Cooking Measurement Converter

How the conversion works

Every unit in the converter has a fixed size in a base unit: milliliters for volume and grams for weight. To convert, the amount is turned into the base unit and then divided by the size of the unit you want.

result = amount x size of the first unit / size of the second unit

To turn 3 tablespoons into milliliters: 3 x 14.79 = 44.4 milliliters. To turn 500 grams into pounds: 500 / 453.59 = 1.1 pounds.

The US kitchen ladder

American recipes use a chain of measures in which each one is a simple multiple of the one before:

• 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon
• 2 tablespoons = 1 fluid ounce
• 16 tablespoons = 8 fluid ounces = 1 cup
• 2 cups = 1 pint
• 2 pints = 1 quart
• 4 quarts = 1 gallon

Learn the first and third lines and you can work out most of the rest. Half a cup is 8 tablespoons, a quarter cup is 4, and an eighth of a cup is 2.

Worked example

A soup recipe from the UK lists 1.2 liters of stock, 30 milliliters of olive oil and 450 grams of carrots. In US measures:

• 1.2 liters of stock: 1,200 / 236.6 = 5.07 cups, so 5 cups
• 30 milliliters of oil: 30 / 14.79 = 2.03 tablespoons, so 2 tablespoons
• 450 grams of carrots: 450 / 453.59 = 0.99 pound, so 1 pound

Soup forgives that rounding. For baking, convert once and then weigh.

Volume and weight are different things

The converter will change teaspoons to cups, or ounces to grams, but it will not change cups to grams. A cup measures how much space something fills, and a gram measures how heavy it is. A cup of honey weighs almost three times as much as a cup of flour.

The word “ounce” causes most of the confusion, because it is used for both:

• A fluid ounce is a volume: 1/8 of a cup, or about 29.6 milliliters.
• An ounce is a weight: 1/16 of a pound, or 28.35 grams.

For water and milk the two are nearly the same number, which is why they get mixed up. For flour, sugar or oil they are not. If you need to go from cups to grams or ounces by weight, use the Cups to Grams converter, which knows the weight of each ingredient.

US, metric and UK measures

Metric is the easy one: 1,000 milliliters in a liter and 1,000 grams in a kilogram.

US and UK spoons are close enough to swap in everyday cooking. A US teaspoon is 4.93 milliliters and modern metric spoon sets round it to 5.

Cups differ. A US cup is 237 milliliters and a metric cup is 250. Over one cup the gap is a tablespoon. Over four cups it is a quarter cup, which matters in baking.

Pints, quarts and gallons differ the most. The UK imperial versions are about 20 percent bigger than the US ones: an imperial pint is 568 milliliters against 473. A British recipe that asks for a pint of milk wants nearly 2 1/2 US cups, not 2.

Dry and liquid measuring cups

A US dry measuring cup and a liquid measuring cup hold the same volume. They are shaped differently because they are filled differently. A dry cup is filled to the brim and leveled with a straight edge. A liquid cup has a spout and space above the top line, so you can fill it to the mark without spilling.

Use the right one for the job. Flour cannot be leveled in a liquid jug, and a dry cup filled to the brim with milk is hard to carry to the bowl.

Tips and common mistakes

Check where the recipe is from before you convert. A “cup” or a “pint” in an Australian or British recipe is not the US size.

Convert once and write it on the recipe. Converting again each time you cook invites a different rounding each time.

Do not convert small amounts too precisely. Half a teaspoon is 2.46 milliliters, but no kitchen tool measures that. Use a half teaspoon measure.