Convert Cups to Tablespoons

About converting Cups to Tablespoons

Cups (cup) and Tablespoons (tbsp) are both units of volume, so converting between them is a single multiplication: multiply your Cups figure by 16. Ten Cups comes to 160 Tablespoons, and a hundred works out at 1,600 Tablespoons.

Rule of thumb: going from Cups to Tablespoons multiplies, so the figure always grows — one Cup is already 16 Tablespoons. If your answer came out smaller, you have the conversion the wrong way round.

What is a Cup?

The cup is a cooking unit and nothing else — no scientific or trade use — and it is dangerously ambiguous. The US customary cup in recipes is about 237 mL, the metric cup used in Australia and much of Europe is exactly 250 mL, and the US legal cup that nutrition labels are calculated against is 240 mL, different again from the one in the cookbook. Recipes almost never say which they mean. The problem compounds for dry goods, since a cup measures volume while baking actually depends on mass: how hard you pack the flour changes the answer.

What is a Tablespoon?

A tablespoon in US cooking is three teaspoons, or half a US fluid ounce — a definition tidy enough that the whole kitchen spoon system hangs off it. The trap is international: the Australian tablespoon is 20 mL, four teaspoons rather than three, so an Australian recipe followed with an American spoon falls short on every tablespoon it calls for. It is also worth knowing that a tablespoon as a measure has nothing to do with whatever spoon is in your cutlery drawer. The sets sold for cooking are calibrated; the ones you eat with are not.

To put both in perspective: a cup is the measure American recipes count flour in, while a tablespoon is roughly a generous spoonful of olive oil.

The converter above updates as you type, and the table lists common values for quick reference. Need the opposite direction? Use the Tablespoons to Cups converter, or browse all Volume converters.