How many tablespoons in a cup: 16 for a US cup
There are 16 tablespoons in a US cup. 1/3 cup is 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon.
Tablespoons in 1 cup
1 cup x 16 tbsp per cup = 16 tbsp
16 tbsp per cup = 236.588 mL / 14.787 mL. Cup and tablespoon from NIST SP 811. How we calculate this
From: Cups. Amount: 1 cup. Cup: US customary, 236.6 mL.
How many tablespoons in a cup? 16, for a US cup. NIST SP 811 lists the US cup at 236.588 mL and the tablespoon at 14.787 mL, and 236.588 / 14.787 = 16. Half a cup is 8 tablespoons, a quarter cup is 4, and 1/3 cup is 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon. The count changes outside the US: a 250 mL metric cup holds 16.67 spoons of 15 mL, and a 284.131 mL Imperial cup holds 19.22 US tablespoons.
Choose Cups or Tablespoons under From, type the amount, and the result shows the other unit. Pick the cup your recipe uses. The US customary cup is the default.
Quick answer: how many tablespoons are in a cup?
There are 16 tablespoons in a US cup. NIST SP 811 lists the cup at 236.588 mL and the tablespoon at 14.787 mL, and 236.588 / 14.787 = 16. Half a cup is 8 tablespoons, a quarter cup is 4, and 1/3 cup is 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon.
Key takeaways
- 1 US cup = 16 tablespoons = 48 teaspoons, from the NIST relationships.
- 1/3 cup is 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon, and 2/3 cup is 10 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons.
- A stick of butter marked 1/2 cup is 8 tablespoons, about 113 g.
- Outside the US the count changes: a 250 mL metric cup holds 16.67 spoons of 15 mL, and an Imperial cup holds 19.22 US tablespoons.
Worked example: halving 2/3 cup and scaling flour
Say a recipe calls for 2/3 cup of oil and you want half the batch. Half of 2/3 cup is 1/3 cup. Multiply by 16: 1/3 x 16 = 5.333 tablespoons. The 0.333 of a tablespoon is one third of 3 teaspoons, so measure 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon.
Going from weight works the same way once you have the cup weight. USDA FoodData Central lists all-purpose flour at 125 g per cup, so 250 g is 250 / 125 = 2.00 cups, which is 2 x 16 = 32 tablespoons. In the other direction, 1.5 cups of flour is 1.5 x 16 = 24 tablespoons and weighs 1.5 x 125 = 187.5 g. For a small amount, 3 tablespoons is 3 / 16 = 0.1875 cups, or 3 x 14.787 = 44.36 mL.
| Cup | Tablespoons | Teaspoons | US fl oz | mL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cup | 16 | 48 | 8 | 236.59 |
| 3/4 cup | 12 | 36 | 6 | 177.44 |
| 2/3 cup | 10 tbsp + 2 tsp | 32 | 5.33 | 157.73 |
| 1/2 cup | 8 | 24 | 4 | 118.29 |
| 1/3 cup | 5 tbsp + 1 tsp | 16 | 2.67 | 78.86 |
| 1/4 cup | 4 | 12 | 2 | 59.15 |
| 1/6 cup | 2 tbsp + 2 tsp | 8 | 1.33 | 39.43 |
| 1/8 cup | 2 | 6 | 1 | 29.57 |
| 1/16 cup | 1 | 3 | 0.5 | 14.79 |
| Cup | US tbsp (14.787 mL) | 15 mL tbsp |
|---|---|---|
| US customary, 236.588 mL | 16 | 15.77 |
| US labeling, 240 mL | 16.23 | 16 |
| Metric, 250 mL | 16.91 | 16.67 |
| Imperial, 284.131 mL | 19.22 | 18.94 |
| Ingredient | Grams per cup (USDA) | Grams per tablespoon | Grams per teaspoon |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 125 | 7.81 | 2.60 |
| Bread flour | 137 | 8.56 | 2.85 |
| Whole wheat flour | 120 | 7.50 | 2.50 |
| Granulated sugar | 200 | 12.50 | 4.17 |
| Brown sugar, packed | 220 | 13.75 | 4.58 |
| Powdered sugar | 120 | 7.50 | 2.50 |
| Cocoa powder | 86 | 5.38 | 1.79 |
| Cornstarch | 128 | 8.00 | 2.67 |
| Rolled oats | 81 | 5.06 | 1.69 |
| Table salt | 292 | 18.25 | 6.08 |
| Butter | 227 | 14.19 | 4.73 |
| Olive oil | 216 | 13.50 | 4.50 |
| Peanut butter | 258 | 16.13 | 5.38 |
| Honey | 339 | 21.19 | 7.06 |
| Maple syrup | 315 | 19.69 | 6.56 |
| Milk, whole | 244 | 15.25 | 5.08 |
| Water | 237 | 14.81 | 4.94 |
How we calculate this
Formula
Tablespoons = cups x (milliliters per cup / milliliters per tablespoon).
Tablespoons per cup for a 236.588 mL cup = 236.588 / 14.787 = 16.
1 cup x 16 tbsp per cup = 16 tbsp.
Your inputs
From: Cups. Amount: 1 cup. Cup: US customary, 236.6 mL (NIST SP 811, source 1). Tablespoon: US, 14.787 mL (NIST SP 811, source 1).
Sources
- NIST, Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI), Special Publication 811, Appendix B.8, 2008 edition (read 8 October 2026). It lists the US cup at 0.236 588 2 L, the tablespoon at 0.014 786 76 L and the teaspoon at 0.004 928 922 L, so a US cup is 236.588 / 14.787 = 16 tablespoons and a tablespoon holds 3 teaspoons. The same table lists the fluid ounce at 0.029 573 53 L and the Imperial gill at 0.142 065 3 L. Two gills make the 284.131 mL Imperial cup.
- FDA, 21 CFR 101.9(b)(5)(viii), the nutrition labeling rule, current text on the eCFR (read 8 October 2026). It sets the labeling cup at 240 mL, the tablespoon at 15 mL and the teaspoon at 5 mL. The metric cup is 250 mL by definition.
- USDA Agricultural Research Service, FoodData Central, SR Legacy foods, published 2019 (read 8 October 2026). The grams per tablespoon table divides each food's "1 cup" portion by 16, and the teaspoon column divides it by 48.
Limits
The tables round to two decimals, and the converter shows the nearest eighth or third when it is within 3 percent, else two decimals. The USDA weights assume flour spooned and leveled and brown sugar packed, so a heaping tablespoon weighs more than the table shows. A tablespoon is a volume, so 16 holds for any ingredient and only the weight changes.
Video: How many tablespoons in 1 cup, and teaspoons too
How many tablespoons in a cup by country
The 16 holds for a US recipe measured with US spoons. It fails when you mix standards. A 250 mL metric cup with a 15 mL spoon is 16.67 tablespoons. An Imperial cup of 284.131 mL holds 19.22 US tablespoons, or 18.94 spoons of 15 mL. A US cup measured with a 15 mL spoon is 15.77, close enough to 16 for cooking.
The tablespoon has two sizes in US rules: the customary 14.787 mL spoon from NIST and the 15 mL spoon from the FDA labeling rule. One claim that shows up in search snippets is wrong: liquids do not use 8 tablespoons per cup. A tablespoon is a volume, so 16 holds for water as much as for flour.
Why 1/3 cup is 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon
16 does not divide by 3. One third of 16 is 5.333 tablespoons, and the 0.333 is one third of a tablespoon, which is 1 teaspoon because a tablespoon holds 3. So 1/3 cup is 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon, or 16 teaspoons in total. The same arithmetic gives 2/3 cup as 10 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons and 1/6 cup as 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons. If you would rather skip the spoons, weigh it: 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour is 125 / 3 = 41.7 g. The grams to cups converter does that for other ingredients.
Tablespoons in a stick of butter
USDA FoodData Central lists butter at 227 g per cup, which is 227 / 16 = 14.19 g per tablespoon. If the wrapper marks your stick as 1/2 cup, that stick is 8 tablespoons and weighs about 113 g, and two sticks make a cup of 16 tablespoons. So 1/4 cup of butter (4 tablespoons) is about 57 g, and 1/3 cup (5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon) is about 76 g. If a recipe gives butter in grams, divide by 14.19 to get tablespoons, or by 227 to get cups.
Teaspoons in a tablespoon and in a cup
A tablespoon holds 3 teaspoons and a cup holds 48, from the NIST relationships 1 cup = 16 tbsp = 48 tsp. That makes a half cup 24 teaspoons and a quarter cup 12. Teaspoons matter when the ingredient is salt or a leavener. A teaspoon of table salt weighs 6.08 g on the USDA cup weight, so one tablespoon too many adds 18 g of salt. Under the FDA labeling rule the teaspoon is 5 mL and the tablespoon 15 mL. That keeps the 3 to 1 ratio, so the count does not change between the two US standards.
Is a dry cup the same as a liquid cup
Yes, as a volume. A dry measuring cup and a liquid measuring cup both hold 236.588 mL in the US, so 16 tablespoons fill either one. The two are shaped differently because of how you level them. You fill a dry cup over the top and sweep it flat with a straight edge. You fill a liquid cup to the line and read it at eye level. What changes between dry and liquid is weight. The grams per tablespoon table shows it: a tablespoon of water weighs 14.81 g, flour 7.81 g and honey 21.19 g. For liquid milliliters, the mL to cups page has the chart.
Tablespoons to cups: 5, 10 and 12 tablespoons
Divide by 16, or multiply by 0.0625. So 5 tablespoons is 5 / 16 = 0.3125 cups, one tablespoon past 1/4 cup and a teaspoon short of 1/3 cup. 10 tablespoons is 0.625 cups, which is 5/8 cup, or 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons. 12 tablespoons is 0.75 cups, exactly 3/4. 6 tablespoons is 0.375 cups, which is 3/8, or 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons. 20 tablespoons is 1.25 cups. When the result lands between fractions, measure the whole tablespoons and add the leftover as teaspoons.
When the 15 mL spoon changes the answer
A 15 mL spoon is 1.4 percent larger than the 14.787 mL US spoon. Over one cup that is 16 x 0.213 = 3.4 mL, under a teaspoon, so for a cup of flour or milk you cannot measure the gap with kitchen spoons. Scale a recipe to 10 cups and the gap is 34 mL, about 2 tablespoons, which you can measure. The 240 mL labeling cup is also 1.4 percent larger than the customary cup. That is why 240 / 15 comes out to exactly 16 and 240 / 14.787 comes out to 16.23. The grid above shows both: a US cup is 16 US spoons or 15.77 spoons of 15 mL.
What a US legal cup is and why it is 240 mL
The US legal cup, or labeling cup, is the 240 mL cup the FDA sets in 21 CFR 101.9(b)(5)(viii) for serving sizes on Nutrition Facts panels. The same paragraph sets the teaspoon at 5 mL, the tablespoon at 15 mL and the fluid ounce at 30 mL. They are round metric numbers, and the ratios stay whole: 240 / 15 = 16 tablespoons and 240 / 5 = 48 teaspoons, the same counts as the customary cup. The customary cup is 236.588 mL because it is one sixteenth of a 231 cubic inch gallon. The cups in a gallon page breaks that down. So a US cup is 240 mL on a label and 236.588 mL in a measuring cup, and either way it holds 16 tablespoons. For the fluid ounce side, see ounces in a cup.
Measuring flour by the spoon? See how to measure flour without a scale for the method that matches USDA cup weights.
Frequently asked questions
Does 8 tablespoons equal 1 cup? No. 8 tablespoons is half a cup. A full US cup is 16 tablespoons.
Is 4 tablespoons equal to 1 cup? No. 4 tablespoons is 1/4 cup, which is 59.15 mL or 2 US fluid ounces.
How many tablespoons are in 1/4 cup? 4 tablespoons, or 12 teaspoons.
How many tablespoons in 3/4 cup? 12 tablespoons, which is 6 US fluid ounces or 177.44 mL.
How many tablespoons in a cup of flour, sugar or coffee grounds? 16 for all of them, because a tablespoon measures volume. The weight differs: a tablespoon of all-purpose flour is 7.81 g and a tablespoon of granulated sugar is 12.5 g on the USDA cup weights. Our USDA list does not include coffee grounds.
Conclusion
Sixteen tablespoons make a US cup, and every fraction of a cup follows from that number. Pick the metric or Imperial cup in the converter when a recipe comes from outside the US.
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