Kitchen measurements are a mess. A recipe from one country asks for ounces, another for millilitres, a third for cups. Your measuring jug has one scale and your spoon has another.
This cooking measurement converter puts every common kitchen unit in one place. Convert between spoons, cups, pints, litres, grams and pounds, and when you move between weight and volume, pick the ingredient so the answer is right for what you are cooking.
How to use the Cooking Measurement Converter#
- Enter the amount. Type the number you want to convert.
- Choose the units. Pick the unit you have and the unit you want.
- Pick spoons and cups. Use US customary, or metric if your recipe uses 5, 15 and 250 mL.
- Choose an ingredient. This only matters for weight to volume conversions.
- Read the result. The answer is shown first, with the other common units below it.
US kitchen volume units#
US cooking volume units are all built on each other. Three teaspoons make a tablespoon. Two tablespoons make a fluid ounce, and 16 tablespoons make a cup. A cup is 8 fluid ounces, a pint is 2 cups, a quart is 2 pints and a gallon is 4 quarts. In millilitres, a US teaspoon is about 4.93, a tablespoon is 14.79 and a cup is 236.6. These values come from the exact definition of the US gallon, 231 cubic inches, which is 3,785.41 millilitres, so a cup is that figure divided by 16.
| Unit | US equivalent | Millilitres |
|---|---|---|
| 1 teaspoon | 1/3 tablespoon | 4.93 |
| 1 tablespoon | 3 teaspoons | 14.79 |
| 1 fluid ounce | 2 tablespoons | 29.57 |
| 1 cup | 16 tablespoons | 236.59 |
| 1 pint | 2 cups | 473.18 |
| 1 quart | 2 pints | 946.35 |
| 1 gallon | 4 quarts | 3,785.41 |
Metric and other cups#
Metric countries use rounder numbers. A metric teaspoon is 5 millilitres, a tablespoon is 15 and a cup is 250. Australia is a notable exception, with a tablespoon of 20 millilitres, so check the origin of a recipe before you trust a tablespoon. The old UK imperial cup was about 284 millilitres, and the imperial pint is 568. The US Food and Drug Administration rounds household measures on nutrition labels to 5 millilitres for a teaspoon, 15 for a tablespoon and 240 for a cup, which is yet another version.
The difference between a US and a metric cup is about 5.7 percent. That is small enough to forgive in a soup and large enough to ruin a cake, so match the cup to the recipe.
Weight and volume are not the same#
Ounces and pounds measure weight, and cups and spoons measure volume. There is a fluid ounce for volume and an ounce for weight, and they are only close for water. A fluid ounce of water weighs about 29.6 grams, which is very near an ounce of weight at 28.35 grams, and this causes confusion. For anything else, you need the ingredient. A cup of flour weighs about 125 grams, a cup of sugar 200 and a cup of honey 340. The converter uses the same ingredient weights as our grams to cups converter, based on standard baking charts.
Rounding in the kitchen#
Recipes do not need six decimals. For volume, round to the nearest eighth of a cup or the nearest half teaspoon. For weight, round to the nearest gram for baking and the nearest ten grams for cooking. The calculator shows more digits than you need so you can round the way that suits the recipe. For small amounts of strong ingredients such as salt, yeast or baking powder, be careful with rounding, since a small error is a big share of the total.
Measuring accurately#
Use the right cup for the job. Dry ingredients go in nested cups that you fill and level with a knife, and liquids go in a clear jug with a pouring lip. Read a liquid at eye level, with the jug on a flat surface, and look at the bottom of the curve at the surface. Measuring spoons should be filled level too, unless a recipe says heaped. Never use a coffee mug or an eating spoon, as these vary widely. If you do a lot of baking, a digital scale makes most of these conversions unnecessary, and the grams in this converter are the numbers to use with it.
Frequently asked questions#
Sixteen in the US. In a metric system with a 15 millilitre tablespoon and a 250 millilitre cup, there are about 16.7.
Three, in the US and in the metric system.
A US cup is 8 fluid ounces. For weight it depends on the ingredient, for example about 4.4 ounces of flour.
No. A fluid ounce measures volume and an ounce measures weight. They are close only for water.
A US cup is 236.6 millilitres, a metric cup is 250.
Spoon sizes differ by country. The Australian tablespoon is 20 millilitres against 15 elsewhere.
Sources and further reading#
- NIST Special Publication 811: Guide for the Use of the International System of Units. Exact definitions of the inch, pound, ounce and the units derived from them.
- Code of Federal Regulations, 21 CFR 101.9. The rounded household measures used on US nutrition labels.
- King Arthur Baking: Ingredient Weight Chart. Weights per cup for flour, sugar, butter, honey and more.
- Wikipedia: Tablespoon. Regional tablespoon sizes.
- Wikipedia: Cup (unit). US, metric and imperial cups.