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The Ultimate Baking Conversion Chart: Cups, Grams, Tablespoons & Ounces
One reference table for every baking conversion: cups to tablespoons, teaspoons to cups, grams to ounces, plus the US/metric differences.
By Ali RazaUpdated 8 min read
Most baking conversions fall into two categories, and confusing them is where recipes go wrong. Volume-to-volume conversions are fixed: 16 tablespoons make a cup no matter what is in it. Weight-to-volume conversions are not fixed: they depend entirely on the ingredient. This guide covers both, clearly separated.
Volume to volume: the fixed ratios
These never change. US customary units are defined in terms of each other, so the numbers below are exact rather than rounded, and the ingredient is irrelevant.
| Measure | Tablespoons | Teaspoons | Fluid ounces |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cup | 16 | 48 | 8 |
| ¾ cup | 12 | 36 | 6 |
| ⅔ cup | 10⅔ | 32 | 5⅓ |
| ½ cup | 8 | 24 | 4 |
| ⅓ cup | 5⅓ | 16 | 2⅔ |
| ¼ cup | 4 | 12 | 2 |
| ⅛ cup | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| 1 tablespoon | 1 | 3 | ½ |
Two of these are worth committing to memory because they resolve the awkward fractions: ⅓ cup is 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon, and ⅔ cup is 10 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons. Both come out clean in teaspoons even though they do not in tablespoons.
Larger volumes
| Measure | Cups | Tablespoons | Millilitres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 pint | 2 | 32 | 473 ml |
| 1 quart | 4 | 64 | 946 ml |
| 1 US gallon | 16 | 256 | 3,785 ml |
Weight to volume: depends on the ingredient
This is where a single chart cannot help you without knowing what you are measuring. The table below gives the anchor value — grams per US cup — for the ingredients that come up most.
| Ingredient | Per cup | Per tablespoon |
|---|---|---|
| Granulated sugar | 200 g | 12.5 g |
| Brown sugar (packed) | 220 g | 13.75 g |
| Powdered sugar (sifted) | 120 g | 7.5 g |
| All-purpose flour (spooned) | 120 g | 7.5 g |
| Bread flour | 127 g | 7.94 g |
| Cake flour (sifted) | 114 g | 7.13 g |
| Butter | 227 g | 14.19 g |
| Cocoa powder (sifted) | 85 g | 5.31 g |
| Rolled oats | 90 g | 5.63 g |
| Honey | 340 g | 21.25 g |
| Milk | 245 g | 15.31 g |
| Water | 236.6 g | 14.79 g |
Weight to weight: grams and ounces
This one is fixed and ingredient-independent, because both units measure mass. One ounce is 28.3495 grams.
| Grams | Ounces | Grams | Ounces |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 g | 0.88 oz | 250 g | 8.82 oz |
| 50 g | 1.76 oz | 300 g | 10.58 oz |
| 100 g | 3.53 oz | 400 g | 14.11 oz |
| 130 g | 4.59 oz | 454 g | 16 oz (1 lb) |
| 200 g | 7.05 oz | 500 g | 17.64 oz |
Be careful with the word "ounce". A weight ounce is 28.35 g; a fluid ounce is 29.57 ml of volume. They are different units that happen to have similar numbers, and they coincide only for water.
Butter, which has four names for one thing
| Sticks | Cups | Tablespoons | Grams |
|---|---|---|---|
| ½ stick | ¼ cup | 4 tbsp | 57 g |
| 1 stick | ½ cup | 8 tbsp | 113 g |
| 2 sticks | 1 cup | 16 tbsp | 227 g |
| 4 sticks | 2 cups | 32 tbsp | 454 g (1 lb) |
The international differences that break recipes
- US cup: 236.6 ml. Metric cup (Europe, Australia, NZ): 250 ml — 5.7% larger. On four cups of flour that is nearly 30 g of difference.
- US tablespoon: 14.79 ml. Metric tablespoon: 15 ml. Close enough to ignore.
- Australian tablespoon: 20 ml. Four teaspoons rather than three, and 35% larger than everyone else's. This one is not close enough to ignore.
- US gallon: 3.785 litres. Imperial (UK) gallon: 4.546 litres — 20% larger.
If your measuring cups came from outside the United States, assume they are metric. Sets rarely state which standard they follow, and a 250 ml cup used with an American recipe will over-measure everything by about 6%.
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The fixed ratios are worth having on the wall. The ingredient-dependent ones are better handled by a calculator, because the list of ingredients you might need is longer than any table you would want to read at arm's length with flour on your hands.