Choose a from unit and a to unit, enter an amount (fractions like 1 1/4 are fine), and convert instantly between cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, fluid ounces, milliliters, and liters.
Converting flour or sugar to grams? You want the ingredient-aware converter instead: a cup of flour and a cup of honey weigh very different amounts, and this page only handles volume to volume.
How cooking measurement conversion works
Cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, fluid ounces, milliliters, and liters are all units of volume, so unlike a cups-to-grams conversion, no ingredient density is involved: 2 tablespoons of water and 2 tablespoons of oil are still 2 tablespoons. This converter works by turning your amount into milliliters first (the common unit every other unit relates to), then converting that milliliter figure into whatever unit you asked for.
The formula
milliliters = amount × (ml per unit of the from-unit)
result = milliliters ÷ (ml per unit of the to-unit)
The exact US figures this page uses: 1 cup = 236.588 ml, 1 tablespoon = 14.7868 ml, 1 teaspoon = 4.9289 ml, 1 fluid ounce = 29.5735 ml, 1 liter = 1000 ml.
Worked example
Cups to tablespoons: 1 1/4 cups. 1.25 × 236.588 = 295.735 ml, and 295.735 ÷ 14.7868 = 20 tablespoons.
Tablespoons to milliliters: 4 tablespoons. 4 × 14.7868 = 59.15 ml, which is also exactly 0.25 cup.
The quick-reference chart (the one worth taping inside a cabinet)
| Unit | Equals |
|---|
| 1 cup | 16 tbsp = 48 tsp = 8 fl oz = 236.588 ml |
| 1/2 cup | 8 tbsp = 24 tsp = 4 fl oz = 118.294 ml |
| 1/4 cup | 4 tbsp = 12 tsp = 2 fl oz = 59.147 ml |
| 1 tbsp | 3 tsp = 0.5 fl oz = 14.7868 ml |
| 1 tsp | 1/3 tbsp = 4.9289 ml |
| 1 fl oz | 2 tbsp = 6 tsp = 29.5735 ml |
| 1 liter | 1000 ml = about 4.227 cups |
One honest line about metric kitchens
Not every country's tablespoon is the same tablespoon. This page uses the US tablespoon (14.7868 ml, and the one nearly all US recipes assume), but Australia's standard tablespoon is 20 ml, about a third bigger. A recipe written by an Australian source calling for "2 tablespoons" of something means noticeably more of it than a US recipe using the same word, so it's worth checking a recipe's country of origin before assuming tablespoons match across borders. Teaspoons, cups, and milliliters do not have this problem: they are standardized internationally the same way this page defines them.
Frequently asked questions
How many tablespoons in a cup?
There are 16 tablespoons in 1 US cup. That splits evenly: half a cup is 8 tablespoons, a quarter cup is 4 tablespoons, and an eighth of a cup is 2 tablespoons.
How many teaspoons in a tablespoon?
There are 3 teaspoons in 1 US tablespoon. That makes 1 cup equal to 48 teaspoons (16 tablespoons times 3).
How many ml in a cup?
A US cup is 236.588 milliliters. Recipes and packaging often round this to 240 ml for convenience, which is close enough for cooking but not exact; this converter uses the precise figure.
How many tablespoons in an ounce?
There are 2 tablespoons in 1 US fluid ounce. A tablespoon is 14.7868 ml and a fluid ounce is 29.5735 ml, and 29.5735 divided by 14.7868 is exactly 2.
Is an Australian tablespoon the same as a US tablespoon?
No. A US tablespoon is 14.7868 ml, but Australia uses a 20 ml tablespoon, about a third larger. An Australian recipe calling for 4 tablespoons of an ingredient means more of it than a US recipe using the same word, so check which country a recipe comes from before converting tablespoon for tablespoon.
How many cups in a liter?
A liter is about 4.227 US cups. For a rounder number, most people use the shortcut that 1 liter is a little over 4 cups, or that a quart (2 pints, 4 cups) is close to but not exactly a liter.
Converting flour or sugar? Why doesn't this page give me grams?
This page only converts volume to volume: cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, fluid ounces, milliliters, and liters. Grams are a weight, and a cup of flour weighs a very different amount than a cup of sugar or honey, so that conversion needs to know the ingredient. Use the ingredient-aware cups to grams converter for that; it covers 18 common baking ingredients with the density built in.