mL to Teaspoons Converter

A teaspoon is 4.93 mL in the US and 5 mL everywhere else — but the spoon in your drawer may hold anywhere from 2.5 to 7.

Conversion table

Volume	In teaspoons
0.5	0.10144 tsp
1	0.20288 tsp
1.5	0.30433 tsp
2	0.40577 tsp
2.5	0.50721 tsp
3	0.60865 tsp
4	0.81154 tsp
5	1.0144 tsp
6	1.2173 tsp
7	1.4202 tsp
8	1.6231 tsp
9	1.826 tsp
10	2.0288 tsp
12	2.4346 tsp
15	3.0433 tsp

💊 Doses and spoons

1 US teaspoon4.93 mL
1 metric teaspoon5 mL
Real kitchen teaspoons2.5 – 7 mL
1 tablespoon3 teaspoons

Measuring small volumes well

For medicine, use the syringe or cup that came with the bottle. A cutlery teaspoon is not a measuring device.
The US and metric teaspoons differ by 1.4%, far less than the error of levelling by eye — treat them as the same in cooking.
Level dry spoonfuls with a knife. A heaped teaspoon of baking powder can be double a level one, and that shows in the crumb.
The teaspoon is the one spoon Australia did not change, so Australian recipes are safest read in teaspoons.

The teaspoon that barely varies

The US teaspoon is defined as a sixth of a US fluid ounce, 4.92892 millilitres, while the metric teaspoon adopted across Europe, Latin America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia is a round 5 millilitres. The 1.4% gap between them is smaller than the error of scraping a spoon level, so in practice there is one teaspoon in the world. That is unusual: the tablespoon and the cup both split into rival sizes, and the teaspoon is the measure that survived metrication intact.

Why dosing by teaspoon goes wrong

The definition is stable; the object is not. Cutlery teaspoons measured in dosing studies hold anywhere from about 2.5 to 7 millilitres depending on the pattern, so 'one teaspoon' of syrup can mean half the intended dose or nearly a dose and a half. For a child dosed by weight, that margin matters, and errors of this kind are among the most common reported in paediatric medication. Regulators now ask manufacturers to ship a syringe or dosing cup with liquid medicines and to label doses in millilitres for exactly this reason. Convert the dose here if you need to understand a recipe or an old label — then measure it with the device, not with the drawer.

What a level teaspoon weighs

Water: 5 g. The one ingredient where millilitres and grams match.
Table salt: about 6 g, but flaky sea salt only 3–4 g for the same spoon.
Baking powder: about 4 g — the ingredient least tolerant of a heaped spoon.
Granulated sugar: about 4.2 g.
Ground cinnamon: about 2.6 g.
Instant dry yeast: about 3.1 g, so a 7 g sachet is roughly 2¼ teaspoons.

Small-measure equivalents

1 tsp = 4.93 mL = ⅓ tbsp.
½ tsp = 2.5 mL, the commonest children's dose step.
¼ tsp = 1.25 mL.
3 tsp = 1 tbsp = 14.79 mL.
6 tsp = 1 fluid ounce = 29.6 mL.
48 tsp = 1 US cup = 236.6 mL.

Worked examples

From label to spoon

A 5 mL dose

5 ÷ 4.92892 = 1.014 US teaspoons
With a metric spoon: exactly 1
Best measured with the 5 mL mark on an oral syringe

5 mL = 1 teaspoon

7 mL of vanilla extract

7 ÷ 4.92892 = 1.42 teaspoons
That is 1 teaspoon plus a scant ½
Or 0.47 tablespoons if the larger spoon is handier

7 mL ≈ 1½ teaspoons

Frequently Asked Questions

How many mL in a teaspoon?

4.92892 mL for the US teaspoon and 5 mL for the metric one used almost everywhere else. The 1.4% difference is irrelevant in cooking, so 5 mL is the number worth remembering.

Is 5 mL exactly one teaspoon?

It is exactly one metric teaspoon and 1.4% more than a US one. Since no one measures a spoonful to better than a few percent, the two are interchangeable for any recipe.

How much is 2.5 mL in teaspoons?

Half a teaspoon. It is the most common step in children's medicine, and it is the reason dosing syringes are marked at 1.25, 2.5 and 5 mL rather than in spoon fractions.

Can I dose medicine with a kitchen teaspoon?

Not safely. Cutlery teaspoons in dosing studies held between roughly 2.5 and 7 mL, so the same instruction can deliver half a dose or half again too much. Use the syringe or cup supplied with the medicine.

How many teaspoons in a tablespoon?

Three, in the US and in metric countries alike. Australia is the exception with four, because its tablespoon is 20 mL while its teaspoon stayed at 5.

Is the Australian teaspoon different?

No. Australia standardised the teaspoon at 5 mL like everyone else and only enlarged the tablespoon to 20 mL. That is why reading Australian recipes in teaspoons avoids the mismatch entirely.