Oven Temperature Conversion Chart: Celsius, Fahrenheit, Gas Mark

The three oven temperatures you will reach for most often are 180C (350F, gas mark 4), 200C (400F, gas mark 6), and 220C (425F, gas mark 7). Those cover the bulk of everyday baking and roasting. If your recipe is written for one temperature scale and your oven uses another, this page gives you the exact answer in a single chart, plus the adjustments you need for a fan oven and an air fryer.

Recipes are written all over the world, and ovens are not. A British recipe might list a gas mark, an American recipe gives Fahrenheit, and most of the rest of the world cooks in Celsius. Add fan ovens and air fryers into the mix and a simple instruction like "bake at 180C" suddenly needs translating four different ways. The full conversion chart below does that work for you, from a very cool 110C right up to a very hot 240C, with a heat description for each step so you always know whether you are slow cooking, baking, or roasting.

The complete oven temperature conversion chart

This is the full reference. Every row lists the Celsius setting for a conventional oven, the Fahrenheit equivalent, the British gas mark, the temperature to use on a fan or convection oven, and a plain heat description. The Fahrenheit and fan oven values are rounded the way recipe writers round them, because no home oven holds a temperature precisely enough for the leftover degrees to matter.

Save or print this chart and you have an answer for nearly every recipe you will ever cook. The middle of the table, from 160C to 200C, is where most baking happens. The top of the table, 220C and above, is roasting and high-heat territory. The bottom, 110C to 150C, is for slow cooking, drying, and gently finishing dishes without browning them.

The three temperatures everyone searches for

A handful of oven temperatures come up far more than the rest because they are the workhorses of home cooking. Here are the exact conversions for the most common ones, with the rounding spelled out so there is no doubt.

180C to Fahrenheit (180C is 350F)

The precise conversion of 180C is 356F. Recipes round this down to 350F, and the two are treated as identical. This is the single most-used baking temperature in the world. It is gas mark 4, a moderate heat, and it is the default for sponge cakes, cookies, brownies, muffins, and most casseroles. The reason it is so popular is balance: 180C is hot enough to set a batter and lift it, but gentle enough that the center cooks through before the crust over-browns. On a fan oven, set it to 160C.

200C to Fahrenheit (200C is 400F)

200C converts exactly to 392F and is rounded to 400F. This is gas mark 6, a moderately hot oven. It is the go-to setting for roasting vegetables, baking ready-made pastry, cooking sausages, and bread that needs a strong oven spring. The extra heat over 180C drives off more moisture and encourages browning, which is why roast potatoes and pastry both prefer it. On a fan oven, drop to 180C.

220C to Fahrenheit (220C is 425F)

220C is 428F exactly, rounded to 425F, and it is gas mark 7. This is a genuinely hot oven, used for crisp roast potatoes, pizza, scones, and getting golden, crackling skin on roast chicken. At this temperature timing matters more, because the outside of food colors quickly. On a fan oven, use 200C. Above this you move into the very hot range: 230C is 450F and 240C is 475F, reserved for searing roasts and high-heat bread baking.

How to adjust for a fan or convection oven

A fan oven, also called a convection oven, has a fan at the back that circulates the hot air. Moving air transfers heat to food faster than the still air of a conventional oven, and it removes the hot and cool spots, so the whole cavity cooks evenly. Because of that extra efficiency, a fan oven set to the same number as a conventional recipe will run effectively hotter and can overcook or over-brown your food.

The rule is simple: reduce the conventional temperature by about 20C, which is roughly 25F to 35F. So a recipe written for 180C conventional becomes 160C in a fan oven, and 200C becomes 180C. The fan oven column in the chart above has already done this for every row. Some cooks also trim a few minutes off the cooking time, since fan ovens cook a little faster even after the temperature is reduced. If a recipe explicitly says "fan" next to the temperature, use that number as written and do not reduce it again.

Converting an oven recipe to an air fryer

An air fryer is, in effect, a small countertop convection oven. It uses a powerful fan and a tight cooking chamber to move very hot air quickly around the food. Because the chamber is small and the airflow is strong, an air fryer heats up fast, cooks fast, and browns aggressively. That makes it excellent for chips, wings, roast vegetables, and reheating, but it also means you cannot use oven numbers straight from a recipe.

The reliable starting point is the same logic as a fan oven, taken one step further: lower the oven temperature by about 20C (25F) and cut the cooking time by roughly 20 percent. A tray bake written for 200C in a conventional oven would run at about 180C in an air fryer, and finish noticeably sooner. Always check food early the first time you convert a recipe, because air fryer models vary and the small chamber leaves little margin. Shake or turn the food partway through, since air fryers brown the side facing the fan more.

Most air fryers need little or no preheating thanks to the small chamber, so you can often skip the preheat step a recipe asks for. Delicate items such as cakes and custards are the exception to air fryer cooking: the strong airflow can dry them out or crack the top, so an oven is usually the safer choice for those.

What each heat range is good for

Knowing the number is only half the job. Knowing what that heat is for makes a recipe make sense. Here is how the chart breaks down in practice.

Very cool, 110C to 120C (225F to 250F). This is gentle, slow heat. Use it for meringues, which dry out rather than bake, for slow-cooked stews and pulled meats, and for keeping cooked food warm. Nothing browns much at this temperature.

Cool to warm, 140C to 160C (275F to 325F). A low baking range for rich fruit cakes, slow roasts, and anything that needs a long, even cook without a dark crust. Custards and cheesecakes often sit here so they set gently.

Moderate, 180C (350F). The default. Everyday cakes, cookies, muffins, traybakes, and most casseroles. If a recipe does not specify and you are unsure, 180C is almost always the safe choice.

Moderately hot, 190C to 200C (375F to 400F). Roasting vegetables and meat, baking bread, cooking pastry, and pies. The higher heat drives browning and gives pastry a firm, crisp finish.

Hot to very hot, 220C to 240C (425F to 475F). Pizza, crisp roast potatoes, scones, puff pastry, and searing roasts at the start of cooking. Watch the clock closely, because food colors fast in this range.

How the conversion math works

Every number on this page comes from one formula. To turn Celsius into Fahrenheit, multiply by 9, divide by 5, then add 32. For 180C that is 180 multiplied by 9, divided by 5, which is 324, plus 32, giving 356F, which recipes round to 350F. To go the other way, subtract 32 from the Fahrenheit value, multiply by 5, then divide by 9. The two scales meet at a single point: minus 40 degrees is the same in Celsius and Fahrenheit. The converter near the top of this page runs this math for you instantly, so you never need to do it by hand.

Gas marks follow their own steps. From gas mark 1 upward, each whole mark is roughly 25F, or about 14C, hotter than the last, which is why the chart climbs in neat 25F jumps. Gas mark 4 sits at 180C, the moderate midpoint, with the cooler quarter and half marks below it for slow cooking.

A few practical oven tips

Oven dials are not precise. An oven set to 180C can easily run 10C to 20C above or below that, and the difference shifts as the oven ages. A cheap standalone oven thermometer is the single best way to know the real temperature inside, and it explains a lot of recipes that always come out under or over done.

Always preheat a conventional oven fully before food goes in, since the temperature in a recipe assumes the oven is already at heat. Heat also varies by shelf: the top of an oven is hotter than the bottom, and the middle shelf is the most reliable spot for even baking. If you bake on more than one shelf at once, swap the trays partway through so everything cooks evenly. With the chart above and these habits, any recipe, in any temperature scale, becomes straightforward to follow.