Cooking Measurement Converter
Convert between teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, fluid ounces and millilitres — including the US, imperial and metric differences.
How to use this calculator
- 1Enter the value you want to convert.
- 2Pick the unit you are converting from and the one you want.
- 3The table below shows the same value in every other supported unit.
How the calculation works
result = (value × factor(from) ) / factor(to)- factor
- How many millilitres one unit represents
Every value is converted to millilitres first, then out to the target unit. This means n units need n factors rather than n² conversion pairs.
The US fluid ounce and the imperial fluid ounce are different sizes: 29.57 mL versus 28.41 mL. Counterintuitively the imperial fluid ounce is the *smaller* one, even though every larger imperial measure (pint, quart, gallon) is bigger than its US counterpart — because an imperial pint is 20 fl oz where a US pint is 16.
A US cup has three competing definitions: 236.588 mL (8 US fl oz, the traditional measure), 240 mL (the "legal" cup mandated for US nutrition labelling), and 250 mL (the metric cup used in Australia, New Zealand and Canada). The difference is small enough to ignore in cooking and large enough to matter in baking.
Tablespoons vary the most of any kitchen measure: 14.79 mL in the US, 15 mL in the UK and most metric countries, and 20 mL in Australia. An Australian tablespoon is a full third larger than a US one.
Worked example
1 cup (us, 8 fl oz) to millilitre
- 1.One cup (us, 8 fl oz) is 236.58824 millilitres, so 1 cup is 236.58824 millilitres.
- 2.One millilitre is 1 millilitres, so divide: 236.58824 ÷ 1 = 236.58824.
- 3.Put another way, 1 cup = 236.58824 mL.
Result: 236.58824 mL
Why kitchen measures disagree between countries
Almost every other unit on this site has one internationally agreed value. Kitchen volumes do not, and the disagreements are large enough to matter. A tablespoon is 14.79 mL in the United States, 15 mL across most of the metric world, and 20 mL in Australia. A cup is 236.59 mL in traditional US measure, 240 mL on US nutrition labels, 250 mL in Australia and New Zealand, and 284.13 mL if a British recipe means an imperial cup.
These are not sloppy approximations of one another — they are separate definitions that evolved independently, then got standardised locally. A recipe that says "2 tablespoons" means 29.6 mL in Boston, 30 mL in Birmingham and 40 mL in Brisbane.
The fluid ounce reversal
One relationship in this converter catches people out reliably. The imperial fluid ounce (28.41 mL) is *smaller* than the US fluid ounce (29.57 mL) — yet an imperial pint (568 mL) is substantially *larger* than a US pint (473 mL). Both facts are true at once because the systems count differently: an imperial pint is 20 fluid ounces while a US pint is only 16.
The practical consequence is that you cannot reason about imperial and US volumes by scaling a single conversion factor. Each unit pair has to be converted through a common base, which is exactly what this calculator does by routing everything through millilitres.
Volume versus weight, and why bakers weigh
Volume measures work acceptably for liquids, which pack consistently. They work poorly for dry ingredients, and the reason is compaction. A cup of flour can weigh anywhere from about 120 g to 150 g depending on whether it was sifted, spooned in gently, or scooped straight from the bag and pressed down — a swing of 25% in the single most important ingredient in most baking.
That is why professional and most modern baking recipes specify grams. Weight is unambiguous: 125 g of flour is 125 g of flour regardless of how it got into the bowl. Volume conversions like the ones here are genuinely useful for liquids and for scaling recipes between systems, and genuinely unreliable as a substitute for a kitchen scale when baking.
Ratios that survive the confusion
Within a single system the small-measure ratios are clean and worth memorising, because they hold no matter which country's millilitre values apply.
- 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon — true in both US and metric systems, which is why halving or tripling a spoon measure is straightforward.
- 16 tablespoons = 1 cup — holds in US measure. It does not survive mixing systems — a 250 mL metric cup holds 16.67 metric tablespoons, not 16.
- 2 cups = 1 pint, 2 pints = 1 quart, 4 quarts = 1 gallon — the US liquid chain, each step a clean doubling or quadrupling.
- 1 mL of water ≈ 1 g — the one volume-to-weight conversion that is reliable, because it is essentially the definition of the gram. It holds only for water and thin water-based liquids.
What this assumes, and where it stops
Assumptions
- Conversion factors follow the internationally agreed definitions of each unit.
Limitations
- These are volume conversions only. Converting a volume to a weight (cups of flour to grams) depends entirely on the ingredient and how it is packed, and cannot be done with a single factor.
- Kitchen measuring equipment is not precision glassware. Real spoons and cups vary from their nominal size, and how you fill them — levelled, scooped, sifted — introduces more error than the difference between a US and metric tablespoon.
Common questions
How many tablespoons are in a cup?
In US measures, exactly 16 tablespoons make a cup, and 3 teaspoons make a tablespoon — so a cup is 48 teaspoons. These ratios hold within the US system regardless of the millilitre values. Mixing systems breaks them: 250 mL metric cup ÷ 15 mL metric tablespoon is 16.67, not a round 16.
Is a UK cup the same as a US cup?
No, and modern British recipes rarely use cups at all — they weigh ingredients in grams instead, which is more accurate. Where an imperial cup is specified it is 10 imperial fluid ounces (284.13 mL), noticeably larger than the US cup's 236.59 mL. Australian and New Zealand recipes use a 250 mL metric cup.
Can I convert cups of flour to grams here?
No — that is a volume-to-weight conversion and depends on the ingredient. A cup of flour is roughly 120–150 g depending on whether it was sifted, spooned or scooped; a cup of sugar is about 200 g; a cup of water is 236 g. Weighing is the reliable approach, which is why most professional baking recipes specify grams.
Formula and content last reviewed on .
Results are estimates for information only, not professional advice.
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