Tablespoon to Cup Converter

How It Works

Tablespoons and cups are the most common US cooking measurements. Knowing the ratio -- 16 tablespoons in 1 cup -- lets you scale any recipe up or down without a chart.

The Formula

Variables

• 1 tbsp — 1/16 of a cup, or 3 teaspoons
• 4 tbsp — 1/4 cup
• 8 tbsp — 1/2 cup
• 16 tbsp — 1 cup

Example

6 tablespoons = 6/16 = 3/8 cup, or about 89 ml.

Tips

• To measure half a tablespoon, use 1.5 teaspoons.
• Most butter sticks are marked with tablespoon lines -- use those instead of scooping.
• A "heaping" tablespoon is roughly 1.5 standard tablespoons.
• When a recipe says "T" or "Tbsp" it means tablespoon; lowercase "t" or "tsp" means teaspoon.