Cups to Tablespoons Converter

This table covers common recipe fractions of a cup.

To convert cups to tablespoons, multiply the cup value by 16. For example, 0.75 cup times 16 equals 12 tablespoons.

To go the other way, use the Tablespoons to Cups converter instead, which divides by 16 for you. For example, 12 tablespoons divided by 16 equals 0.75 cup. For the teaspoon scale instead, see the Cups to Teaspoons converter below.

A US tablespoon is defined as exactly 1/16 of a cup (equivalently, 1/256 of a gallon), so the 16:1 ratio is a fixed definitional fact rather than a measured approximation. This holds regardless of what is being measured, since both units describe the same kind of quantity, volume, unlike a cups-to-weight conversion, which depends on the density of the ingredient.

Common Fractional-Cup Measurements

Because 16 has several small whole-number factors, common recipe fractions convert to a whole number of tablespoons: 1/4 cup is exactly 4 tablespoons, 1/2 cup is exactly 8 tablespoons, and 3/4 cup is exactly 12 tablespoons. A 1/3 cup, however, converts to 5.33 tablespoons, a genuinely awkward measurement many bakers round to "5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon" instead. For a cup value that already needs to end up in milliliters rather than tablespoons, the Cups to Milliliters converter below covers that other direction.

Baking recipes often give flour or sugar by weight, and the Cups to Grams Converter turns a cup measure into grams for common baking ingredients. For ingredients measured by the spoon, the Tablespoons to Grams Converter gives the weight of a tablespoon of water, milk, flour, sugar, honey, or butter. Butter is also sold in sticks, so the Butter Converter switches between cups, sticks, tablespoons, and grams.

Every volume converter that shares a unit with this page, cups or tablespoons, starting with the reverse conversion, one page per pair of units, then the converters that show many units at once.

The Reverse Conversion

• Tablespoons to Cups Converter: 1 cup = 16 tablespoons

Milliliters and Liters

• Cups to Liters Converter: 1 liter is about 4.226753 cups
• Cups to Milliliters Converter: 1 cup = 236.5882365 milliliters
• Milliliters to Tablespoons Converter: 1 tablespoon = 14.78676478125 milliliters

Spoons, Fluid Ounces and Cups

• Cups to Pints Converter: 1 pint = 2 cups
• Cups to Quarts Converter: 1 quart = 4 cups
• Cups to Teaspoons Converter: 1 cup = 48 teaspoons
• Cups to Gallons Converter: 1 gallon = 16 cups
• Cups to Fluid Ounces Converter: 1 cup = 8 fluid ounces
• Fluid Ounces to Tablespoons Converter: 1 fluid ounce = 2 tablespoons
• Tablespoons to Teaspoons Converter: 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons
• Cups to Deciliters Converter: 1 cup = 2.365882365 deciliters

Multi-Unit Converters

• Gallon Converter: gallons to quarts, pints, cups, fluid ounces, liters and cubic feet at once
• Volume Converter: any volume in every unit at once, from milliliters to cubic yards, including UK imperial units