Tablespoons & Teaspoons: A Complete Conversion Guide

Tablespoons and teaspoons are the small change of cooking. Get comfortable with how they relate to each other and to cups, and a lot of recipe math becomes instant.

The core relationships

• 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons
• 1 tablespoon = 15 ml (US, rounded; precisely 14.79 ml)
• 1 teaspoon = 5 ml (rounded; precisely 4.93 ml)
• 1 cup = 16 tablespoons = 48 teaspoons
• ½ cup = 8 tablespoons  ·  ¼ cup = 4 tablespoons  ·  ⅛ cup = 2 tablespoons

Spoons to grams

Like cups, a spoon measures volume — so the weight depends on the ingredient:

• 1 tbsp all-purpose flour ≈ 7.5 g
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar ≈ 12.5 g
• 1 tbsp butter ≈ 14 g
• 1 tbsp honey ≈ 21 g
• 1 tsp baking powder ≈ 4 g
• 1 tsp baking soda ≈ 4.6 g
• 1 tsp table salt ≈ 5.7 g

For small leavening and salt amounts, teaspoon precision matters — see the baking powder and baking soda converters.

A note on the Australian tablespoon

Almost everywhere a tablespoon is 15 ml. Australia is the exception at 20 ml — four teaspoons, not three. If you are following an Australian recipe with US spoons, use a generous tablespoon plus a teaspoon.

When spoons add up

If a recipe calls for "5 tablespoons" of something, that is just over ¼ cup. Rather than counting spoonfuls, convert: our ingredient converters switch freely between teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, millilitres, and grams.