About this tool
This cooking converter handles the two conversions that trip up most recipes: volume to volume (cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, fluid ounces, pints, quarts, gallons, milliliters, liters, plus the 250 ml metric cup and the 20 ml Australian tablespoon) and volume to weight for a specific ingredient. Because a cup of flour weighs 125 g while a cup of sugar weighs 200 g, the second conversion needs an ingredient density, and the tool carries densities for about 30 pantry staples. It is for home cooks following recipes written in another country's units, bakers who want to weigh ingredients on a scale, and anyone halving or doubling a recipe. A quick-equivalents table and an oven temperature chart (Fahrenheit, Celsius, gas mark) are included.
How it works
Every volume unit is stored as a number of milliliters using the US customary definitions: 1 gallon = 3.785411784 L, so 1 cup = 236.588 ml, 1 fluid ounce = 29.5735 ml, 1 tablespoon = 14.7868 ml, and 1 teaspoon = 4.92892 ml. Converting from unit A to unit B multiplies by A's milliliters and divides by B's. Volume-to-weight uses a density table expressed in grams per US cup (for example all-purpose flour 125 g, granulated sugar 200 g, butter 227 g, honey 340 g): grams = milliliters / 236.588 x grams-per-cup, and the reverse divides grams by the density to get cups. Ounces are grams / 28.3495. The US legal cup used on nutrition labels is 240 ml; this tool uses the 236.588 ml customary cup that recipe measuring cups are built to.
Frequently asked questions
How many tablespoons are in a cup?
There are 16 US tablespoons in a US cup, and 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon, so a cup is 48 teaspoons. In milliliters a US customary cup is 236.588 ml, a tablespoon 14.787 ml, and a teaspoon 4.929 ml. A metric cup used in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand is 250 ml, and an Australian tablespoon is 20 ml (four 5 ml teaspoons), so recipes from those countries run a few percent larger per cup.
How many grams is a cup of flour?
A cup of all-purpose flour spooned into the cup and leveled weighs about 125 g (4.4 oz), which is the figure used here and by most US baking references. Sifted flour is lighter, around 115 g, and flour scooped and packed can reach 150 g, which is why recipes written by weight are more reliable than recipes written in cups.
Why does the same cup give different gram amounts for different ingredients?
Volume measures space, weight measures mass, and the ratio between them is density. A cup of water is 236.6 g, a cup of granulated sugar about 200 g, a cup of cocoa powder only 85 g, and a cup of honey about 340 g. The converter multiplies the volume in cups by the grams-per-cup density of the ingredient you select; if your ingredient is not listed, pick the closest match in texture or weigh a cup of it once and use that figure.
What is the difference between fluid ounces and ounces?
A fluid ounce is a volume (29.57 ml in the US); an ounce is a weight (28.35 g). They coincide only for water and thin liquids of similar density, where one fluid ounce weighs very close to one ounce. For flour, one fluid ounce (about one eighth of a cup) weighs only 0.55 oz, so a recipe calling for 8 oz of flour by weight is about 1.8 cups, not 1 cup.