Unit & Measurement Tables
Cooking Measurement Conversion Table
Most cooking conversions are simple. A few are not, and the difficult ones are exactly the ones that decide whether a recipe works. Volume-to-weight is the hard case: a cup of flour and a cup of honey are both one cup, but they differ in mass by a factor of nearly three, so any chart that converts cups to grams without naming the ingredient is wrong for almost every ingredient on it.
The tables below separate the two kinds of conversion. The first two convert volume to volume — cups to millilitres, tablespoons to teaspoons — and are exact for any liquid or free-flowing solid. The last two go from volume to weight, which is only meaningful per ingredient, so the ingredient is named in the row.
If you bake regularly, the practical upgrade is to weigh rather than measure. A cup of all-purpose flour scooped straight from the bag can hold 150 g; spooned and levelled it holds about 125 g. That 25 g gap is roughly a sixth of the flour in a single-layer cake, which is enough to change the texture, not just the yield.
Cups to millilitres, tablespoons, teaspoons and fluid ounces
| Cups (US) | Millilitres | Tablespoons | Teaspoons | Fluid ounces |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/8 cup | 30 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| 1/4 cup | 59 | 4 | 12 | 2 |
| 1/3 cup | 79 | 5.33 | 16 | 2.7 |
| 1/2 cup | 118 | 8 | 24 | 4 |
| 2/3 cup | 158 | 10.67 | 32 | 5.3 |
| 3/4 cup | 177 | 12 | 36 | 6 |
| 1 cup | 237 | 16 | 48 | 8 |
| 1½ cups | 355 | 24 | 72 | 12 |
| 2 cups | 473 | 32 | 96 | 16 |
| 4 cups | 946 | 64 | 192 | 32 |
Metric cups (250 mL) and Australian tablespoons (20 mL) differ; check the source of the recipe before using this table.
Spoons and small measures
| Measure | Millilitres | Teaspoons | Tablespoons |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 teaspoon | 4.93 | 1 | 0.333 |
| 1 tablespoon | 14.79 | 3 | 1 |
| 2 tablespoons | 29.6 | 6 | 2 |
| 1 fluid ounce | 29.57 | 6 | 2 |
| 1 jigger (1½ fl oz) | 44.4 | 9 | 3 |
| 1 US cup | 236.6 | 48 | 16 |
| 1 US pint | 473.2 | 96 | 32 |
| 1 US quart | 946.4 | 192 | 64 |
The 3-teaspoons-to-a-tablespoon rule is exact in US measure and is the single most useful kitchen conversion.
Butter: sticks, cups, tablespoons and grams
| US sticks | Cups | Tablespoons | Grams | Ounces |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5 | 0.13 | 4 | 56.7 | 2 |
| 1 | 0.25 | 8 | 113.4 | 4 |
| 2 | 0.5 | 16 | 226.8 | 8 |
| 4 | 1 | 32 | 453.6 | 16 |
One US stick is ½ cup, 8 tablespoons, 4 oz or 113.4 g. European blocks are usually 250 g, which is 2.2 US sticks.
Approximate weight of one US cup of common ingredients
| Ingredient | Grams per cup | Ounces per cup |
|---|---|---|
| Water, milk | 237 | 8.4 |
| Granulated sugar | 200 | 7.1 |
| Brown sugar, packed | 220 | 7.8 |
| All-purpose flour, spooned | 125 | 4.4 |
| Bread flour | 127 | 4.5 |
| Butter | 227 | 8.0 |
| Rolled oats | 90 | 3.2 |
| Rice, uncooked | 185 | 6.5 |
| Honey | 340 | 12.0 |
| Cocoa powder | 85 | 3.0 |
Flour is the ingredient that varies most: scooping from the bag can pack 150 g into a cup, while spooning and levelling gives about 125 g — a 20% difference in a cake.
How to Use These Tables
- Use the first table for any liquid and for anything you would pour. It is exact.
- Use the ingredient table for dry goods, and match the ingredient, not the category — cake flour and bread flour differ.
- When a recipe gives both cups and grams, always use the grams. They were written by someone who weighed.
- For butter, count sticks first: 1 stick is ½ cup, 8 tbsp, 113 g. Converting grams back to sticks is where most European cooks lose a half tablespoon.
Common Questions
How many grams are in a cup of flour?
About 125 g for all-purpose flour spooned and levelled, or up to 150 g if scooped from the bag. Bread flour is slightly heavier at about 127 g. Recipes that specify 120 g are using the dip-and-sweep-free method.
Is 1 cup the same as 250 mL?
A US cup is 236.6 mL and a metric cup is 250 mL — a 5.7% difference. For a single mug of liquid it is invisible; across four cups in a bread dough it changes hydration noticeably.
How many tablespoons are in 1/3 cup?
5⅓ tablespoons, which is 5 tbsp plus 1 tsp. This is why the 1/3 cup measure exists as a separate cup rather than being counted out with a tablespoon.
Why do recipes give butter in sticks?
US butter is sold in ½-cup sticks with tablespoon markings on the wrapper, so a stick is a measuring tool as well as a portion. Elsewhere butter comes in 250 g blocks, so a recipe written in sticks needs converting rather than counting.
Does a cup of sifted flour weigh less?
Yes, noticeably — sifting aerates the flour, so a sifted cup can weigh 110 g against 125 g for spooned and levelled. If a recipe says sifted, sift before measuring or the dough will be drier than intended.
More Unit & Measurement Tables
Sources
- NIST Handbook 44 — Specifications, Tolerances and Other Technical Requirements — National Institute of Standards and Technology
- U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, Part 101 — Food Labeling (reference amounts) — U.S. Food and Drug Administration
- Nutrient Databank — household measures and gram weights — U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central
Filed with Unit Conversion calculations.