Chili Powder Substitute: Best Swaps

Out of chili powder? First check which kind your recipe means. In the United States, chili powder is a blend: USDA’s purchasing specification says it should include ground chili pepper, cumin, oregano, salt and garlic powder,¹ and Saveur says the chile in it is usually ancho.² Since you’re replacing four or five ingredients at once, the best fix is to rebuild it from your spice rack, and three published recipes below show how differently cooks do that. Ancho powder alone, used one-to-one, gets you the base without the seasonings. Outside North America, “chilli powder” often means ground chile alone; if that’s what your recipe means, see cayenne pepper substitutes or ancho powder substitutes.

Quick answer

What chili powder is doing	Best substitute	Starting amount, per 1 part chili powder	Treatment
The whole blend (chili con carne, Tex-Mex meat)	Homemade chili powder	1 part; the published recipes differ	Disputed (recipe), Method (amount)
Mild chile flavor and color	Ancho powder	1 part	Attributed
Color, when you have no chile powder	Paprika plus a pinch of cayenne and cumin	1 part paprika	Attributed
Seasoning for taco meat	Taco seasoning	1 part, then hold back salt	Attributed
Heat only	Cayenne	⅛ part	Attributed

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

The ratios here come from a spice merchant (The Spice House) and three bylined food publications (Chili Pepper Madness, Mashed and PepperScale). None of them says how it worked out its figures. Every maker sets its own recipe, so no substitute can match “chili powder” exactly. Even USDA’s specification lists ingredients that are “not limited to” those five.¹

How hot is chili powder, and how hot are the swaps?

The figures below come from different kinds of sources and describe different things, so they sit side by side and aren’t combined.

What	Heat	Scope	Source
Chili powder bought by US federal agencies	900–2,000 SHU	A purchasing specification, not a survey of store brands	USDA AMS, 2023¹
Retail chili powder brands	No published measurement found
Ancho	1,000–2,000 SHU	Pepper type; general figure	NMSU Chile Pepper Institute³
Ancho and pasilla	1,000–1,500 SHU	Approximate scale	Dave DeWitt, 2008⁴
Chipotle	Usually 5,000–10,000 SHU	Chipotle in general	Mick Vann, 2012⁵
Chipotle powder (morita)	13,000–28,000 SHU	One merchant’s own product	The Spice House⁶
Crushed red pepper	15,000–30,000 SHU	Approximate scale	Dave DeWitt, 2008⁴
Cayenne powder	35,000–70,000 SHU	One merchant’s own product	The Spice House⁷
Paprika (category)	480 SHU or less	Category boundary in the international standard	Codex CXS 353-2022⁸

Going by the figures that exist, ancho is closest to what USDA expects of chili powder, and chipotle, flakes and cayenne are all hotter. For the full disagreement over cayenne’s heat, see cayenne pepper substitutes.

If chili powder is the whole blend

In chili con carne and seasoned taco or enchilada fillings, the cumin, oregano and garlic matter as much as the chile.

1. Make your own

PepperScale’s homemade version is easy to put together from a spice rack:⁹

2 tablespoons paprika, sweet, or hot for more heat
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano, Mexican if you have it
1½ teaspoons garlic powder
¾ teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne

Other published blends disagree a lot, especially on cumin. The Spice House uses half as much cumin as chile and adds black pepper,¹⁰ while Chili Pepper Madness uses only about one part cumin to twelve of paprika.¹¹ These are differences in style, not mistakes, and we don’t average them. PepperScale notes that cumin and paprika lose their punch over time, so make a batch you’ll use within a few months.⁹

A cumin-forward blend is closer to the chili powders USDA and Saveur describe.¹² Better Homes & Gardens offers a quicker fix with no amounts: a dash of bottled hot pepper sauce with dried oregano and ground cumin.¹² For soups, sauces and other dishes with a liquid base, PepperScale also suggests a dash or two of hot sauce, like original Tabasco or Sriracha.¹³

Ratio (Method): Use the same amount of homemade blend the recipe calls for, add salt separately, and taste before adding more.

2. Taco seasoning

Taco seasoning is another chile-based blend. The ingredient list on McCormick’s original taco packet reads: spices (including chili pepper, paprika, oregano), corn starch, salt, onion and garlic.¹⁴ Expect some salt and a little thickening from the corn starch.

Ratio (Attributed): Mashed says you can use the same amount of taco seasoning as chili powder.¹⁵ Hold back the recipe’s salt until you’ve tasted.

If chili powder is mild chile flavor and color

1. Ancho powder

Ancho is a dried poblano: sweet and smoky with hints of dried fruit, and mild. It’s the usual chile in chili powder, so ancho gives you the base of the blend without the cumin, oregano, garlic or salt.

Ratio (Attributed): The Spice House says to use another powdered chile like ancho one-to-one.¹⁰ Mashed says to use an equal amount of ground ancho.¹⁵

Adding back cumin and oregano (Method): If the dish relied on them, start with about ¼ teaspoon of each per tablespoon of ancho and taste.

2. Paprika

Paprika brings red color with almost no heat. Under the international standard, it’s dried Capsicum at 480 Scoville units or less.⁸

Ratio (Attributed): The Spice House says paprika can go in one-to-one with a pinch of cayenne and a little cumin for heat and earthiness.¹⁰ Mashed says you can use sweet paprika in equal amounts, and to start with half or less if your paprika is hot.¹⁵

3. Pasilla powder

Pasilla, the dried chilaca, is a common, mild Mexican chile. DeWitt’s scale puts it in the same band as ancho.⁴ It’s darker and more bitter than ancho.

Ratio (Method): Start with an equal amount, as the sources suggest for ancho, and add cumin and oregano to taste.

If chili powder is there for heat

Use these when chili powder is a minor ingredient and it’s only there for a little warmth. All of them are hotter than chili powder by the figures above, and none brings cumin or oregano.

Substitute	Starting amount, per 1 part chili powder	Treatment	Notes
Cayenne	⅛ part	Attributed¹⁵	Mashed’s figure.
Crushed red pepper	½ part	Attributed¹⁵	McCormick Science Institute says flakes are typically cayenne, alone or blended.¹⁶ PepperScale suggests crushing them finer in a mortar and expects them to run hotter than the blend, since they are not cut with milder spices.¹³
Chipotle powder	1 part	Attributed¹⁰	The Spice House’s one-to-one. Chipotle is a smoke-dried jalapeño and adds strong smoke. Its heat figures are well above USDA’s chili powder range, and PepperScale warns that equal parts would be significantly hotter and to start small,¹³ so start at half and taste.

If chili powder is seasoning in a non-Mexican dish

These blends contain chile too, but their other flavors will change the dish.

Substitute	Starting amount, per 1 part chili powder	Treatment	What else it brings
Harissa (paste or dried blend)	1 part	Attributed¹⁵	UNESCO describes Tunisian harissa as sun-dried chiles seasoned with salt, garlic and coriander;¹⁷ The Spice House’s dried blend adds tomato, cumin, caraway, fennel and lemon.¹⁸
Cajun seasoning	1 part	Attributed¹⁵	Salt is listed first on Slap Ya Mama’s original blend, ahead of black pepper, red pepper and garlic,¹⁹ so hold back the recipe’s salt.
Ground cumin	1 part, up to 2	Attributed¹⁵	Cumin is one of chili powder’s own ingredients, but it brings no chile at all. Stay at 1 part or below.

What isn’t known

No one has published a heat measurement for retail chili powder brands. The 900–2,000 SHU range is a federal purchasing specification.
No source we found publishes the proportion of chile, cumin or oregano in commercial chili powders. Published homemade blends differ several-fold on cumin.
None of the ratios here says how it was worked out. Every one is a rule of thumb.
You’ll often read that ancho supplies most of chili powder’s flavor. Saveur says ancho is the usual chile,² but no source measures its share of the flavor.

Commercial Item Description A-A-20001C, Spices and Spice Blends, USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, 2023. ams.usda.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Chili Powder, Saveur, 2009. saveur.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³
Ancho recipe card, Chile Pepper Institute, New Mexico State University. cpi.nmsu.edu · Reference work ↩
Dave DeWitt, Heat Scale Updated, Fiery Foods & Barbecue Central, 2008. fieryfoodscentral.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³
Mick Vann, Chipotle Chiles, The Austin Chronicle, 2012. austinchronicle.com · Publication ↩
Ground Chipotle Chiles, The Spice House (product page). thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩
Cayenne Pepper, The Spice House (product page). thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩
Standard for Dried or Dehydrated Chilli Pepper and Paprika, CXS 353-2022, Codex Alimentarius. fao.org · Standard ↩ ↩²
Matt Bray, Spicy Homemade Chili Powder, PepperScale, updated 2026. pepperscale.com · Publication · PepperScale is also owned by Matt Bray, the editor of this site. ↩ ↩²
Chili Powder Substitute, The Spice House, 2018. thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Mike Hultquist, Chili Powder Substitutes, Chili Pepper Madness, 2018 (modified 2025). chilipeppermadness.com · Publication ↩
100 Emergency Ingredient Substitutions, Better Homes & Gardens. static.onecms.io · Publication ↩
Matt Bray, What’s A Good Chili Powder Substitute?, PepperScale. pepperscale.com · Publication · PepperScale is also owned by Matt Bray, the editor of this site. ↩ ↩² ↩³
McCormick Original Taco Seasoning Mix, ingredient label, via Giant Food Stores. giantfoodstores.com · Merchant ↩
Nancy Mock, 10 Best Substitutes For Chili Powder, Mashed, 2021 (updated 2023). mashed.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸
Red Pepper, McCormick Science Institute. mccormickscienceinstitute.com · Merchant ↩
Harissa, knowledge, skills and culinary and social practices (Tunisia), UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2022. ich.unesco.org · Reference work ↩
Harissa Seasoning, The Spice House (product page). thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩
Slap Ya Mama Original Blend Cajun Seasoning, ingredient label, via Giant Food Stores. giantfoodstores.com · Merchant ↩

Also drawn on

Paprika and Mexican chiles (Capsicum annuum), Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages, Gernot Katzer. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com
Pasilla recipe card (from The Official Cookbook of the Chile Pepper Institute), Chile Pepper Institute, New Mexico State University. cpi.nmsu.edu

Chili Powder Substitutes, Ranked by the Job Chili Powder Is Doing