Tablespoons to Cups

Updated August 2026 · Baking Resources

There are 16 tablespoons in a cup and 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon, which makes 48 teaspoons in a cup. Divide tablespoons by 16 to get cups, multiply cups by 16 to go the other way, and that covers most of what anyone needs.

Where tablespoons to cups gets annoying is the thirds, and these are the three answers people actually search for:

• 1/3 cup = 5 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon
• 2/3 cup = 10 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons
• 3/4 cup = 12 tablespoons

Get any amount instantly with our free cups to tablespoons converter, which handles the thirds and gives you the leftover teaspoons.

Updated August 2026

Tablespoons to cups conversion table

Every whole tablespoon from 1 to 16, with the fluid ounce and milliliter equivalents. One tablespoon is exactly 1/2 fluid ounce and about 15 ml.

The bolded rows are the ones that land on a real measuring cup. Everything else is a number you'd only arrive at by spooning, which is why the reverse table below is usually the more useful one.

Cups to tablespoons, including the awkward thirds

Halves and quarters land clean because 16 divides by 2, 4 and 8. Thirds never will, and that's worth understanding rather than memorizing.

Why thirds don't divide evenly into tablespoons

16 is not divisible by 3. That's the whole reason.

A third of 16 tablespoons is 5.33 tablespoons, and there's no such spoon. But drop down a level and it resolves: a cup is 48 teaspoons, and 48 divides by 3 perfectly. A third of 48 is 16 teaspoons, which is 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon.

That's the trick for every awkward fraction. When tablespoons don't divide cleanly, convert to teaspoons. 48 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16 and 24, so almost any fraction of a cup has a clean teaspoon answer.

The two fractions that still resist are a third of 2/3 cup and a third of 1/3 cup, because you end up dividing 32 and 16 by 3. For those, weigh the ingredient instead. Grams have no fractions problem, and the grams to cups converter will give you the number.

Tablespoons in grams, by ingredient

A tablespoon of flour and a tablespoon of honey are the same volume and nowhere near the same weight. These match the site's calculators.

A tablespoon of honey weighs four times what a tablespoon of cocoa does. Keep that in mind any time a recipe swaps a sticky sweetener for a dry one.

Butter: read the wrapper, it's already marked

American butter is the easiest ingredient in the kitchen to measure, because the tablespoon marks are printed right on the paper.

• 1 stick = 8 tablespoons = 1/2 cup = 113 g = 4 oz
• 2 sticks = 16 tablespoons = 1 cup = 227 g = 8 oz
• 1 tablespoon = 14 g
• 1 pound box = 4 sticks = 2 cups = 454 g

Cut through the wrapper on the printed line with the butter cold and you get an accurate amount with nothing to wash. Packing soft butter into a measuring cup is the least accurate way to measure it, because air pockets hide in the middle where you can't see them.

Two warnings. European butter is usually sold in 250 g blocks with no tablespoon marks, so weigh it or figure 1 tbsp per 14 g. And whipped butter is not a substitute by volume, since it has air beaten into it and a cup of it weighs far less than 227 g.

Our butter converter handles sticks, tablespoons, cups, grams and ounces in any direction, including the European block sizes.

When tablespoons beat a measuring cup

Reaching for a tablespoon instead of a cup is often the more accurate choice, not the lazy one. Three cases where it wins outright.

Small amounts

A 1/4 cup measure filled to the halfway mark is a guess. Two tablespoons is exact. Anything under about 1/3 cup measures more accurately in tablespoons, because the shallower spoon is easier to level cleanly and the walls hold less residue as a percentage of the total.

Sticky ingredients

Honey, molasses, corn syrup, peanut butter, tahini and Greek yogurt all cling. In a 1/2 cup measure you can leave 10 g behind on the walls, which is 6% of a 170 g pour. In a tablespoon the surface-to-volume ratio is better and the spoon scrapes clean in one pass.

Spray the spoon lightly with oil or dip it in hot water first, and honey slides straight off. For 1/3 cup of honey, that's 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon, or just weigh 113 g.

Halving a recipe

This is where tablespoons earn their keep. Half of 3/4 cup is 6 tablespoons, an amount you can measure directly. Half of 1/3 cup is 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons. Neither has a measuring cup, and both are precise in spoons.

The full breakdown, including thirding and what to do about eggs and leavening, is in how to scale a recipe.

The Australian tablespoon is 20 ml, and it breaks recipes silently

An Australian tablespoon is 20 ml, which is 4 teaspoons, not 3. Everywhere else that uses metric spoons, including the UK, New Zealand, Canada and most of Europe, a tablespoon is 15 ml.

That makes the Australian spoon 33% larger, and nothing on the page warns you.

Why it's dangerous: it's silent. A recipe calling for 4 tablespoons of oil gives you 59 ml on a US spoon and 80 ml on an Australian one. In a cake that extra 21 ml is noticeable. In a recipe calling for 2 tablespoons of baking powder or salt, the 33% overshoot is the difference between a good bake and an inedible one.

How to tell where a recipe is from: if it uses cups and Fahrenheit, it's American and the tablespoon is 15 ml. If it uses grams and Celsius but still says "1 tbsp," check whether the site is Australian. Many Australian recipe sites now note "Australian tablespoon = 20 ml" in their conversion notes, and it's worth looking.

The safe move: for anything under 3 tablespoons of a potent ingredient, use teaspoons instead. Teaspoons are 5 ml almost everywhere in the world, Australia included, so they don't carry this problem.

Worked example: measuring 2/3 cup of oil with only spoons

Your measuring cup set is in the dishwasher. The recipe wants 2/3 cup of oil.

Step 1. Convert. 2/3 cup = 32 teaspoons = 10 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons.

Step 2. Check the math. 10 tbsp x 3 tsp = 30 tsp, plus 2 tsp = 32 tsp. A full cup is 48 tsp, and 32/48 = 2/3. Correct.

Step 3. Sanity-check by volume. 10 2/3 tablespoons x 14.8 ml = 158 ml. A US cup is 236.6 ml, and two thirds of that is 157.7 ml. It lines up.

Step 4. If you'd rather weigh it. Look the ingredient up on the ingredient weights chart and take two thirds of its cup weight. For water that's 157 g, since a cup of water is 236 g.

Now halve the same recipe. Half of 2/3 cup is 1/3 cup, which is 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon, or 16 teaspoons. Notice that halving in teaspoons is trivial: 32 divided by 2 is 16, and you convert back at the end. That's the whole method.

What you gained: an exact 2/3 cup with a spoon, instead of filling a 1/2 cup and adding "a bit more," which typically lands 10-15% off and shows up as a greasy or dry crumb.

Common tablespoon mistakes

1. Using a soup spoon. Flatware tablespoons hold anywhere from 7 to 14 ml. Only a marked measuring spoon is a real tablespoon.
2. Heaping instead of leveling. A heaping tablespoon of flour is close to 1 1/2 level ones. Level everything with a straight edge.
3. Assuming tbsp and tsp are interchangeable at a glance. They look similar in print. "1 tbsp salt" and "1 tsp salt" differ by a factor of three.
4. Measuring soft butter in a cup. Use the wrapper marks or a scale.
5. Ignoring the Australian 20 ml spoon on a recipe that came from an Australian site.

For the full cross-reference of cups, spoons, grams, ounces and oven temperatures in one place, see the baking conversion chart. If you want to stop converting altogether, how to measure ingredients makes the case for weighing.

Tablespoons to cups FAQ

How many tablespoons are in a cup?

16 tablespoons, which is also 48 teaspoons or 8 fluid ounces. Half a cup is 8 tablespoons, a quarter cup is 4, and an eighth of a cup is 2 tablespoons.

How many tablespoons are in 1/3 cup?

5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon. A third of a cup is 16 teaspoons, and since a tablespoon is 3 teaspoons, that's 5 whole tablespoons with 1 teaspoon left over. There's no way to express it in whole tablespoons.

How many tablespoons are in 2/3 cup?

10 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons, which is 32 teaspoons total. It's exactly double the 1/3 cup answer, as you'd expect. In milliliters it's about 158 ml.

How many teaspoons are in a tablespoon?

3 teaspoons, in the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Europe. The exception is Australia, where a tablespoon is 20 ml and holds 4 teaspoons. The teaspoon itself is 5 ml almost everywhere.

How many tablespoons are in a stick of butter?

8 tablespoons, which is 1/2 cup, 113 g or 4 ounces. The marks printed on the wrapper let you cut any amount without measuring, and two sticks make a full cup at 227 g.

Is a tablespoon 15 ml or 20 ml?

15 ml in most of the world and 14.8 ml in the US, close enough to treat as the same. Australia is the outlier at 20 ml, a full 33% larger, and recipes never flag it. When precision matters on an Australian recipe, work in teaspoons.

How do I measure 3/4 cup with a tablespoon?

12 level tablespoons, since 3/4 of 16 is exactly 12. It's one of the cleanest conversions on the chart, and it's also why half of 3/4 cup is a tidy 6 tablespoons.

Are dry and liquid tablespoons different?

No. Unlike cups, where dry and liquid measuring cups are shaped differently, a tablespoon is a tablespoon for both. The only real difference is technique: level dry ingredients with a straight edge, and fill liquids to the brim without letting them dome.

Related guides: Cups to tablespoons converter | Butter converter | Grams to cups | Cups to oz | Ingredient weights chart | Baking conversion chart | How to scale a recipe | How to measure ingredients