US Tablespoons to US Cups (tbsp to cup)
1 US tablespoon equals 0.0625 US cups exactly.
How to convert US tablespoons to US cups
To convert US tablespoons to US cups, multiply the number of US tablespoons by 0.0625. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply US cups by 16.
US cups = US tablespoons × 0.0625
Example: 10 US tablespoons = 0.625 US 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
US Cup (cup)
One sixteenth of a US gallon, 236.588 mL (8 US fluid ounces). The standard US recipe cup.
Cups began as household drinking vessels, not scientific units, which is why they remain the messiest measures in the kitchen. The US customary cup was defined by slicing up the gallon: half a pint, or eight US fluid ounces, about 236.6 milliliters. Unlike the larger units, nobody ever fixed it to a physical vessel, so it exists only as a fraction of the gallon.
The customary cup is not the only American cup. For nutrition labels, US regulation defines a cup as exactly 240 milliliters, a rounder figure that sits slightly above the customary size. Packaged foods therefore list a serving in the legal cup while a measuring cup from the hardware store follows the customary definition. The gap is 3.4 milliliters, which hardly matters for soup but can matter in baking. Cup measures also hide the weight of dry ingredients, since a cup of sifted flour and a cup of packed flour differ substantially, which is why much of the world prefers grams.
1 US cup = 0.2365882365 liters (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Cup (unit); NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8: conversion factors for volume; 21 CFR 101.9: nutrition labeling household measures
Related conversions
- US cups to US tablespoons (reverse)
- US tablespoons to liters
- US tablespoons to milliliters
- US tablespoons to US gallons
- 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 cups
- US tablespoons to metric tablespoons
- US tablespoons to metric teaspoons
- Liters to US cups
- Milliliters to US cups
- US gallons to US cups
- US fluid ounces to US cups
- Cubic meters to US cups
- Cubic centimeters to US cups
- US quarts to US cups
- US pints to US cups
- US teaspoons to US cups
- Metric cups to US cups
- Metric tablespoons to US cups
- Metric teaspoons to US cups
See all volume units.