Tablespoons to Cups Converter

A US customary cup is exactly 236.5882365 mL and contains exactly 16 US customary tablespoons. A US legal cup is exactly 240 mL and does not contain exactly 16 of those tablespoons. This converter keeps the tablespoon fixed at 14.78676478125 mL and converts against the cup standard you select.

Exactly 2 US tablespoons. 1 US fl oz = 2 tbsp = 6 tsp = 1/8 cup. The US fluid ounce is exactly 29.5735295625 mL, so one US customary tablespoon is exactly 14.78676478125 mL.

For US customary measures, 16 tbsp = 1 cup, 8 tbsp = 1/2 cup, 4 tbsp = 1/4 cup, and 1 tbsp = 3 tsp. Those shortcuts are not exact for a 240 mL legal cup or a 250 mL metric cup because those cup standards use different volumes.

Tablespoons and cups both measure volume, so ingredient density is not needed. Under the US customary standard, 16 tablespoons fill one cup of exactly 236.5882365 mL regardless of the ingredient. Density matters only when converting that volume to mass.

No. A US tablespoon is approximately 14.7868 mL, a modern UK metric tablespoon is exactly 15 mL, and an Australian tablespoon is exactly 20 mL. A historical imperial tablespoon was approximately 17.76 mL. This converter uses the US tablespoon throughout, so check the recipe origin before converting.