Cooking Converter: Cups, Tablespoons, Teaspoons, mL
Convert any cooking measurement to any other in one tool. US cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, fluid ounces, pints, quarts, gallons, plus metric milliliters, liters, and the 250 mL metric cup. Recipe-ready with the standard US measurements that dominate English-language cookbooks and food blogs, plus the metric units used in Europe, Australia, and Asia.
Cooking measurement converter
1 Cup (US) = 236.588 Milliliter
Cooking conversion reference table
Common kitchen measurements with all unit equivalents.
| Cup | Tablespoons | Teaspoons | Milliliters | Fluid Ounces |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/4 cup | 4 tbsp | 12 tsp | 59 mL | 2 fl oz |
| 1/3 cup | 5 tbsp + 1 tsp | 16 tsp | 79 mL | 2.7 fl oz |
| 1/2 cup | 8 tbsp | 24 tsp | 118 mL | 4 fl oz |
| 2/3 cup | 10 tbsp + 2 tsp | 32 tsp | 158 mL | 5.3 fl oz |
| 3/4 cup | 12 tbsp | 36 tsp | 177 mL | 6 fl oz |
| 1 cup | 16 tbsp | 48 tsp | 237 mL | 8 fl oz |
| 2 cups (1 pt) | 32 tbsp | 96 tsp | 473 mL | 16 fl oz |
| 4 cups (1 qt) | 64 tbsp | 192 tsp | 946 mL | 32 fl oz |
About cooking measurements
US cup vs metric cup
US cup = 236.588 mL. Metric cup (Australia, Europe) = 250 mL. The difference is 6 percent. If you follow Australian recipes with US measuring cups, your portions will be slightly under by that amount. Most American cookbooks use US cups, while Australian and many British modern cookbooks use the metric cup. The calculator includes both so you can convert in either direction.
The cup-tablespoon-teaspoon hierarchy
The US kitchen hierarchy: 1 cup = 16 tablespoons = 48 teaspoons. 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons. These ratios hold for the US system. UK tablespoons are slightly larger (17.76 mL vs 14.787 mL US), and Australian tablespoons are notably larger (20 mL = 4 metric teaspoons). For most home cooking the difference is small enough to ignore.
Fluid ounces are volume, not weight
"Fluid ounces" measure volume; "ounces" without "fluid" measure weight. One US fluid ounce is 29.5735 mL. One US dry ounce is 28.35 grams. They are not interchangeable: one fluid ounce of water weighs about one dry ounce, but one fluid ounce of honey weighs about 1.5 dry ounces. Recipes specify "fl oz" or "oz" deliberately.
Why baking demands precision
Bread, cakes, and pastries depend on precise ratios of flour, fat, sugar, and liquid. A 10 percent error in flour can ruin a cake. Volume measurements (cups) introduce variability because flour can be sifted, scooped, or packed differently, changing the actual mass by 20 to 30 percent. Professional baking uses grams for this reason. For casual cooking and savoury dishes, cups are fine.
Density of common ingredients
The calculator handles volume only. For volume-to-weight conversions: 1 cup all-purpose flour = 125 grams. 1 cup granulated sugar = 200 grams. 1 cup brown sugar (packed) = 220 grams. 1 cup rice (uncooked) = 185 grams. 1 cup honey = 340 grams. 1 cup milk = 240 grams. Use a kitchen scale for precise baking.
Scaling recipes up or down
Multiply every ingredient by the scaling factor. To halve a recipe, divide each by 2. To triple, multiply by 3. Some ingredients do not scale linearly: yeast, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices may need adjustment for very large or very small batches. The calculator handles the volume conversion; recipe judgement handles the rest.
Converting between US and metric recipes
Round numbers help: 1 cup ≈ 240 mL. 1/2 cup ≈ 120 mL. 1/4 cup ≈ 60 mL. 1 tbsp ≈ 15 mL. 1 tsp ≈ 5 mL. 1 fl oz ≈ 30 mL. These approximations are within 2 percent of the exact values and work fine for most cooking. For baking, use the exact values from the calculator.
UK and Australian recipe quirks
UK pint = 568 mL (vs US pint 473 mL). Australian tablespoon = 20 mL (vs US 14.787 mL). UK gallon = 4.546 L (vs US 3.785 L). When a UK recipe says "pint of milk", treat it as roughly 2.4 US cups, not 2 US cups. Australian recipes that specify tablespoons of an ingredient are using larger tablespoons than American recipes.
Drop, dash, smidgen, pinch
Informal units that have actually been standardized for spice and seasoning measurement: 1 drop ≈ 0.05 mL. 1 smidgen = 1/32 tsp ≈ 0.15 mL. 1 pinch = 1/16 tsp ≈ 0.3 mL. 1 dash = 1/8 tsp ≈ 0.6 mL. These appear on dedicated spice spoons sold in the US. The calculator doesn't include them, but they are useful to know when reading older recipes.
One US cup is 236.588 mL (approximately 237 mL for kitchen purposes). The metric cup, used in Australia and some European recipes, is exactly 250 mL. The calculator includes both.
One US cup equals 16 tablespoons. One US tablespoon is 14.787 mL, so 16 tbsp is 236.6 mL, matching the cup. A teaspoon is 1/3 of a tablespoon, so 1 cup also equals 48 teaspoons.
One US teaspoon is 4.929 mL (or about 5 mL for everyday use). The UK teaspoon is officially 5 mL. The Australian teaspoon is also 5 mL. Most recipes treat 5 mL as the standard regardless of country.
US cup = 236.588 mL. Metric cup (Australia, parts of Europe) = 250 mL. The 6 percent difference matters in baking where precision counts. If you use US measuring cups with an Australian recipe, scale up by 6 percent to match.
The calculator handles volume only. For dry ingredients like flour or sugar, volume to weight depends on density. 1 cup of all-purpose flour is about 120 to 130 grams; 1 cup of granulated sugar is about 200 grams; 1 cup of brown sugar (packed) is about 220 grams. Use a kitchen scale for the best accuracy in baking.
A unit of volume, not weight. One US fluid ounce is 29.5735 mL. One UK fluid ounce is 28.413 mL. "Fluid ounces" of water happen to weigh approximately one "ounce" of weight, which is where the confusing terminology comes from, but for other ingredients the volume-weight relationship varies.
Multiply quarts by 0.946 to get liters. So 4 quarts is about 3.785 liters, which equals 1 US gallon. The calculator handles quarts, pints, and gallons alongside cups, tablespoons, and milliliters.
UK tablespoon = 17.76 mL (slightly larger than the 14.787 mL US tablespoon). Australian tablespoon = 20 mL (notably larger). Most online recipes use US tablespoons. The calculator defaults to US measurements but you can mentally adjust for Australian recipes.
1/4 cup = 59 mL. 1/3 cup = 79 mL. 1/2 cup = 118 mL. 2/3 cup = 158 mL. 3/4 cup = 177 mL. 1 cup = 237 mL. These are US cup measurements; metric cups are 6 percent larger.
Multiply every ingredient amount by the scaling factor. For example, to make 1.5 times a recipe, multiply each value by 1.5. The calculator converts after scaling so you can keep working in your preferred unit. For very small scaling (halving teaspoons, etc.), be aware that some ingredients (yeast, baking powder) do not scale linearly and may need adjustment.
Professional baking, European cooking, and Asian recipes typically use grams for precision. US home cooking traditionally uses cups for convenience. Grams are more accurate (especially for flour, where compaction affects volume by up to 30 percent). The calculator handles volume only; for weight-volume conversions of specific ingredients, use a kitchen scale.
No. US pint = 473 mL. UK (imperial) pint = 568 mL. The difference is about 20 percent, the same as the US-UK gallon difference. British beer measures use the UK pint; US recipes use the US pint. The calculator uses US pints by default.
Yes. All values stay in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server, logged, or shared. You can use the calculator offline once the page has loaded.