Kitchen conversion calculator

Kitchen conversion chart: cups, spoons and milliliters

Cups to grams by ingredient

Weights from King Arthur Baking's ingredient weight chart (flour spooned and leveled). Water uses its physical weight of 1 gram per milliliter, 236.6 g per cup; King Arthur rounds it to 227 g.

Worked example

A recipe calls for 250 grams of all-purpose flour, and you only have cups. Flour weighs about 120 grams per cup, so 250 ÷ 120 = 2.08 cups, or 2 cups plus about 1 1/3 tablespoons. Now say it calls for 1/3 cup of oil and your 1/3 cup is in the dishwasher: 1/3 × 16 = 5.33, so use 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon.

How it's calculated

• Volume to volume: everything converts through milliliters using the US customary definitions: 1 teaspoon = 4.929 ml, 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons = 14.787 ml, 1 fluid ounce = 2 tablespoons = 29.574 ml, 1 cup = 8 fl oz = 236.588 ml, 1 pint = 2 cups, 1 quart = 4 cups, 1 gallon = 16 cups.
• Weight to weight: 1 ounce = 28.3495 grams, 1 pound = 16 ounces = 453.592 grams.
• Volume to weight: grams = cups × the ingredient's grams per cup. The reverse divides by it.

Unit definitions: NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8 and NIST's US customary to metric conversions.

Keep a chart where you cook

A conversion chart taped inside a cabinet saves a lot of phone-checking with floury hands. The Family Recipe Binder includes one, and our free printable recipe book (PDF) is a good place to write down the conversions you use most. For more ideas, see our recipe book guide, the recipe card template and the family recipe binder printable. Planning holiday baking? The Christmas baking list pairs well with this chart.

For the family cook

Write it down once, cook it forever

The Family Recipe Binder gives every family recipe a proper home, with section dividers, four recipe layouts with room for the story behind the dish, 4x6 and 3x5 cards and a printed conversion chart. Print it or type into the fillable version.

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• 4x6 and 3x5 recipe cards
• Kitchen conversion chart included

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Questions, answered

How many tablespoons are in a cup? There are 16 tablespoons in 1 US cup. That makes 1/2 cup 8 tablespoons, 1/3 cup 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon, and 1/4 cup 4 tablespoons. If you're out of measuring cups, counting tablespoons is the most accurate swap.

How many teaspoons are in a tablespoon? There are 3 teaspoons in 1 tablespoon, and 48 teaspoons in a cup. So 1 1/2 teaspoons is half a tablespoon, and 2 tablespoons is 6 teaspoons.

How many ounces are in a cup? 1 US cup holds 8 fluid ounces. That's a measure of volume, not weight. A cup of water happens to weigh about 8.3 ounces, but a cup of all-purpose flour weighs only about 4.2 ounces (120 grams), so for dry ingredients use the weight chart on this page instead of assuming 8 ounces.

How many grams are in a cup of flour? A cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 120 grams when it's spooned into the cup and leveled, the method King Arthur Baking uses for its chart. Scooping straight from the bag packs the flour and can push a cup to 150 grams or more, which is why bakers prefer a scale.

How many grams are in a cup of sugar? A cup of granulated white sugar weighs about 198 grams. Packed brown sugar is heavier, about 213 grams a cup, and powdered sugar is much lighter, about 113 grams a cup.

How many grams are in a stick of butter? One US stick of butter is 1/2 cup, 8 tablespoons, 4 ounces or about 113 grams. A full cup of butter is two sticks, about 227 grams, and one tablespoon of butter is about 14 grams.

Why can't I convert cups to grams without picking an ingredient? Cups measure volume and grams measure weight, and every ingredient has a different weight for the same volume. A cup of honey weighs almost three times as much as a cup of flour. When you convert between volume and weight, the calculator asks for the ingredient and uses its weight per cup.

Is a US cup the same as a metric cup? No. A US customary cup is 236.6 milliliters. The metric cup used in Australia, Canada and New Zealand recipes is 250 milliliters, and the old UK imperial cup was 284 milliliters. The difference is small for one cup, but it adds up in a big batch, so check where a recipe comes from.

How many cups are in a quart and a gallon? There are 2 cups in a pint, 4 cups in a quart and 16 cups in a gallon. A quart is 32 fluid ounces and a gallon is 128 fluid ounces, all in US measures.

How accurate are the weight conversions? They're good averages for home cooking, based on King Arthur Baking's ingredient weight chart. Real weights shift with how you fill the cup, humidity and brand. For bread and delicate baking, weigh your ingredients; for soups, sauces and most cooking, these numbers are more than close enough.

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