1 cup works out at 16 tablespoons. Everything below is that one figure scaled, amount by amount.
Cups to tablespoons: full chart
| Cups | Tablespoons |
|---|---|
| 1/4 cup | 4 tbsp |
| 1/3 cup | 5.33 tbsp |
| 1/2 cup | 8 tbsp |
| 1 cup | 16 tbsp |
| 2 cups | 32 tbsp |
| 3 cups | 48 tbsp |
| 4 cups | 64 tbsp |
| 6 cups | 96 tbsp |
| 8 cups | 128 tbsp |
| 12 cups | 192 tbsp |
| 16 cups | 256 tbsp |
1/4 cup to tablespoons
1/4 cup is 4 tablespoons. That is 16 multiplied by 0.25, since 1 cup is 16 tablespoons.
1/3 cup to tablespoons
1/3 cup is 5.33 tablespoons. 0.333 of these makes 5.33, counting from the 1 cup figure of 16 tablespoons.
1 cup to tablespoons
1 cup is 16 tablespoons. Take the 1 cup figure of 16 tablespoons and multiply by 1 to get there.
2 cups to tablespoons
2 cups is 32 tablespoons. Half this amount, 1 cup, comes to 16; double it and you are at 64.
3 cups to tablespoons
3 cups is 48 tablespoons. That is 16 multiplied by 3, since 1 cup is 16 tablespoons.
4 cups to tablespoons
4 cups is 64 tablespoons. Take the 1 cup figure of 16 tablespoons and multiply by 4 to get there.
6 cups to tablespoons
6 cups is 96 tablespoons. That is 16 multiplied by 6, since 1 cup is 16 tablespoons.
8 cups to tablespoons
8 cups is 128 tablespoons. Take the 1 cup figure of 16 tablespoons and multiply by 8 to get there.
US, UK and metric are not the same cup
A US cup is 236.6 ml. A metric cup, used in Australia and New Zealand, is 250 ml — 5.7 per cent more. An old UK imperial cup is 284 ml.
Measured in the metric cup the 1 cup figure above would read 16.9 tablespoons instead of 16 tablespoons.
How the chart works
The left column is what you have; the right column is what it becomes. Nothing here is affected by temperature, brand or how the ingredient was stored.
What moves this number
Only the measuring system. Within US measures the relationship never moves; across systems it does, which is where recipes from other countries go wrong.
Going the other way: tablespoons to cups
| Tablespoons | Cups |
|---|---|
| 2 1/2 tbsp | 0.156 cup |
| 4 tbsp | 1/4 cup |
| 5 tbsp | 0.313 cup |
That is the shape of it in reverse. The complete chart for that direction has a page of its own.
Getting the measurement right
Read a liquid measure at eye level with the cup on the counter. Held up and read from above, the curve of the surface makes it look fuller than it is.
How much rounding this will take
The test is whether the dish can still be corrected after tasting. If it can, round; if the decision is locked the moment it goes in the oven, do not.
The mistake that shows up most
Using a cup from the wrong country. The measure looks identical on the shelf, and a 250 ml metric cup against a 236.6 ml US cup is a six per cent error that compounds every time the recipe is scaled.
Why this one gets looked up
Anyone cooking along with a video is converting on the fly. 1 cup is 16 tablespoons is worth having settled before the pan is hot.
Half, double and triple
Half of 1 cup is 8 tablespoons. Double it and you have 32 tablespoons; triple it and you are at 48 tablespoons. A batch cut to a quarter needs 4 tablespoons.
Multiply or divide the whole line at once rather than converting each step; the answer is the same and there is less to get wrong.
How much precision this needs
This pair gives 16 for 1 cup with nothing after the decimal point. That is unusual enough to be worth noticing, and it makes scaling trivial.
Other ways this gets asked
These are the other phrasings that lead here, and the chart handles them all:
- Cups to Tablespoons: Full Conversion Chart?
- 1/3 cup to tbsp: Exactly 5.33 tbsp?
- 1/4 cup to tbsp: Exactly 4 tbsp?
Related conversions
For every kitchen figure in one place, see the full conversion chart.
