Tablespoons to Cups Converter

1. Tablespoons and cups in cooking
2. How many tablespoons are in a cup?
3. Converting between tbsp and cups
4. Tablespoons to cups conversion tables
• (US) Tablespoons to cups table
• (Imperial) Tablespoons to cups table

    Tablespoons and cups in cooking

Tablespoons may refer to one of two commonly encountered units of volume: the US tablespoon and the Imperial tablespoon, defined as follows. One (US) tablespoon is exactly 15 milliliters while an Imperial tablespoon is exactly 18 ml. These modern definitions stem from a 20-th century international agreement.

The most commonly used definition of a cup is the US legal cup defined as equal to 240 ml of volume. The Imperial cup may also be encountered in older cooking books and it equals 284 ml. Both of these units are also supported in our converter, just like it supports both UK/Imperial and US tablespoons.

It is easy to convert between tablespoons and cups since both are units of volume. One can go through the base definitions in ml, or use the information in the section below to perform the conversion. Our tbsp to cups converter makes using these units interchangeably a breeze when following a recipe.

    How many tablespoons are in a cup?

A cup contains exactly 16.231 tablespoons if both units are defined using the US convention. In the Imperial convention of both units a cup contains precisely 16 tablespoons.

    Converting between tbsp and cups

The conversion from tablespoons to cups is conveniently easy as both refer to volumes of things. Since both tbsp and cups measure volume, the calculation is a simple mathematical division.

8 tablespoons of water to cups

Sample task: convert eight tablespoons of water to cups, employing the US definitions of both units. Solution:

Formula:
tbsp / 16.231 = cups (US)
Calculation:
8 tbsp / 16.2310 = 0.492884 cups (US)
End result:
8 tbsp is equal to 0.492884 cups (US)

The above result is equivalent to half a cup.

12 tablespoons of flour to cups

Sample task: convert twelve tablespoons of flour to cups, using the UK / Imperial definitions. Solution:

Formula:
tbsp / 16 = cups (UK)
Calculation:
12 tbsp / 16 = 0.75 cups (UK)
End result:
12 tbsp is equal to 0.75 cups (UK)

This is ¾ of a cup.

    Tablespoons to cups conversion tables

See common amounts of ingredients in tablespoons and how many cups they equal.

(US) Tablespoons to cups table

The table presents often used quantities in US tablespoons and their corresponding values in US cups.

Please, note that there is some rounding applied to the measurements in cups since they do not align as perfectly.

(Imperial) Tablespoons to cups table

Below is a recipe conversion table containing both UK cups and UK tablespoons. No rounding is necessary as the units align well by design.