Tablespoons to Cups Converter

Sixteen tablespoons make a cup exactly — the halves are easy, the thirds are where recipes go wrong.

Conversion table

Tablespoons	In cups
0.5	0.03125 cups
1	0.0625 cups
1.5	0.09375 cups
2	0.125 cups
2.5	0.15625 cups
3	0.1875 cups
4	0.25 cups
5	0.3125 cups
6	0.375 cups
7	0.4375 cups
8	0.5 cups
9	0.5625 cups
10	0.625 cups
12	0.75 cups
15	0.9375 cups

🍰 Cup fractions in spoons

¼ cup4 tbsp
⅓ cup5 tbsp + 1 tsp
½ cup8 tbsp
⅔ cup10 tbsp + 2 tsp

Scaling recipes with spoons

Counting tablespoons beats guessing a cup fraction: measuring ⅓ of a cup by eye is far less accurate than counting five spoons and a teaspoon.
Halving a recipe that calls for ⅓ cup gives 2 tbsp + 2 tsp — one of the few conversions worth writing on the recipe itself.
Level every spoonful. Sixteen heaped tablespoons of flour can overfill a cup by half again.
This page uses the 14.79 mL US tablespoon. With an Australian 20 mL spoon a cup is only 11.8 tablespoons.

Sixteen, and why it is exact

The US cup is defined as eight fluid ounces and the tablespoon as half a fluid ounce, so a cup holds exactly sixteen tablespoons — 16 × 14.7868 mL = 236.588 mL. Nothing is rounded away in that chain, which is what makes spoon counting a legitimate way to measure a cup rather than an approximation. The clean halvings follow immediately: eight tablespoons for a half cup, four for a quarter, two for an eighth, and a single tablespoon for a sixteenth.

Where the thirds break down

Sixteen divides cleanly by two and four but not by three, so a third of a cup is 5.33 tablespoons and two thirds is 10.67. Since no one owns a third of a spoon, the practical answers are 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon, and 10 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons — both exact, because a tablespoon is three teaspoons and 16 teaspoons divide evenly by three the way 16 tablespoons do not. This is the conversion people actually need when halving a recipe: half of a third of a cup is 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons.

Halving and doubling common amounts

Half of ¼ cup = 2 tbsp.
Half of ⅓ cup = 2 tbsp + 2 tsp.
Half of ½ cup = 4 tbsp.
Half of ⅔ cup = 5 tbsp + 1 tsp.
Half of ¾ cup = 6 tbsp.
Double ⅓ cup = 10 tbsp + 2 tsp, not 11.

The full ladder

1 tbsp = 3 tsp = 14.79 mL = ½ fl oz.
2 tbsp = ⅛ cup = 29.6 mL = 1 fl oz.
4 tbsp = ¼ cup = 59 mL.
8 tbsp = ½ cup = 118 mL.
12 tbsp = ¾ cup = 177 mL.
16 tbsp = 1 cup = 236.6 mL = 8 fl oz.

Worked examples

Counting spoons into cups

12 tablespoons of butter

12 ÷ 16 = 0.75 cups
12 × 14.7868 = 177 mL
American butter sticks are 8 tbsp each, so this is 1½ sticks

12 tbsp = ¾ cup

Measuring ⅓ cup with spoons

⅓ × 16 = 5.33 tablespoons
0.33 tbsp × 3 = 1 teaspoon
So 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon

⅓ cup = 5 tbsp + 1 tsp

Frequently Asked Questions

How many tablespoons are in a cup?

Sixteen, exactly. The cup is eight fluid ounces and a tablespoon is half a fluid ounce, so the ratio comes straight from the definitions with nothing rounded.

How many tablespoons in a third of a cup?

5.33, which in practice means 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon. Sixteen does not divide by three, which is why this is the one cup fraction that cannot be counted in whole spoons.

How many tablespoons in half a cup?

Eight, and in a quarter cup, four. These halvings stay whole all the way down: two tablespoons make an eighth of a cup and one makes a sixteenth.

How do I halve a recipe that uses ⅓ cup?

Use 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons. Half of 5.33 tablespoons is 2.67, and two thirds of a tablespoon is exactly two teaspoons, so the answer is precise rather than approximate.

Does this work with an Australian tablespoon?

No. The Australian tablespoon holds 20 mL, so a 236.6 mL cup takes only 11.8 of them. This page uses the US tablespoon of 14.79 mL, which is what recipes quoting cups almost always mean.

Is a cup of butter 16 tablespoons?

Yes, by volume, and American butter is packaged to match: each stick is 8 tablespoons, so two sticks make a cup and the wrapper is printed with the tablespoon marks to cut against.