Metric Tablespoons to US Teaspoons (tbsp to tsp)

1 metric tablespoon equals 3.043262043 US teaspoons (rounded).

1 metric tablespoon = 3.043262043 US teaspoons

How to convert metric tablespoons to US teaspoons

To convert metric tablespoons to US teaspoons, multiply the number of metric tablespoons by 3.043262043. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply US teaspoons by 0.3285947729 (rounded).

US teaspoons = metric tablespoons × 3.043262043

Example: 10 metric tablespoons = 30.43262043 US teaspoons.

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

US Teaspoon (tsp)

US customaryCurrent unit

One sixth of a US fluid ounce, exactly 4.92892159375 mL. Commonly rounded to 5 mL in recipes.

Teaspoons arrived with tea. Small spoons were common in Europe from at least the 13th century, and the earliest cited mention of a teaspoon is a London Gazette advertisement from 27 December 1686. Britain's Commutation Act of 1784 cut the tea tax from 119 percent to 12.5 percent, tea became cheap, and cups and spoons grew with it. By the 1850s the culinary teaspoon had settled as one third of a tablespoon.

The US teaspoon is one sixth of a US fluid ounce, exactly 4.92892159375 milliliters, though for nutrition labels and medicine it is rounded to 5 mL. Apothecaries once called the small spoon cochleare minus, to distinguish it from the larger cochleare majus. Household spoons are poor measuring tools: one study of 71 kitchen teaspoons found volumes from 2.5 to 7.3 milliliters, which is why dosing instructions point to standard measuring spoons or syringes.

1 US teaspoon = 0.004928921594 liters (approximately).

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

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