Kitchen Conversion Calculator
Type into any box and the other eight follow. Teaspoons, tablespoons, fluid ounces, cups, pints, quarts and gallons, milliliters and liters, all US customary, all at once.
Fractions are welcome. Type 3/4, 1 1/2, ½ or 0.75 and it will be read the way you meant it.
US versus imperial: where recipes silently break
A pint is not a pint. The United States kept the old wine gallon and the United Kingdom moved to the imperial gallon in 1824, and the two never converged. Both cards below show the amount you entered above, so you can see the gap on your own number.
What an American recipe means
- Fluid ounces
- 8
- Cups
- 1
- Pints
- 0.5
- Quarts
- 0.25
- Gallons
- 0.0625
What a British recipe means
- Fluid ounces
- 8.327
- Cups
- 0.833
- Pints
- 0.416
- Quarts
- 0.208
- Gallons
- 0.052
Read me A UK pint is a fifth more liquid than a US pint
The imperial pint is 20 imperial fluid ounces. The US pint is 16 US fluid ounces. In milliliters that is 568.261 mL against 473.176 mL, so a British pint holds 95.085 mL more, about 20% more liquid. If a British recipe asks for a pint of milk and you pour an American pint, you are a fifth short before you start.
The fluid ounces themselves run the other way, which is why people get this wrong even when they are being careful. A US fluid ounce is 29.5735 mL and an imperial fluid ounce is 28.4131 mL, so the imperial ounce is about 3.9% smaller. The imperial pint is still bigger because it contains 20 of those smaller ounces rather than 16 of the larger ones.
The same split runs all the way up. An imperial quart is 2 imperial pints, or 1136.52 mL, against the US quart of 946.353 mL. An imperial gallon is exactly 4.54609 liters against the US gallon of 3.78541 liters, so the imperial gallon is about 20% larger as well.
How to tell which one a recipe means. If the recipe is American, or from a US site, every pint, quart and gallon on it is the US one. If it is British, Irish or from an older Commonwealth cookbook and it gives pints or fluid ounces, it is imperial. A modern British recipe usually gives milliliters and grams instead, precisely because of this mess, and milliliters are the same everywhere.
| Unit | US customary | Imperial UK | Imperial is |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 teaspoon | 4.92892 mL | 5.91939 mL | 20% larger |
| 1 tablespoon | 14.7868 mL | 17.7582 mL | 20% larger |
| 1 fluid ounce | 29.5735 mL | 28.4131 mL | 3.9% smaller |
| 1 cup | 236.588 mL | 284.131 mL | 20% larger |
| 1 pint | 473.176 mL | 568.261 mL | 20% larger |
| 1 quart | 946.353 mL | 1136.52 mL | 20% larger |
| 1 gallon | 3785.41 mL | 4546.09 mL | 20% larger |
| Fluid ounces per pint | 16 | 20 | 4 more |
The imperial cup of 284.131 mL is 10 imperial fluid ounces. It appears only in British recipes printed before about 1970. A modern British or Australian recipe that says "cup" means the 250 mL metric cup covered in the next section.
The metric cup and the Australian tablespoon
Two more standards sit outside the US and imperial split, and both turn up in recipes that otherwise look completely ordinary.
250 mL The metric cup is bigger than a US cup
The metric cup is exactly 250 mL. The US customary cup is 236.588 mL. The metric cup is therefore 5.7% larger, call it 6%, and it is the standard cup in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and much of metric Europe.
Six percent sounds ignorable until it stacks. Follow an Australian cake recipe using American cups and you are short 13.4 mL on every cup. Over three cups of flour, two of sugar and one of milk that is roughly 80 mL of missing ingredients, and the loss is uneven because anything you measured in spoons came out right. The ratios move and the cake bakes drier and denser than the photograph.
Your amount above is 0.946 metric cups.
20 mL The Australian tablespoon is four teaspoons
Australia is the only country that standardized its tablespoon at 20 mL. The US tablespoon is 14.7868 mL and the metric tablespoon used in the UK, New Zealand, Canada and Europe is 15 mL. The teaspoon stayed at 5 mL everywhere in the metric world, so an Australian tablespoon is four teaspoons while everyone else's is three.
This is the one that quietly ruins bakes, because tablespoons are where leaveners and salt live. Using an Australian tablespoon of baking powder in an American recipe puts in about 35% too much leavener, which tastes soapy and then collapses. Going the other way, an Australian recipe asking for 2 tablespoons of butter wants 40 mL, and 2 American tablespoons is 29.6 mL, so you would be a third short.
Australian recipes also fit only 12.5 tablespoons to the cup rather than 16, so an Australian cup measure will not divide neatly into tablespoons the way an American one does.
Your amount above is 11.83 Australian tablespoons.
| Standard | 1 cup | 1 tbsp | 1 tsp | tbsp per cup |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US customary | 236.588 mL | 14.7868 mL | 4.92892 mL | 16 |
| US legal, nutrition labels | 240 mL | 15 mL | 5 mL | 16 |
| Metric: UK, NZ, Canada, Europe | 250 mL | 15 mL | 5 mL | 16.7 |
| Australian | 250 mL | 20 mL | 5 mL | 12.5 |
| Imperial, old British | 284.131 mL | 17.7582 mL | 5.91939 mL | 16 |
These match the figures in our cups to mL converter exactly, so no two tools on this site will give you different answers.
Quick reference: the ones people actually look up
All US customary. This is the block to screenshot and stick inside a cupboard door.
| Question | Answer | In mL |
|---|---|---|
| Teaspoons in a tablespoon | 3 tsp | 14.787 mL |
| Tablespoons in a cup | 16 tbsp | 236.588 mL |
| Teaspoons in a cup | 48 tsp | 236.588 mL |
| Fluid ounces in a cup | 8 fl oz | 236.588 mL |
| Tablespoons in a fluid ounce | 2 tbsp | 29.574 mL |
| Cups in a pint | 2 cups | 473.176 mL |
| Fluid ounces in a pint | 16 fl oz | 473.176 mL |
| Cups in a quart | 4 cups | 946.353 mL |
| Pints in a quart | 2 pints | 946.353 mL |
| Fluid ounces in a quart | 32 fl oz | 946.353 mL |
| Cups in a gallon | 16 cups | 3785.41 mL |
| Pints in a gallon | 8 pints | 3785.41 mL |
| Quarts in a gallon | 4 quarts | 3785.41 mL |
| Fluid ounces in a gallon | 128 fl oz | 3785.41 mL |
| Liters in a gallon | 3.78541 L | 3785.41 mL |
| 1 of this | tsp | tbsp | fl oz | cups | mL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teaspoon | 1 | ⅓ | 0.167 | 0.0208 | 4.929 |
| Tablespoon | 3 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.0625 | 14.787 |
| Fluid ounce | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0.125 | 29.574 |
| Cup | 48 | 16 | 8 | 1 | 236.588 |
| Pint | 96 | 32 | 16 | 2 | 473.176 |
| Quart | 192 | 64 | 32 | 4 | 946.353 |
| Gallon | 768 | 256 | 128 | 16 | 3785.41 |
| Liter | 202.9 | 67.63 | 33.81 | 4.227 | 1000 |
| Amount | Half of it | A third of it |
|---|
Notice half of ¾ cup. There is no measuring cup for three eighths, so the honest answer is 6 tablespoons, which is a measurement you own. Our recipe scaler does this to every line of a recipe at once.
Important This tool converts volume only
Every unit on this page measures space. Teaspoons, tablespoons, fluid ounces, cups, pints, quarts, gallons, milliliters and liters are all volumes, and converting between them needs nothing but arithmetic. That is why this tool never asks what you are measuring.
Weight is a different question entirely. Grams and ounces on a scale measure mass, and turning a volume into a mass needs the density of the specific ingredient. One US cup is always 236.588 mL, but that same cup is 125 g of all-purpose flour, 200 g of granulated sugar and 340 g of honey. There is no single number that converts cups to grams, and any tool that offers you one without asking the ingredient is guessing.
This confusion is the most common measuring mistake in home baking. The classic version is reading "8 oz of flour" as "1 cup" because a cup is 8 fluid ounces. It is not the same ounce. Eight ounces of flour by weight is closer to 1¾ cups, so that swap leaves you about 45% short.
When you need to cross from volume to weight, use a tool that asks for the ingredient first: our grams to cups converter for a single ingredient, or the ingredient weight chart for the whole list. For the ounce trap specifically, cups to ounces keeps fluid ounces and weight ounces separate on purpose.
Method Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page is a definition rather than a measurement, so once you have named the system there is nothing left to disagree about.
The US fluid ounce is defined as exactly 29.5735295625 mL. Everything else in the US customary ladder follows from it:
1 US cup = 8 fl oz = 236.588 mL
1 tablespoon = ½ fl oz = 3 teaspoons = 14.7868 mL
1 teaspoon = ⅓ tablespoon = 4.92892 mL
1 pint = 2 cups = 16 fl oz = 473.176 mL
1 quart = 2 pints = 4 cups = 32 fl oz = 946.353 mL
1 gallon = 4 quarts = 16 cups = 128 fl oz = 3.78541 L
The imperial side comes from the imperial gallon, defined as exactly 4.54609 liters. Dividing gives the imperial pint of 568.26125 mL and the imperial fluid ounce of 28.4130625 mL, which we display as 568.261 mL and 28.4131 mL. The metric cup of 250 mL and the Australian tablespoon of 20 mL are national standards defined as those round numbers outright.
How the tool works. Whatever you type is converted to milliliters first, at full precision, and every other box is worked back out from that single milliliter figure. Nothing is rounded until the moment of display, so scaling by 3 or by 0.5 does not accumulate error. The kitchen reading at the top is snapped to denominators a nested cup set can actually measure, which is why you get "2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons" rather than "0.167 cups".
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Questions bakers actually ask
How many cups are in a quart?
4 US cups make 1 US quart. A quart is also 2 pints, 32 fluid ounces and 946.353 mL. The word quart is simply a quarter of a gallon, which is where the name comes from.
An imperial quart is larger. It is 2 imperial pints, or 40 imperial fluid ounces, which works out at 1136.52 mL. That is about 20% more than a US quart, so a British recipe asking for a quart of stock wants noticeably more than an American one does.
How many cups are in a gallon?
16 US cups make 1 US gallon. The gallon is also 4 quarts, 8 pints, 128 fluid ounces and 3.78541 liters.
An easy way to hold it in your head: 1 gallon is 4 quarts, each quart is 2 pints, and each pint is 2 cups. Four times two times two is sixteen. The imperial gallon is a different size at 4.54609 liters, which is 8 imperial pints of 20 fluid ounces each.
Is a UK pint the same as a US pint?
No, and the gap is large. A US pint is 16 US fluid ounces, or 473.176 mL. An imperial UK pint is 20 imperial fluid ounces, or 568.261 mL. The imperial pint holds 95.085 mL more, roughly 20% extra.
What confuses people is that the individual ounces go the other way. A US fluid ounce is 29.5735 mL and an imperial fluid ounce is 28.4131 mL, so the imperial ounce is about 3.9% smaller. The imperial pint still wins because it packs 20 of them in rather than 16. If a British recipe gives you fluid ounces, count 20 to the pint, not 16.
How many tablespoons are in a cup?
16 tablespoons make 1 US cup, and there are 3 teaspoons in every tablespoon, so a cup is also 48 teaspoons. That gives you clean quarters: ¼ cup is 4 tablespoons, ½ cup is 8, and ¾ cup is 12.
Thirds are the awkward ones because 48 does not divide into three neatly in tablespoons. ⅓ cup is 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon, and ⅔ cup is 10 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons. Australian recipes are different again, fitting only 12.5 tablespoons to their 250 mL cup because their tablespoon is 20 mL.
What is half of 3/4 cup?
6 tablespoons. Three eighths of a cup is the arithmetic answer, but no nested cup set contains a three eighths measure, so writing it that way is useless at the counter. Six tablespoons is exactly the same volume, 88.7 mL, and you own the spoon.
The same trick handles the other awkward halves. Half of ⅓ cup is 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons. Half of ¼ cup is 2 tablespoons. Half of 1 tablespoon is 1½ teaspoons. Our recipe scaler applies this to every line of a recipe at once.
Can I use this to convert cups to grams?
No, and no honest volume converter can. Grams measure weight and cups measure volume, and crossing between them needs the density of the specific ingredient you are holding.
One US cup is always 236.588 mL, but that is 125 g of all-purpose flour, 200 g of granulated sugar, 227 g of butter and 340 g of honey. Use the grams to cups converter, which asks for the ingredient before it answers, or the ingredient weight chart if you want the whole list at once.
Why is my Australian recipe not working with American cups?
Two separate reasons, and they compound. The Australian cup is 250 mL against the US cup of 236.588 mL, so you are 5.7% short on everything measured in cups. And the Australian tablespoon is 20 mL rather than 14.7868 mL, so you are about 26% short on everything measured in tablespoons.
The tablespoon is the one that shows. Leaveners, salt and spices live in spoons, so getting them a quarter short changes the flavor and the rise rather than just the yield. Set the amounts from the recipe into the milliliter box on this page and measure the milliliters instead, or better still find the gram weights and skip volume completely.
How do I type a fraction into this converter?
Type it exactly the way it is written in the recipe. 3/4, 1 1/2, 2 2/3 and 0.75 all work, and so do the single glyphs ½, ¼, ¾, ⅓ and ⅔.
Mixed numbers are read properly, so 1 1/2 cups is understood as one and a half cups and comes out as 354.882 mL, not half a cup. The tool echoes back what it understood in the working underneath the answer, so you can check that it read you correctly before you pour anything.
Is a fluid ounce the same as an ounce?
No. A fluid ounce is a volume, exactly 29.5735 mL in the US system, and it is what a measuring jug reads. An ounce is a weight, exactly 28.3495 g, and it is what a scale reads. They share a name and nothing else.
They come out roughly equal for water, which is a coincidence rather than a rule, and that coincidence is why the two got tangled together. For flour they are nowhere near: a cup of flour is 8 fluid ounces of space but only 4.41 ounces of weight. Our cups to ounces converter keeps the two apart and asks which one you mean.
Every conversion factor on this page is a defined standard rather than a measurement. US customary values follow from the US fluid ounce of exactly 29.5735295625 mL, imperial values from the imperial gallon of exactly 4.54609 liters, and the metric cup and Australian tablespoon from their national standards. Last reviewed August 2026.