Cooking Measurement Converter - Cups, Grams, ml, Spoons

Convert between cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, milliliters, fluid ounces, and grams, with the correct density for each ingredient. Free and browser-based, converting live as you type.

Cups (US)

1

Tablespoons

16

Teaspoons

48

Milliliters

236.6

Fluid ounces (US)

8

Grams

120

Gram values assume flour (all-purpose) (120 g per US cup).

Ingredient1 cup1 tbsp100 ml
Water237 g14.81 g100.2 g
Flour (all-purpose)120 g7.5 g50.72 g
Sugar (granulated)200 g12.5 g84.54 g
Butter227 g14.19 g95.95 g
Milk242 g15.13 g102.3 g
Rice (uncooked white)185 g11.56 g78.2 g
Oats (rolled)90 g5.63 g38.04 g

Note: this tool uses the US cup (236.6 ml). A metric cup (Australia, NZ) is 250 ml and a UK imperial cup is 284 ml, so metric-cup recipes come out about 6% larger per cup.

Converting Cups to Grams Correctly

Cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons measure volume, while grams measure weight, so there is no single cups-to-grams factor: it depends on the ingredient's density. A US cup of water weighs about 237 g, but the same cup of all-purpose flour weighs only about 120 g, and a cup of rolled oats just 90 g. That is why a recipe converted with a water-based factor can end up with nearly twice the flour it should have. This converter applies a separate density for water, flour, sugar, butter, milk, rice, and oats, based on the widely used King Arthur Baking weight chart and USDA food data.

The volume units themselves are fixed: 1 US cup = 16 tablespoons = 48 teaspoons = 8 US fluid ounces = 236.6 ml. A tablespoon is 14.8 ml (three teaspoons), which is close enough to the 15 ml metric tablespoon that recipes treat them as equal. Watch out for Australia, where a tablespoon is officially 20 ml, and for the metric cup of 250 ml used in Australian and New Zealand cookbooks. If a European recipe says "1 cup", it usually means 250 ml.

Flour deserves special care. The 120 g per cup figure assumes flour spooned into the cup and leveled off. Scooping the cup directly into the flour bag compacts it and can pack in 150 g or more, a 25% overdose that makes cakes dense and cookies dry. This is the main reason serious bakers weigh ingredients: a digital scale removes the technique variable entirely. Butter is easier: one US stick is 113 g, half a cup, or 8 tablespoons, and the wrappers are usually marked in tablespoons.

When scaling a recipe up or down, convert to grams first and then multiply, because "1 cup plus 2 tablespoons times 1.5" is error-prone while "270 g times 1.5" is not. The Ratio Calculator on ToolForte scales full ingredient lists in one step, and the Temperature Converter translates oven temperatures between Fahrenheit and Celsius. Both are free and run in your browser.

How the Cooking Measurement Converter Works

  1. 01Enter an amount and pick the unit it is in: cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, ml, fl oz, or grams.
  2. 02Pick the ingredient so gram conversions use the right density.
  3. 03Read the live conversion into every other unit at once.
  4. 04Check the density table for one-cup weights of common baking ingredients.

Cups to Grams: Why the Ingredient Matters

Cups and spoons measure volume; grams measure weight, and the bridge between them is density, which differs per ingredient. One US cup (236.6 ml) holds about 237 g of water but only 120 g of all-purpose flour and 90 g of rolled oats. This converter uses per-ingredient densities based on the King Arthur Baking weight chart and USDA food data for water, flour, sugar, butter, milk, rice, and oats, so cup-to-gram conversions are actually usable in the kitchen.

When to Use This Tool

Use it whenever an American recipe lists cups and sticks while you cook with a scale and milliliters, or the reverse. It is most valuable in baking, where a 25% flour overdose from scooping instead of spooning ruins texture. Also useful when doubling or halving recipes, converting fluid ounces on imported packaging, or replacing a lost measuring cup with a kitchen scale.

Common Use Cases

Tips

  • For flour, spoon it into the measuring cup and level it off; never scoop.
  • Convert to grams before scaling a recipe; multiplying weights is far less error-prone.
  • Australian tablespoons are 20 ml, not 15 ml; check the recipe's origin.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many grams is a cup of flour?→
About 120 g for all-purpose flour, assuming the flour is spooned into the cup and leveled. Scooping the cup into the bag compacts the flour to 140-150 g, which is the most common cause of dense cakes when converting American recipes.
How many tablespoons are in a cup?→
16 tablespoons in a US cup, and 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon, so a cup is 48 teaspoons. In milliliters: a US cup is 236.6 ml, a tablespoon 14.8 ml, and a teaspoon 4.9 ml, close enough to the metric 15 ml and 5 ml spoons to use interchangeably.
Is a US cup the same as a metric cup?→
No. A US cup is 236.6 ml, the metric cup used in Australia and New Zealand is 250 ml, and the old UK imperial cup is 284 ml. A metric-cup recipe measured with US cups comes out about 6% small, which matters in baking.
How much does a stick of butter weigh?→
One US stick is 113 g, which is half a cup or 8 tablespoons. A full cup of butter is two sticks, 227 g. European butter is usually sold in 250 g blocks, so a stick is just under half a block.
Why does 1 cup of sugar weigh more than 1 cup of flour?→
Density. Granulated sugar packs about 200 g into a cup while flour manages only about 120 g, because flour particles trap far more air. That is exactly why a single cups-to-grams factor cannot work and this converter asks which ingredient you are measuring.

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