Recipe scaler

Worked example

This pancake recipe makes 4 servings, and you're feeding 6. The factor is 6 ÷ 4 = 1.5. Multiply each line:

Notice the tidy-ups: 1 1/4 cups of milk times 1.5 is 1 7/8 cups, and halved it's 5/8 cup, which the scaler turns into 10 tablespoons because no one owns a 5/8 cup measure.

How it's calculated

• Scaling factor = servings you need ÷ servings the recipe makes.
• New amount = original amount × factor, for every line that starts with a number. Ranges like 2–3 scale both ends.
• Friendly rounding: amounts are shown as the nearest common fraction (1/8, 1/4, 1/3, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 2/3, 3/4, 7/8) when one is within 0.03; otherwise as a decimal.
• Unit tidy-up: under 1/4 cup switches to tablespoons or teaspoons (1 cup = 16 tbsp, 1 tbsp = 3 tsp); awkward 3/8, 5/8 and 7/8 cups become tablespoons; whole multiples of 4 tbsp become cups.

Measures use US customary units as defined by NIST. Egg weight (about 50 g for a large egg out of the shell) follows King Arthur Baking's ingredient weight chart.

Tips for scaling recipes

• Season last. Scale salt and spices a little under, then taste.
• Mind the pan. Keep the batter depth the same and the bake time will stay close.
• Weigh when baking big. For large batches of bread or cookies, convert to grams for accuracy.
• Cool big batches fast. A doubled pot of soup or chili takes longer to cool, so split it into shallow containers and refrigerate within 2 hours, as USDA's leftovers guidance recommends.
• Write the new version down. Note the scaled amounts on your recipe card so you don't redo the math next time.

Hosting a crowd this season? See our guide to hosting a cookie exchange, the Christmas cookie ideas and how to plan Thanksgiving dinner. To save family recipes for good, start a recipe journal or grab our free printable recipe book (PDF).

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Questions, answered

How do I scale a recipe up or down? Divide the servings you want by the servings the recipe makes to get a scaling factor, then multiply every ingredient by it. To turn a 4-serving recipe into 6 servings, the factor is 6 ÷ 4 = 1.5, so 2 cups of flour becomes 3 cups. The scaler above does the math for every line at once and rounds to fractions you can actually measure.

How do I halve a recipe with 1/3 cup in it? Half of 1/3 cup is 1/6 cup, which isn't on most measuring sets. Use 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons instead, since 1/3 cup is 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon. The scaler switches small cup amounts to tablespoons and teaspoons automatically.

How do I halve an egg? Beat the egg, then use half of it. A large egg is about 50 grams without the shell, so half an egg is about 25 grams, or roughly 1 1/2 tablespoons of beaten egg. In forgiving recipes like pancakes or meatballs, you can round to a whole egg instead.

Can I just double everything when I double a recipe? Mostly, yes. Flour, sugar, butter, liquids and eggs double cleanly. Go a little lighter on salt, strong spices and chili, then taste and adjust, because they can come across stronger in a big batch. Leavening like baking powder usually scales fine for one double batch, but for very large batches, bake in two rounds rather than one giant pan.

Do cooking times change when I scale a recipe? Often they do. The scaler only changes ingredient amounts. A doubled recipe baked in a deeper pan takes longer, and a halved one in a smaller pan may finish sooner. Keep the oven temperature the same, use the same pan depth if you can, and start checking for doneness early.

What pan size do I need for a doubled recipe? Doubling a recipe doubles the volume, so you need about twice the pan area to keep the same depth. Two 8-inch square pans (64 square inches each) hold a doubled 8-inch recipe, and a 9x13 pan (117 square inches) is close to double an 8-inch square pan.

What ingredient lines can the scaler read? It reads lines that start with a number, such as 2, 1.5, 1/2, 1 1/2, ½, or a range like 2-3. If the next word is cup, tablespoon, tbsp, teaspoon or tsp, it also tidies the unit, so 1/8 cup becomes 2 tbsp. Lines without a number, like 'salt to taste', are kept as they are and shown in a lighter color.

Does the scaler save my recipe? No. Everything happens in your browser and nothing is uploaded or stored, so close the page and it's gone. Use the copy button to paste the scaled list into your notes, or print it and tuck it into your recipe binder.

How do I convert a recipe from cups to grams? Scale the recipe here first, then convert each dry ingredient with our kitchen conversion calculator, which uses ingredient-specific weights. A cup of all-purpose flour is about 120 grams, a cup of granulated sugar about 198 grams and a cup of butter about 227 grams.

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