kitchen basics · baking techniques · kitchen equipment
Conversion Chart for Kitchen Measurements: Volume and Weight
Cups, tablespoons, milliliters, grams and oven settings in one place, with typical ingredient weights, UK and Australian differences, a scaling example and the conversion mistakes that ruin bakes.
In this guide
A good conversion chart for kitchen measurements saves you from the moment a recipe asks for 225 grams of butter and all you have is a stick and a set of cups. The numbers themselves are simple once they are laid out clearly. What trips people up is knowing which chart applies, how much rounding is acceptable, and when a cup should give way to a scale. This guide gives you the core tables for volume, weight and oven temperature, then explains how to use them without introducing errors.
A quick word on terms. Volume is the space an ingredient takes up (teaspoons, cups, milliliters). Weight is how heavy it is (ounces, pounds, grams). US recipes lean on volume; most of the rest of the world weighs. Converting between the two for liquids is easy, but for dry ingredients it depends on the ingredient, which is why every useful conversion chart for kitchen measurements has more than one table.
Volume Conversions: Teaspoons, Tablespoons, Cups and Milliliters
This is the table you will reach for most often. It uses the US customary system, which is what American recipes and most US measuring tools follow. Milliliter figures are rounded to the nearest whole number; many printed charts round further, to 5, 15, 30, 60, 120 and 240 ml, and that is fine for everyday cooking.
| US measure | Equivalent | Approx. milliliters |
|---|---|---|
| 1/4 teaspoon | - | 1 ml |
| 1/2 teaspoon | - | 2.5 ml |
| 1 teaspoon | 1/3 tablespoon | 5 ml |
| 1 tablespoon | 3 teaspoons | 15 ml |
| 2 tablespoons | 1 fluid ounce | 30 ml |
| 1/4 cup | 4 tablespoons | 59 ml |
| 1/3 cup | 5 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon | 79 ml |
| 1/2 cup | 8 tablespoons / 4 fl oz | 118 ml |
| 2/3 cup | 10 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons | 158 ml |
| 3/4 cup | 12 tablespoons / 6 fl oz | 177 ml |
| 1 cup | 16 tablespoons / 8 fl oz | 237 ml |
| 1 pint | 2 cups / 16 fl oz | 473 ml |
| 1 quart | 2 pints / 4 cups | 946 ml |
| 1 gallon | 4 quarts / 16 cups | 3.79 liters |
Three relationships carry most of the load: 3 teaspoons make a tablespoon, 16 tablespoons make a cup, and a cup is roughly a quarter of a liter. If you remember those, you can rebuild most of the table in your head.
How you fill the measure matters as much as the number. Dry measuring cups are meant to be filled and leveled with a straight edge; liquid measures are read at eye level with the jug on a flat surface. Our guides to kitchen cup measurements and kitchen spoon measurements cover leveling, sticky ingredients and the difference between the two cup styles in detail.
Weight Conversions: Ounces, Pounds and Grams
Weight conversions are exact, because an ounce of anything weighs the same. One ounce is 28.35 grams, and one pound is 16 ounces, or 453.6 grams. Most cooks round to 28 g per ounce and 450 or 454 g per pound.
| Ounces / pounds | Grams (approx.) |
|---|---|
| 1/2 oz | 14 g |
| 1 oz | 28 g |
| 2 oz | 57 g |
| 4 oz (1/4 lb) | 113 g |
| 8 oz (1/2 lb) | 227 g |
| 12 oz (3/4 lb) | 340 g |
| 16 oz (1 lb) | 454 g |
| 2 lb | 907 g |
| 2.2 lb | 1 kg |
Going the other way, 100 grams is about 3.5 ounces, and a kilogram is about 2.2 pounds. If your scale switches units with one button, you rarely need this table at all, which is one reason a digital scale is near the top of most essential kitchen tools lists.
The fluid ounce trap
A fluid ounce is volume; an ounce is weight. They happen to line up for water, which is why the confusion persists. A cup is 8 fluid ounces, but a cup of flour weighs only around 4.5 ounces, and a cup of honey weighs closer to 12. When a recipe gives ounces for a dry ingredient, it means weight. When it gives ounces for a liquid and uses “fl oz”, it means volume.
Cups to Grams for Common Ingredients
This is where a conversion chart for kitchen measurements stops being pure arithmetic. A cup of sugar and a cup of flour take up the same space but weigh very different amounts, and even the same flour weighs differently depending on whether you scoop it or spoon it in. The figures below are typical ranges for one US cup, measured by spooning and leveling where that applies. Treat them as starting points, not laws.
| Ingredient (1 US cup) | Typical weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 120-130 g | Scooping packs it heavier |
| Bread flour | about 130 g | Slightly denser than all-purpose |
| Granulated sugar | about 200 g | Fairly consistent |
| Brown sugar, packed | 200-220 g | Depends on how firmly packed |
| Powdered sugar | 115-125 g | Sifted weighs less |
| Butter | 227 g | 2 US sticks; 1 stick = 113 g = 8 tbsp |
| Water | about 237 g | 1 ml of water weighs about 1 g |
| Milk | about 240-245 g | Slightly heavier than water |
| Rolled oats | 80-90 g | Light and airy |
| Cocoa powder | 85-100 g | Varies by brand and sifting |
| Honey | about 340 g | Very dense |
| Long-grain rice, uncooked | 185-200 g | Varies by grain size |
Why the ranges? Different publishers measure differently, and flour in particular settles and compacts in the bag. If a recipe author tells you what their cup of flour weighs, use their number. When a recipe already gives grams, weigh and skip the cups entirely; converting grams back into cups throws away the precision the author gave you.
When to weigh and when a cup is fine
For soups, stews, braises, rice and most savory cooking, volume measures are perfectly adequate; a few grams either way will not show. For bread, cakes, pastry and cookies, the ratio of flour to fat, sugar and liquid shapes the texture, so weighing gives more repeatable results. Small amounts of leaveners, salt and spices are usually still measured with spoons, since most home scales are not precise at a gram or two.
Oven Temperature Conversions: Fahrenheit, Celsius and Gas Mark
The exact formula is Celsius = (Fahrenheit − 32) × 5 ÷ 9. Nobody sets an oven to 177°C, though, so recipes round to the nearest 5 or 10 degrees. Gas marks are used on many UK gas ovens and in older British recipes.
| Fahrenheit | Celsius (rounded) | Gas mark | Common description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 275°F | 140°C | 1 | Very low |
| 300°F | 150°C | 2 | Low |
| 325°F | 160-170°C | 3 | Moderately low |
| 350°F | 180°C | 4 | Moderate |
| 375°F | 190°C | 5 | Moderately hot |
| 400°F | 200°C | 6 | Hot |
| 425°F | 220°C | 7 | Hot |
| 450°F | 230°C | 8 | Very hot |
| 475°F | 240°C | 9 | Very hot |
Fan and convection ovens
A fan (convection) oven moves hot air around the food, so it tends to cook faster at a given setting. Many oven manufacturers suggest lowering the temperature by about 20°C, or around 25°F, when a recipe was written for a conventional oven. Some recipes already state a fan temperature, and some modern ovens adjust automatically, so read the recipe and your oven manual before subtracting anything. An inexpensive oven thermometer is also worth having, because the dial on many home ovens does not match the actual temperature inside.
US, UK, Australian and Metric Measures: Why a Cup Is Not Always a Cup
If a conversion was correct but the result still came out oddly, the recipe may have been written for a different measuring system. These are the differences worth knowing.
| Measure | US customary | Metric / Commonwealth |
|---|---|---|
| Cup | about 237 ml | 250 ml (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, modern UK use) |
| Tablespoon | about 15 ml | 15 ml in the UK; 20 ml in Australia |
| Teaspoon | about 5 ml | 5 ml |
| Fluid ounce | about 29.6 ml | Imperial fl oz is about 28.4 ml |
| Pint | about 473 ml (16 fl oz) | Imperial pint is about 568 ml (20 fl oz) |
A few practical notes:
- The cup difference is small. A metric cup holds about 13 ml more than a US cup, roughly 5 percent. For most cooking you can ignore it. In baking with several cups of flour, it can add up, so weigh if the recipe offers grams.
- The Australian tablespoon is the big one. At 20 ml, it is a third larger than a US tablespoon. For salt, baking powder or strong spices, that difference is noticeable. If an Australian recipe calls for a tablespoon, use a US tablespoon plus a teaspoon.
- The imperial pint catches people out. British recipes that call for a pint of milk or stock mean about 568 ml, almost a fifth more than a US pint.
- Japanese recipes often use a 200 ml cup, and rice cookers come with a smaller cup again, so check the recipe’s notes when cooking from Japanese sources.
The simplest way to tell which system a recipe uses is to look at where it was published and whether other quantities are in grams. A recipe that lists flour in grams but liquid in cups is almost certainly using metric cups.
Scaling a Recipe With a Conversion Chart for Kitchen Measurements
Halving, doubling or multiplying by one and a half is where a conversion chart for kitchen measurements earns its place on the fridge. Odd fractions of a cup are awkward to divide, but tablespoons and teaspoons make it manageable.
A worked example
Say a US recipe calls for 2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup of a liquid, 1/3 cup of oil and 2 teaspoons of baking powder, and you want to make one and a half times the amount. Here is how the conversions play out, one quantity at a time:
- Convert the flour to grams first. At about 125 g per cup, 2 1/4 cups is roughly 280 g. Multiplied by 1.5, that is about 420 g. Weighing 420 g is far easier than measuring 3 3/8 cups.
- Scale the liquid by volume. 3/4 cup is 12 tablespoons. One and a half times that is 18 tablespoons, which is 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons. Or use milliliters: 177 ml × 1.5 is about 265 ml.
- Handle the awkward third. 1/3 cup × 1.5 is exactly 1/2 cup. Fractions that look ugly often resolve neatly once you multiply.
- Scale the small measures in spoons. 2 teaspoons × 1.5 is 3 teaspoons, which is 1 tablespoon.
For halving, the same logic applies: half of 3/4 cup is 6 tablespoons, half of 1/3 cup is 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons, and half of a tablespoon is 1 1/2 teaspoons.
What does not scale neatly
Ingredient quantities scale in proportion; pans, timings and some seasonings do not. A larger batch in a deeper pan bakes differently from the original, and a doubled pot of soup takes longer to come to a simmer. Strong flavors such as salt, chili and spices are worth adding a little under the scaled amount and adjusting at the end. If you scale the same dish often, pencil the converted quantities into the margin the first time so you do not redo the math. When a step calls for switching units, such as cups to milliliters or ounces to grams, the unit converters in the FoodEase kitchen tools save you the calculation, and you can browse the recipe collection for dishes to try at a different batch size.
Common Mistakes When Converting Kitchen Measurements
Most conversion failures come from a handful of habits rather than wrong numbers.
- Treating fluid ounces and ounces as interchangeable. Covered above, but it is the most common error. Weight for dry goods, volume for liquids, unless the recipe says otherwise.
- Scooping flour straight from the bag. Dipping the cup packs flour down and can add a noticeable amount per cup. Spoon it in and level it, or weigh.
- Using a liquid jug for dry ingredients. You cannot level the top of a jug, so the amount varies each time. Use nesting cups for dry ingredients.
- Mixing systems within one recipe. Measuring half the ingredients in metric cups and half in US cups shifts the ratios. Pick one system per recipe.
- Over-rounding small amounts. Rounding 1/3 cup up to 80 ml is harmless. Rounding a teaspoon of baking soda up to a tablespoon is not. Keep leaveners and salt exact.
- Converting oven temperatures twice. If a recipe already gives a fan temperature, subtracting another 20°C undercooks the food.
- Trusting an online cups-to-grams figure that does not match the recipe. Different sources use different cup weights for flour. When a recipe gives both cups and grams, the grams are what the author actually used.
- Forgetting to tare the scale. Press tare after placing the bowl, and again before each new ingredient if you weigh into the same bowl.
A related mistake is converting while you cook. Doing the math in the middle of a bake, with butter softening on the counter, is when a 3 gets read as an 8. Convert before you start, and write the converted numbers down.
How to Make a Printable Conversion Chart for Kitchen Measurements You Will Use
The printable charts that circulate online are often crowded with decorative fonts and conversions you will never need. A conversion chart for kitchen measurements is only useful if you can read it at arm’s length with flour on your hands. Building your own takes a few minutes and gives you a better result.
What to include
- The volume ladder: teaspoon, tablespoon, 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 and 1 cup, with milliliters.
- Ounces and pounds to grams for the common package sizes you buy.
- An oven row in Fahrenheit, Celsius and, if you cook from British books, gas mark. Add a fan-oven note if you own one.
- Cup weights for only the five or six dry ingredients you bake with most, using the figures from the books or sites you trust.
- A line for any regional quirk you run into, such as the 20 ml Australian tablespoon.
Where to put it
Tape it inside the cabinet door closest to where you measure, or slip it into a sheet protector and keep it with your measuring cups. Taping it to the fridge works too, but only if your mixing area is right beside it. Our guide to kitchen counter organization covers how to set up a baking zone so the scale, cups, spoons and chart live together.
Tools that make the chart less necessary
A digital scale that switches between grams and ounces removes most weight conversions. A set of measuring spoons that includes a 1/2 tablespoon size simplifies halving. Liquid jugs printed with both cups and milliliters let you pour metric recipes directly. If you are filling gaps in your set, Grandmother’s Kitchen stocks kitchen goods, and our list of equipment and tools in the kitchen explains what each item is for.
Finally, plan the conversions into your week rather than your cooking time. When you add dishes to the meal planner, convert any foreign-unit recipes at the same time, so the quantities you put on your shopping list match the packages you will actually buy. If a conversion still looks odd, you can ask Sue, the FoodEase cooking assistant, about it before you start measuring.
Common questions
How many tablespoons are in a cup?
One US cup holds 16 tablespoons, which is the same as 48 teaspoons or 8 fluid ounces. That makes half a cup 8 tablespoons and a quarter cup 4 tablespoons. The awkward one is a third of a cup: 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon. If you are measuring sticky or fatty ingredients, counting out many tablespoons adds error, so a cup measure or a scale is usually more accurate.
How many grams are in a cup of flour?
A US cup of all-purpose flour usually weighs between about 120 and 130 grams when you spoon it into the cup and level it. Scooping straight from the bag packs the flour and can push the weight noticeably higher. Because published figures differ, the most reliable number is the one the recipe author uses. When a recipe gives grams, weigh rather than converting back to cups.
Is a fluid ounce the same as an ounce?
No. A fluid ounce measures volume (about 29.6 ml in the US system) and an ounce measures weight (about 28.35 grams). They only line up roughly for water and similar liquids. A cup of flour is 8 fluid ounces of space but weighs around 4.5 ounces. If a recipe lists ounces for a dry ingredient, it almost always means weight, so use a kitchen scale.
How do I convert Fahrenheit to Celsius for baking?
Subtract 32 from the Fahrenheit number, multiply by 5 and divide by 9. In practice, recipes round to the nearest 5 or 10 degrees, so 350°F becomes 180°C and 400°F becomes 200°C. If you have a fan or convection oven, many manufacturers suggest lowering the setting by about 20°C or 25°F, but check your oven's manual first.
Is a UK cup the same as a US cup?
Not exactly. A US customary cup is about 237 ml, while modern British, Australian and Canadian recipes that use cups generally mean a 250 ml metric cup. The difference is about 5 percent, which rarely matters for soups but can affect delicate baking. The bigger trap is the pint: an imperial pint is about 568 ml, compared with about 473 ml for a US pint.
What should a printable kitchen conversion chart include?
Keep it to what you look up most: teaspoons, tablespoons and cups to milliliters, ounces and pounds to grams, oven temperatures in Fahrenheit, Celsius and gas mark, and a short list of cup weights for the flour, sugar and butter you actually use. Add a fan-oven note if you own one. A one-page chart you can read at arm's length beats a crowded poster.