Metric Teaspoons to US Tablespoons (tsp to tbsp)

1 metric teaspoon equals 0.338140227 US tablespoons (rounded).

1 metric teaspoon = 0.338140227 US tablespoons

How to convert metric teaspoons to US tablespoons

To convert metric teaspoons to US tablespoons, multiply the number of metric teaspoons by 0.338140227. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply US tablespoons by 2.957352956 (rounded).

US tablespoons = metric teaspoons × 0.338140227

Example: 10 metric teaspoons = 3.38140227 US tablespoons.

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 Teaspoon (tsp)

Cooking & barCurrent unit

Exactly 5 mL, used in most countries.

Five milliliters is the metric teaspoon, a figure so tidy that it has become the working definition for medicine and food labels. The traditional British teaspoon was an imperial fluid drachm, one eighth of an imperial fluid ounce, about 3.55 milliliters, and the American one was 4.93 mL. US nutrition labeling law now defines a teaspoon as exactly 5 milliliters.

The 5 mL teaspoon matters most when dosing medicine. Kitchen spoons vary widely, with one Greek survey of 71 household teaspoons finding volumes from 2.5 to 7.3 mL, so measuring spoons, syringes and calibrated cups are the safer tools. It also anchors the metric cooking system: three teaspoons make a 15 mL tablespoon, and fifty fit in a 250 mL metric cup. Australia keeps a 5 mL teaspoon but counts four of them in its larger 20 mL tablespoon.

1 metric teaspoon = 0.005 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Teaspoon; 21 CFR 101.9: nutrition labeling household measures; Wikipedia: Metric cup

US Tablespoon (tbsp)

US customaryCurrent unit

Half a US fluid ounce (14.787 mL), equal to 3 teaspoons.

A tablespoon was once a spoon first and a unit second. Tablespoons entered place settings around 1700, first reserved for soup, and in the 18th century apothecaries used an unofficial tablespoon of four fluid drams, or half a fluid ounce. That is the origin of the modern US definition, which turns the spoon into precisely half a US fluid ounce.

The US tablespoon is therefore 14.7868 milliliters, equal to three US teaspoons, and sixteen of them make a US customary cup. It is often treated as 15 mL, and American nutrition labels define a tablespoon as exactly 15 mL, so the two figures sit within about 1.4 percent of each other. The regional difference that matters is Australia, which uses a larger 20 milliliter tablespoon, so a recipe asking for a tablespoon of oil or baking powder can go wrong when translated across the Pacific.

1 US tablespoon = 0.01478676478 liters (approximately).

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

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