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Tablespoons to Cups: A Quick Reference for Home Bakers
A complete tablespoons-to-cups table, why 16 is the magic number, and how to handle the awkward figures like 6 and 10 tablespoons.
Par Ali RazaMis à jour le 5 min de lecture
Sixteen tablespoons make one US cup. That single number answers every tablespoons-to-cups question, and unlike almost everything else in baking conversion it does not depend on what you are measuring.
Why exactly 16?
US customary units define a tablespoon as half a fluid ounce and a cup as eight fluid ounces. Sixteen halves make eight, so the ratio is exact by definition rather than a rounded approximation. There is no error to accumulate here.
The full table
| Tablespoons | Cups | Fluid ounces | Millilitres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 tbsp | 1/16 cup | 0.5 fl oz | 15 ml |
| 2 tbsp | ⅛ cup | 1 fl oz | 30 ml |
| 3 tbsp | 0.19 cup | 1.5 fl oz | 44 ml |
| 4 tbsp | ¼ cup | 2 fl oz | 59 ml |
| 5 tbsp | 0.31 cup | 2.5 fl oz | 74 ml |
| 6 tbsp | ⅜ cup | 3 fl oz | 89 ml |
| 8 tbsp | ½ cup | 4 fl oz | 118 ml |
| 10 tbsp | ⅝ cup | 5 fl oz | 148 ml |
| 12 tbsp | ¾ cup | 6 fl oz | 177 ml |
| 14 tbsp | ⅞ cup | 7 fl oz | 207 ml |
| 16 tbsp | 1 cup | 8 fl oz | 237 ml |
| 24 tbsp | 1½ cups | 12 fl oz | 355 ml |
| 32 tbsp | 2 cups | 16 fl oz | 473 ml |
The awkward ones
Some tablespoon counts do not land on a fraction printed on any measuring cup. Rather than trying to eyeball 0.31 of a cup, combine measures:
- 6 tbsp = ¼ cup + 2 tbsp
- 10 tbsp = ½ cup + 2 tbsp
- 14 tbsp = ¾ cup + 2 tbsp
- 5 tbsp = just measure 5 tablespoons; it is under a third of a cup and not worth converting.
When to use which
Below about 4 tablespoons, spoons are more accurate — a small quantity spread thinly across the bottom of a cup is hard to read and easy to under-fill.
Above 8 tablespoons, cups are faster and less error-prone: eight separate levelled spoonfuls is eight opportunities to be slightly off, and the errors do not cancel out.
Sticky ingredients are the exception
Honey, syrup and peanut butter cling to whatever they touch. A cup leaves a proportionally larger film behind than several spoons do, so for these, spoons actually deliver more of what you measured. Oiling the measure first helps either way.
Non-US spoons
Everything above assumes a US or metric tablespoon of roughly 15 ml. If your spoons are Australian at 20 ml, the ratio is not 16 — a metric cup holds only 12.5 Australian tablespoons. Check your set before trusting any of these figures.