Metric Tablespoons to Milliliters (tbsp to mL)

1 metric tablespoon equals 15 milliliters exactly.

1 metric tablespoon = 15 milliliters

How to convert metric tablespoons to milliliters

To convert metric tablespoons to milliliters, multiply the number of metric tablespoons by 15. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply milliliters by 0.06666666667 (rounded).

milliliters = metric tablespoons × 15

Example: 10 metric tablespoons = 150 milliliters.

Pints, quarts, gallons and fluid ounces differ between the US and the UK. Units are labeled 'US' or 'imperial' to avoid confusion.

About these units

Metric Tablespoon (tbsp)

Cooking & barCurrent unit

Exactly 15 mL, used in most countries.

Fifteen milliliters is the working size of the tablespoon in most of the world, and it is a rounded figure. Older customary values were about 14.8 mL for the US and about 14.2 mL for the UK, and modern UK and US measuring spoons are both treated as 15 mL in most contexts. The tablespoon itself dates to the early 1700s, when it first appeared in place settings for soup.

The 15 mL spoon is a staple in recipes everywhere. Three metric teaspoons make a tablespoon, and 16 and two thirds make a 250 mL metric cup. Australia is the notable exception, using a 20 milliliter tablespoon and counting four teaspoons to it, so a recipe from one country can taste off in another. Check which spoon a cook has in mind: scoops of oil, honey or baking powder amount to a third more in Australia.

1 metric tablespoon = 0.015 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Tablespoon; Wikipedia: Metric cup

Milliliter (mL)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One thousandth of a liter, or exactly 1 cubic centimeter. Used for medicine, cooking and small containers.

Milliliters inherit everything from the liter, since the prefix simply means one thousandth. Because the liter is a cubic decimeter, a milliliter works out to exactly one cubic centimeter, a coincidence the metric system built in on purpose so that volume, length and mass interlock. One milliliter of water has a mass of about one gram, so a dosing syringe, a kitchen scale and a measuring jug can all be checked against one another.

Today milliliters dominate wherever small amounts must be measured precisely: medicine, flavorings, perfume, shampoo and the fine print on drink labels. Spelling is a mild regional split, with uppercase mL preferred in the United States, Canada and Australia and lowercase ml common in the UK and Europe. For scale, a US teaspoon is just under 5 mL, a US tablespoon is about 14.8 mL, and the US nutrition-label cup is exactly 240 mL, so one such cup is 240 of these tiny units.

1 milliliter = 0.001 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Litre; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8: conversion factors for volume; 21 CFR 101.9: nutrition labeling household measures

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