Cooking Measurement Converter

How a conversion is calculated

Volume units are converted through milliliters. Weight units are converted through grams. You type an amount, pick a From unit and a To unit, and the page multiplies by the From unit's size and divides by the To unit's size. If both units are volumes, or both are weights, no ingredient is required. The result line is rounded to the number of decimals you pick (2, 3, or 4). The line under it shows the amount in the base unit: milliliters for a volume, grams for a weight.

Amounts can be decimals, fractions, or a mixed number with a space. 1/2 is 0.5. 2 1/2 is 2.5. The space is required in a mixed number. 21/2 is twenty-one halves, which is 10.5, and it will convert that larger amount without complaint. A fraction with a zero denominator is rejected.

Crossing from weight to volume, or from volume to weight, needs an ingredient. The page stores one grams-per-US-cup figure for each ingredient and refuses the conversion until you pick one. Those figures are: water 236.588 g, all-purpose flour 120 g, granulated sugar 200 g, packed brown sugar 220 g, butter 227 g, and shredded cheese 113 g. The bridge from any volume to that cup is the US cup of 236.5882365 mL. A volume is turned into US cups, multiplied by the grams per cup, and then turned into the weight unit you asked for. The reverse divides grams by the grams-per-cup figure and then converts that many US cups into the volume unit. There is no density for ingredients that are not in the list. Oil, honey, cocoa, and chopped nuts will not convert between cups and grams here until you stay inside volume or inside weight.

The units on the menus

US volume: teaspoon 4.92892159375 mL, tablespoon 14.78676478125 mL, fluid ounce 29.5735295625 mL, cup 236.5882365 mL, pint 473.176473 mL, quart 946.352946 mL, gallon 3,785.411784 mL. Those sizes are exact multiples: 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon, 2 tablespoons in a fluid ounce, 8 fluid ounces in a cup, 2 cups in a pint, 2 pints in a quart, 4 quarts in a gallon.

Imperial (UK) volume: teaspoon about 5.919 mL, tablespoon about 17.758 mL, fluid ounce 28.4130625 mL, pint 568.26125 mL, quart 1,136.5225 mL, gallon 4,546.09 mL. There is no Imperial cup on this page. A UK recipe that says "cup" is ambiguous. If the author means a metric cup of 250 mL, enter 250 milliliters. If they mean a US cup, pick the US cup. Do not assume the Imperial pint, which is 20 Imperial fluid ounces, is standing in for a cup.

Metric volume is the milliliter and the liter (1,000 mL). Weight is the gram and the ounce at 28.349523125 g, the ordinary avoirdupois ounce. The ounce in the weight list is not a fluid ounce. Fluid ounce lives with the volume units and comes in a US size and an Imperial size. Picking the wrong one is the usual reason a drink recipe looks slightly off.

The measurement-set menu filters the lists. "All" shows every unit. "US," "Imperial," and "Metric" hide the others, except the weight ounce, which stays available because it is marked as common to every set. Switching the set rebuilds the dropdowns and puts the US cup and milliliters back as the default pair when those units are still visible.

Worked examples

Example 1: One US cup to milliliters

Amount 1, from Cup (US), to Milliliter, no ingredient. The result at 3 decimals is 236.588 mL. Half a cup to US tablespoons is exact: 0.5 × 236.5882365 ÷ 14.78676478125 = 8. So 1/2 cup is 8 tablespoons. That is the example under the form, and it does not need an ingredient because both units are volumes.

Example 2: 200 grams of flour to US cups

Amount 200, from Gram, to Cup (US), ingredient all-purpose flour. Cups = 200 ÷ 120 = 1.6666..., which rounds to 1.667 cups at 3 decimals. The base line shows the grams. The same 200 grams of granulated sugar is 200 ÷ 200 = 1 cup. The same 200 grams of butter is 200 ÷ 227, about 0.881 cups. The ingredient choice is the whole conversion. Leaving it blank stops the page and asks you to choose one.

Example 3: Butter, the half cup, and the ounce

This page has no "stick" unit. A US stick of butter is half a cup in ordinary kitchen practice, and half a US cup of the butter density used here is 0.5 × 227 = 113.5 grams. In weight ounces that is 113.5 ÷ 28.349523125, which is 4 ounces at any of the rounding settings. Eight US tablespoons is the same half cup, so the volume path and the weight path meet. If your wrapper prints a different gram weight, use the wrapper. The 227 grams per cup is this tool's figure, not a survey of every brand.

When to use this

Use it when a recipe and your tools are in different systems, or when you want to weigh a cup measure so the next batch matches. It is the right tool for cups to milliliters, tablespoons to teaspoons, grams of the listed ingredients to cups, and US to Imperial pints and gallons. Scaling a whole ingredient list for more servings is the Recipe Scaler. Swapping a 9-inch pan for an 8-inch pan is the Cake Pan Size Converter, which changes amounts by area, not by unit. An oven marked in Gas Mark or Celsius is the Oven Temperature Converter. This page does not convert temperatures.

Package sizes at the store, ounces versus grams on a label, are often easier in the Weight Converter or the Volume Converter, which are not limited to kitchen densities. Come back here when the question is a spoon, a cup, or a cup of flour.

Why the ingredient list is short

A cup is a volume. Flour, sugar, and butter do not share a density, and flour does not even have one density. Scooping a cup packs more than spooning it in and leveling it. This converter cannot see your hand. It applies 120 grams per US cup of all-purpose flour, 200 for granulated sugar, 220 for packed brown sugar, 227 for butter, 113 for shredded cheese, and about one US cup's milliliters for water. If your scale disagrees, the scale is measuring this batch and the table is a convention. For baking, prefer the gram line in the recipe when the author gave one. The myths around cups, sticks, and "a cup is a cup" are spelled out in Cooking Measurement Myths That Ruin Recipes.

Water is the bridge for liquids that truly behave like water. Milk is close. Thick syrup is not in the table, and using the water density for honey will understate the weight of a cup. Stay in milliliters for an unlisted liquid, or weigh it and stay in grams. Do not borrow the flour figure for cocoa or the cheese figure for a block of cheese. Shredded cheese at 113 grams per cup is the shredded ingredient in the menu, not a solid chunk.

Common mistakes

• Dropping the space in a mixed number. 2 1/2 is two and a half. 21/2 is 10.5. The converter is doing what you typed.
• Choosing fluid ounces when you meant weight ounces, or the reverse. Fluid ounces are volume. The ounce next to grams is weight.
• Using a US cup for a British cup that was never defined. There is no Imperial cup in the menu. Decide whether the author meant 250 mL or a US cup, then convert that.
• Forgetting the ingredient on a grams-to-cups conversion. The page will warn you. Volume-to-volume does not need one, which is why a cup of flour to milliliters silently treats flour as a volume. That milliliter result is the space the cup occupies, not the weight.
• Expecting the flour grams to survive a different scooping method. 120 grams is the table. A packed cup weighs more. Weigh the flour if the bake is fussy.
• Converting a scaled recipe twice. If you already doubled the cups, converting those cups to grams is right. Converting the original cups and also multiplying by two in the recipe scaler double-counts. Do one multiply.
• Rounding at every step of a long chain. Convert in one jump, from the original unit to the unit you will use, at 3 or 4 decimals. Rounding the milliliters and then converting again drifts.

Limitations

The unit list above is the whole list. No stick of butter, no Imperial cup, no metric cup of 250 mL as its own row (type 250 in the milliliter field instead), no ounces of a fluid labeled only "oz" without US or Imperial, and no densities beyond the six ingredients. Temperature, pan area, and serving counts are other tools. Rounding follows the menu. Very small amounts, such as a pinch, are not a unit. Tablespoon and teaspoon are level spoon measures equal to the milliliter sizes above, not a heaping spoon. The page does not adjust for humidity, sifted versus unsifted flour, or brown sugar that was not packed. The brown-sugar row assumes packed, as the label says.

FAQ

Why is a US cup 236.588 mL and not 240 or 250?

Because this page defines the US cup as 236.5882365 mL, eight US fluid ounces of 29.5735295625 mL each. A 250 mL "cup" in some metric recipes is a different measure. Enter 250 mL when that is what the recipe means. A rounded 240 mL cup is another convention this tool does not use.

Do I need an ingredient for tablespoons to milliliters?

No. Both are volumes. Pick an ingredient only when one side is grams or weight ounces and the other side is a cup, a spoon, or another volume.

How do I convert a stick of butter if there is no stick unit?

Enter 1/2 cup or 8 US tablespoons. Crossing to grams with the butter ingredient uses 227 grams per US cup, so half a cup is 113.5 grams. If the wrapper prints a different weight, use the wrapper.

What if my flour does not weigh 120 grams per cup?

Use the gram weight on the recipe or the bag. The 120 gram figure is the constant for the all-purpose flour option in this converter, not a measurement of the cup you just scooped.

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• Volume Converter for gallons and liters outside a recipe
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• Cooking Measurement Myths That Ruin Recipes
• Recipe halving, doubling, and thirding chart for half, double, and a third of common cup and tablespoon amounts