What does "Total Carbohydrate" on labels include?

On Google labels, "Total Carbohydrate" grams exclude fibre grams.

This is because, in Google, “Total Carbohydrate” refers to digestible carbohydrates only, including starch and sugar, all of which contain calories. Digestible carbohydrates exclude dietary fibre (which is non-digestible and provides zero calories).

Something else to keep in mind: some manufacturers' food labels include "fibre" as part of the “total carbohydrate” value, whereas most labels (like those in Google) don’t.

All in all, the values will vary depending on the food label or the database you’re reading.

So, your best bet is to first check whether fibre is included in the Total Carbohydrate value or not.

If there's no label, I highly recommend this database (which is maintained by the US Department of
Agriculture based on scientific assays): https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/

Google pulls all nutrition data from this database by the way, so in there Total Carbohydrate is always the digestible kind, without fibre.

AUTHOR: Alex Ruani, Research Director

Updated on: 27/10/2026