Cooking Measurement Converter
Type an amount above and pick its unit, and every other volume equivalent updates instantly — cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, fluid ounces, milliliters, deciliters, gallons, quarts, and pints. Tell it which ingredient you're measuring and it adds a precise weight in grams and ounces, worked out from that ingredient's real kitchen density rather than a generic "1 cup = X g" guess that's wrong for half the ingredients in your pantry.
Converting cups, tablespoons, and mL for cooking
Enter a number in the amount field — plain decimals like 1.5 and simple fractions like 1 1/2 both work, since that's how most recipes actually print quantities. Choose the unit that number is in, and the equivalents list below recalculates on every keystroke: no Convert button, nothing to submit.
| Unit | Equals |
|---|---|
| 1 cup | 16 tbsp · 48 tsp · 8 fl oz · 236.6 mL |
| 1 tbsp | 3 tsp · 14.8 mL |
| 1 fl oz | 2 tbsp · 29.6 mL |
| 1 quart | 2 pints · 4 cups · 946.4 mL |
| 1 gallon | 4 quarts · 16 cups · 128 fl oz |
These are volume-to-volume conversions — they hold for any liquid, and for dry ingredients measured by volume rather than weight.
Turning cups into grams by ingredient
Volume and weight aren't the same thing: a cup of flour and a cup of honey take up the same space but weigh very differently, because they pack differently. Pick an ingredient from the "Convert to weight" list — all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, granulated or brown or powdered sugar, butter, oil, milk, cream, honey, cocoa powder, rolled oats, cornstarch, or peanut butter — and the converter multiplies your amount by that ingredient's published density to add a gram and ounce readout beside the volume list. Leave it on "None — volume only" and only the volume equivalents show, with no weight guess attached.
Butter — sticks, cups, tablespoons, and grams
Select Butter as the ingredient and a Sticks option appears in the unit list — the one unit here that only makes sense for one ingredient. A stick is 1/2 cup, 8 tablespoons, and about 113–114 g, so entering "2" with sticks selected gives you 1 cup, 16 tablespoons, and roughly 227 g in one pass, without converting it yourself against the markings printed on the wrapper.
US cups vs. UK cups
A US cup and a UK (Imperial) cup are not the same volume — the UK cup is about 20% larger, and the UK fluid ounce is slightly smaller than the US one. If a recipe's origin isn't US customary, switch the Measurement system toggle to UK / Imperial before reading the equivalents; it changes the cup and fluid-ounce factors the tool converts against, so the same "1 cup" input produces a different milliliter answer depending on which side of the Atlantic the recipe came from.
Australian recipes use a metric cup (250 mL) — closer to the UK cup than the US one, but not identical to either, so switch to UK/Imperial and expect a small remaining difference.
Packed vs. loose — flour and brown sugar
Two ingredients here have a real packed-vs-loose difference large enough to matter, and selecting either one reveals the toggle:
- All-purpose flour defaults to Loose / spooned — spoon the flour into the cup and level it off with a straight edge. Switch to Packed only if a recipe explicitly calls for scoop-and-sweep measuring, which packs in noticeably more.
- Brown sugar defaults to Packed — the near-universal assumption when a recipe just says "1 cup brown sugar." Switch to Loose only if it specifically says "lightly packed" or "loosely spooned."
Getting this wrong is the single most common reason a recipe scaled from someone else's kitchen comes out too dense, too dry, or too sweet — the flour or sugar amount was right by volume and wrong by weight.
Common cooking measurement questions
How many grams are in a cup of flour?
1 cup of all-purpose flour is 120 g when spooned into the cup and leveled off — the method King Arthur Baking and most modern recipes assume. Scoop the cup directly into the flour bag and pack it down instead, and the same cup holds closer to 150 g. That 30 g gap is exactly why this converter has a Packed/Loose toggle for flour rather than one fixed number.
How many tablespoons are in a cup?
16 tablespoons make 1 US cup, and that ratio holds for any liquid or dry ingredient — tablespoons and cups are both volume units, so no density lookup is needed to convert between them. 1 tablespoon is also 3 teaspoons.
How many sticks of butter are in a cup?
2 sticks of butter make 1 cup. A single stick is 1/2 cup, 8 tablespoons, and about 113–114 g — US butter wrappers even print tablespoon markings along the side for exactly this reason.
How many teaspoons are in a tablespoon?
3 teaspoons make 1 tablespoon (US). This is a fixed volume ratio, so it's the same whether you're measuring water, oil, salt, or baking soda.
Is a UK cup the same as a US cup?
No. A US cup is 236.6 mL; a UK (Imperial) cup is 284.1 mL — about 20% larger. A UK recipe that calls for "1 cup" of a liquid means noticeably more than a US recipe does, which is why this converter has a separate US/UK toggle rather than one universal "cup."
How many ounces are in a gallon?
128 fluid ounces make 1 US gallon (4 quarts, 8 pints, 16 cups). That's fluid ounces, a measure of volume — a gallon's weight in ounces depends on what's in it, since honey and water don't weigh the same.
What does it mean to spoon and level flour?
Spoon and level means using a spoon to fluff and loosely fill the measuring cup with flour, then dragging a straight edge across the top to remove the excess — never dipping the cup straight into the bag. Dipping compacts the flour and can add 20–25% more than the recipe intended, which is the single most common reason home-baked goods come out dense or dry.
What is packed brown sugar?
Packed brown sugar means pressing the sugar firmly into the measuring cup until it holds the cup's shape when turned out — it should stay in a solid mold, not crumble. Recipes assume packed unless they say otherwise, because brown sugar's moisture makes it compress: a packed cup is about 213 g, while the same cup loosely spooned is closer to 145 g.
