Glucose is a simple sugar, meaning it cannot be broken down into smaller sugar units. It is a monosaccharide ("mono" = one), consisting of a single sugar molecule. It is about 70–75% as sweet as sucrose (or white table sugar).

In baking, glucose is most often used as a syrup, such as corn syrup or glucose syrup. Invert syrup, also known as trimoline, contains glucose and fructose dissolved in water.