Cooking Unit Converter

Convert US cups, tablespoons and teaspoons to metric volume, or convert grams, kilograms, ounces and pounds. No guessing about what a cup means.

Choose the right kind of measurement

This tool handles two separate groups: volume and weight. Volume tells you how much space an ingredient occupies; weight tells you its mass. You can convert cups to milliliters or grams to ounces. You cannot reliably convert cups to grams without knowing the ingredient’s density. One cup of flour and one cup of syrup do not weigh the same.

Which cup and spoon does this tool use?

The converter uses US customary measures: one cup is about 236.588 milliliters, one tablespoon is about 14.787 milliliters, and one teaspoon is about 4.929 milliliters. Some recipes round these to 240, 15 and 5 milliliters. Metric cups may be 250 milliliters, and an Australian tablespoon is commonly 20 milliliters. Read your recipe’s measurement notes before converting; this tool does not automatically detect the author’s convention.

Ounces in the weight group are avoirdupois ounces, approximately 28.350 grams each. They are not fluid ounces. A kitchen scale set to grams is often the easiest way to follow a recipe written in metric weight.

Example: soy milk for overnight oats

If your recipe needs half a US cup of soy milk, enter 0.5, choose US cups, and convert to milliliters. The result is about 118.294 milliliters. In ordinary home cooking, a nearby practical measurement is usually acceptable, but precision matters more in baking. Keep the original measurement if the recipe is especially sensitive.

Tips for more consistent baking

Use measuring spoons rather than cutlery. Spoon flour into a measuring cup and level it instead of packing it down, unless your recipe says otherwise. Use a transparent liquid measuring jug on a level surface and read it at eye level. For repeatable results, choose recipes that supply gram weights and weigh directly.

See the serving-size calculator to scale a whole recipe, and the meal-prep guide for a simple planning method.

Worked example: half a US cup of soy milk

Enter 0.5, choose US cups, then milliliters. The calculation is 0.5 × 236.5882365 = 118.29411825 ml, displayed as 118.294 ml. A measuring jug may not have a marking that precise. Choose a practical measurement that suits the recipe, and keep the recipe author's convention in mind.

Why 250 ml may give a different result

A metric cup is commonly 250 ml. Half of that cup is 125 ml, about 6.706 ml more than half a US cup. The tool explicitly uses US cups, so do not select US cups for a recipe that defines its cup as 250 ml. Enter its stated milliliter quantity directly instead.

Weight example: a 12-ounce package

Enter 12, choose ounces (weight), then grams. The result is 340.194 g. This tells you the package's mass; it does not tell you how many cups it contains. A cup of loosely chopped vegetables and a cup of tightly packed vegetables can have different weights even when they are the same ingredient.

Reference factors

Weight factors use the international avoirdupois pound (453.59237 g) and 16 ounces per pound. Volume factors use 16 tablespoons per US cup and 3 teaspoons per US tablespoon. See the NIST guide to SI units for measurement context.