US Tablespoons to Metric Cups (tbsp to cup)
1 US tablespoon equals 0.05914705913 metric cups (rounded).
How to convert US tablespoons to metric cups
To convert US tablespoons to metric cups, multiply the number of US tablespoons by 0.05914705913. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply metric cups by 16.90701135 (rounded).
metric cups = US tablespoons × 0.05914705913
Example: 10 US tablespoons = 0.5914705913 metric cups.
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
US Tablespoon (tbsp)
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
Metric Cup (cup)
Exactly 250 mL. The cup used in Australia, New Zealand and most Commonwealth recipes.
A metric cup is a cup tamed by decimal thinking. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and some other former British colonies that metricated use a round 250 milliliters, exactly a quarter of a liter. Canada's older cup had been eight imperial fluid ounces, about 227.3 mL, so the metric version is noticeably larger, and Canadian recipes now usually use the 250 mL cup.
The metric cup is not an SI unit, only a practical convention, and it differs from the US cups in useful ways. It is about 6 percent larger than the US customary cup at 236.6 mL and about 4 percent larger than the 240 mL US label cup. Its arithmetic is simple: four cups make a liter, and a cup holds 50 metric teaspoons or 16 and two thirds tablespoons of 15 mL. Many recipes outside the US skip cups entirely and give dry ingredients in grams, because volume is a rough proxy for flour.
1 metric cup = 0.25 liters (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Metric cup; Wikipedia: Cup (unit)
Related conversions
- Metric cups to US tablespoons (reverse)
- US tablespoons to liters
- US tablespoons to milliliters
- US tablespoons to US gallons
- US tablespoons to US cups
- US tablespoons to US fluid ounces
- US tablespoons to cubic meters
- US tablespoons to cubic centimeters
- US tablespoons to US quarts
- US tablespoons to US pints
- US tablespoons to US teaspoons
- US tablespoons to metric tablespoons
- US tablespoons to metric teaspoons
- Liters to metric cups
- Milliliters to metric cups
- US gallons to metric cups
- US cups to metric cups
- US fluid ounces to metric cups
- Cubic meters to metric cups
- Cubic centimeters to metric cups
- US quarts to metric cups
- US pints to metric cups
- US teaspoons to metric cups
- Metric tablespoons to metric cups
- Metric teaspoons to metric cups
See all volume units.