electric grinder. Start there, then go finer if the coffee tastes weak or sour, coarser if it tastes bitter or the press stalls.
The AeroPress is the most forgiving brewer you can buy, which is exactly why grind size causes so much head-scratching. It works with a surprisingly wide range of grinds, but you get a noticeably better cup when you pick the right one for your recipe. These five settings cover everything from the everyday sweet spot to the edges of what actually works.
5 AeroPress Grind Settings to Try
1. Medium-fine: the daily default. This is table salt texture, the setting most standard recipes assume. On a Timemore Chestnut C2 that's 12 to 14 clicks, and on an electric grinder it sits one or two notches finer than your drip setting. With a 1:15 ratio and a two-minute steep, medium-fine gives you a balanced cup with sweetness up front and a clean finish. If you only ever remember one setting, remember this one.
2. Fine: for lighter roasts and quicker recipes. Light roasts extract slowly, so they need more surface area to release flavour. Go one or two clicks finer than your default and you'll pull out the fruit and acidity that gets lost at medium. This also suits the classic 60-second World Championship recipe, where a short steep needs a fine grind to extract enough in the time.
The AeroPress Original handles fine grinds without clogging thanks to its paper filter, so you don't need to baby it.
3. Coarse: when it tastes bitter or fights back. If your coffee tastes harsh, ashy or just aggressively bitter, you're over-extracting. Grind coarser, roughly the texture of coarse sand, and the water stops pulling the bitter compounds out so aggressively. The same applies if pressing takes serious effort or coffee sprays out around the cap. A coarser grind also rescues long steeps - anything over three minutes - because it stops the slurry over-extracting while it sits.
4. Match the grind to your steep time. The AeroPress's superpower is that you can brew in 60 seconds or 5 minutes, and the grind should follow. Short and fast recipes want fine grinds to extract quickly. Long immersion recipes want coarse grinds so they don't turn bitter. A good rule of thumb: every minute of steep time you add, move one step coarser. That flexibility is why the AeroPress suits everyone from impatient commuters to weekend tinkerers.
5. Consistency beats the perfect number. The exact clicks that work for one bag of beans won't necessarily work for the next, because roast level and bean density both shift extraction. What matters is that you can repeat what worked. That means weighing your dose with a Maestri House S2 coffee scale and grinding on a proper burr grinder rather than a blade one, which throws out a mix of boulders and dust.
Note the setting that tasted best, and you'll dial in a new bag in two cups instead of a week of guessing.
Bean choice matters too, because a medium roast like Union Original Blend is the easiest to dial in - it sits in the middle of the extraction window, whereas very light or very dark roasts need you to move your grind further from the default. If you're switching bags regularly, keep your grinder's setting written down somewhere - the back of the bag works - so you always have a starting point.
Frequently Asked Questions
Final Verdict
Start medium-fine and let the cup tell you what to change. Sour or weak means go finer. Bitter or hard to press means go coarser. The AeroPress forgives almost anything, but nailing the grind takes it from decent to genuinely great, and it's a ten-second fix once you know which way to turn.
Grind fresh with a Timemore Chestnut C2 for the best value, or step up to a 1Zpresso J-Ultra if you want espresso-grade precision in the same manual format. For electric, the Baratza Encore ESP is the benchmark. Pair any of them with the AeroPress Original and you have a setup that makes better coffee than machines ten times the price.
Dig deeper with our best AeroPress coffee makers UK roundup, the full AeroPress brewing guide, and the complete coffee grind size guide.
Sam Roberts writes about coffee machines, beans and brewing gear for Coffee Nerds.
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Last reviewed: 12 Aug 2026 Β· Evidence-based content Β· Contains affiliate links