Guide
Cooking Measurements: Cups, Tablespoons, and Milliliters
Convert cooking volumes between US cups, tablespoons, fluid ounces, and milliliters — with tips for recipes from different countries.
5 min read
US vs metric recipes
American recipes measure liquids in cups, tablespoons, and fluid ounces. European and Australian recipes typically use milliliters and liters. A "cup" in the US is 236.588 ml — not the same as a UK metric cup (250 ml) used in some countries.
When precision matters (macarons, bread ratios), weigh ingredients in grams instead of using volume. Weight is the same everywhere.
Common US cooking conversions
Keep these equivalents on hand:
- 1 US cup = 236.588 ml (often rounded to 240 ml)
- 1 tablespoon = 14.787 ml (3 teaspoons)
- 1 fluid ounce = 29.574 ml
- 1 US pint = 2 cups = 473 ml
- 1 US quart = 4 cups = 946 ml
- 1 US gallon = 16 cups = 3.79 liters
Scaling recipes
Doubling a recipe? Multiply every measurement by 2. Halving? Divide by 2. For awkward fractions, convert to milliliters or grams first, scale, then convert back if needed.
Sticky ingredients (honey, peanut butter) are easier by weight. One tablespoon of honey weighs about 21 grams regardless of how it sits in the spoon.
Tools that help
A kitchen scale is the most reliable tool for international cooking. For liquids, a measuring jug with both ml and cup markings works well.
Use ConvertHub volume converters when you encounter an unfamiliar unit in a recipe — ml to cups, tablespoons to ml, and more — without installing an app.