Cooking Measurement Converter

Convert cooking measurements free online -- cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, milliliters, and fluid ounces. US measurement standard, accurate for following any recipe.

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Volume conversion only -- US measurement standard.

How to Use This Tool

Enter a measurement valueFrom your recipe

Choose from and to unitsUS cooking measurement units

See the converted resultVolume-based conversion, US standard

Volume Conversion -- Reliable for Liquids, Approximate for Dry Goods

Cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons are volume measurements, which convert cleanly and reliably to each other and to milliliters or liters regardless of what's being measured. The complication arises specifically with dry ingredients, where the same volume can represent meaningfully different weights depending on density and how tightly the ingredient is packed.

Why Flour and Sugar Cups Don't Weigh the Same

A cup of flour weighs noticeably less than a cup of granulated sugar, simply because flour is less dense and more easily compressed or aerated. This is precisely why precision baking recipes increasingly specify dry ingredient amounts by weight (grams) rather than volume -- weight stays consistent regardless of how the ingredient settles, while volume measurement of dry goods has real built-in variability.

US Standard -- A Detail Worth Knowing

This converter uses US customary cooking measurements specifically. A recipe from a UK or Australian source might use slightly different cup or tablespoon definitions, which could introduce small discrepancies if you're not aware which standard the original recipe assumed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Volume only -- these conversions work reliably for liquid ingredients and any measurement genuinely based on volume. For dry ingredients like flour or sugar, the same volume can weigh differently depending on how densely packed the ingredient is, which a pure volume conversion can't fully capture.

Ingredient density varies -- flour is lighter and more easily compressed than sugar, so identical cup measurements of each produce different actual weights. This is exactly why professional baking recipes often specify weight (grams) rather than volume for dry ingredients, for more consistent results.

US customary measurements, since US cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons differ slightly from their UK/Imperial and Australian counterparts despite sharing the same names.

Recipe measurement convention follows each country's broader measurement system -- US recipes use cups and tablespoons, while many other countries default to grams and milliliters, reflecting each region's general measurement habits beyond just cooking specifically.

For genuinely precision-dependent baking, weighing dry ingredients in grams using a kitchen scale produces more consistent results than volume measurement, since volume-based dry ingredient measurement has inherent variability based on how the ingredient settles or packs.