US to Metric Cooking Conversion Chart: Cups, Oz and °F to ml, g and °C
This page gathers in one place every equivalent you need to convert an American recipe: volumes (cups, spoons, fluid ounces), weights (ounces, pounds), oven temperatures, and above all the real weight of a cup for the most common ingredients — because that's where most conversions go wrong. The figures are the ones the site's converter uses; each section links to the detailed article where one exists.
How to read this chart
Two rules to keep in mind before converting anything. First: a cup is a volume. For a liquid, converting to milliliters is direct. For a dry ingredient, you need the ingredient's density to get a weight — a cup of flour and a cup of sugar don't weigh the same, and that's why a cup of flour doesn't weigh like a cup of sugar. Second: the values below are cooking approximations, rounded to be practical. They're enough for any home recipe; they make no claim to laboratory precision.
The site uses the 250 ml cup, the standard in Canada. The official US cup is 237 ml — a 5% gap that doesn't show in a recipe, and that we explain in US cup vs imperial cup vs metric cup.
Volumes: cups, spoons and fluid ounces in milliliters
- 1 teaspoon (tsp) = 5 ml
- 1 tablespoon (tbsp) = 15 ml = 3 tsp
- 1 fluid ounce (fl oz) = 29.57 ml ≈ 2 tbsp
- ¼ cup = 62.5 ml = 4 tbsp
- ⅓ cup = 83 ml = 5 tbsp + 1 tsp
- ½ cup = 125 ml = 8 tbsp
- ⅔ cup = 167 ml
- ¾ cup = 187.5 ml = 12 tbsp
- 1 cup = 250 ml = 16 tbsp (237 ml for the official US cup)
- 1 pint = 16 fl oz = 473 ml ≈ 2 cups
- 1 quart = 32 fl oz = 946 ml ≈ 4 cups
- 1 gallon = 128 fl oz = 3.785 L ≈ 16 cups
Details and special cases: how many ml in a tablespoon, how many tablespoons in a quarter cup, and gallon, quart, pint explained.
Weights: ounces and pounds in grams
- 1 oz = 28.35 g
- 4 oz = ¼ lb = 113 g
- 8 oz = ½ lb = 227 g
- 12 oz = ¾ lb = 340 g
- 16 oz = 1 lb = 454 g
- 2 lb = 907 g
- 2.2 lb ≈ 1 kg
Be careful not to confuse the weight ounce (oz) with the fluid ounce (fl oz): the two only coincide for water. We've devoted a whole article to the fl oz vs oz confusion, and another to American packaging sizes (8 oz package, 14 oz can, and so on).
Oven temperatures: Fahrenheit to Celsius
The formula: (°F − 32) × 5 ÷ 9. The usual settings, rounded to the degree:
- 250°F = 121°C
- 275°F = 135°C
- 300°F = 149°C
- 325°F = 163°C
- 350°F = 177°C (rounded to 175 or 180°C; French thermostat 6)
- 375°F = 191°C
- 400°F = 204°C (thermostat 7)
- 425°F = 218°C
- 450°F = 232°C (thermostat 8)
- 475°F = 246°C
- 500°F = 260°C
The other way, for a Fahrenheit oven: 160°C = 320°F, 180°C = 356°F, 200°C = 392°F, 220°C = 428°F. To go further: 350°F to Celsius, the 325 to 450°F chart, the French thermostat 1 to 10 scale, and adjusting for a convection oven (lower by about 20°C / 25°F).
The weight of a cup, by ingredient
This is the most important section on this page. For each ingredient, the density the converter uses, then the weight of 1 cup, ½ cup, ¼ cup and 1 tablespoon.
Water, milk, juice (density 1.0)
- 1 cup = 250 g · ½ cup = 125 g · ¼ cup = 63 g · 1 tbsp = 15 g
All-purpose flour (density 0.50)
- 1 cup = 125 g · ½ cup = 63 g · ¼ cup = 31 g · 1 tbsp = 7.5 g
- Details: cups to grams for flour
Granulated white sugar (density 0.80)
- 1 cup = 200 g · ½ cup = 100 g · ¼ cup = 50 g · 1 tbsp = 12 g
- Details: how many grams in a cup of sugar
Packed brown sugar (density 0.88)
- 1 cup = 220 g · ½ cup = 110 g · ¼ cup = 55 g · 1 tbsp = 13 g
- Details: how much a packed cup of brown sugar weighs
Powdered sugar (density 0.48)
- 1 cup = 120 g · ½ cup = 60 g · ¼ cup = 30 g · 1 tbsp = 7 g
- Details: how many grams in a cup of powdered sugar
Butter (density 0.91)
- 1 cup = 227 g (2 sticks) · ½ cup = 114 g (1 stick) · ¼ cup = 57 g · 1 tbsp = 14 g
- Details: a stick of butter in grams and how many sticks in a pound
Oil (density 0.92)
- 1 cup = 230 g · ½ cup = 115 g · ¼ cup = 58 g · 1 tbsp = 14 g
Honey, maple syrup (density 1.42)
- 1 cup = 355 g · ½ cup = 178 g · ¼ cup = 89 g · 1 tbsp = 21 g
Cocoa powder (density 0.40)
- 1 cup = 100 g · ½ cup = 50 g · ¼ cup = 25 g · 1 tbsp = 6 g
- Details: how many grams in a cup of cocoa
Raw rice (density 0.78)
- 1 cup = 195 g · ½ cup = 98 g · ¼ cup = 49 g · 1 tbsp = 12 g
- Details: how many grams in a cup of rice
Rolled oats (density 0.36)
- 1 cup = 90 g · ½ cup = 45 g · ¼ cup = 23 g · 1 tbsp = 5 g
- Details: how many grams in a cup of oats
Fine salt (density 1.20)
- 1 cup = 300 g · ½ cup = 150 g · ¼ cup = 75 g · 1 tbsp = 18 g · 1 tsp = 6 g
- Details: how much is a pinch of salt
For an ingredient missing from this list, the converter offers an "other" mode that gives the volume only, with no weight — that's deliberate: better no number than an invented one. Weigh, or look up the density of the exact ingredient.
Butter in sticks, a unit of its own
- 1 stick = ½ cup = 8 tbsp ≈ 113 g
- ½ stick = ¼ cup = 4 tbsp ≈ 57 g
- 2 sticks = 1 cup ≈ 227 g
- 4 sticks = 1 lb = 454 g
The abbreviations you'll meet in American recipes
- tsp or t: teaspoon (5 ml)
- tbsp, Tbsp or T: tablespoon (15 ml) — the capital letter often distinguishes tbsp from tsp
- c or C: cup
- fl oz: fluid ounce (volume)
- oz: ounce (weight)
- lb or #: pound
- pt, qt, gal: pint, quart, gallon
- pkg: package, the retail size ("1 pkg cream cheese" = 8 oz)
- stick: a ¼ lb stick of butter
- pinch, dash: about 1/16 and 1/8 of a teaspoon
When the chart isn't enough
Three situations where you need to go beyond raw equivalents. If the recipe has to be scaled up or down, convert everything to grams first, then apply the factor — the method is detailed in recipe for 4, need it for 12, and the site's portion scaler does it automatically. If you have neither a cup nor a scale, the common-object equivalents will get you through an undemanding recipe. And if a converted recipe fails despite correct numbers, the cause is almost always one of the most common baking conversion mistakes: packed flour, unpacked brown sugar, fl oz mistaken for oz.
Bookmark this page: it's updated alongside the converter, and the figures in both will always stay consistent with each other.