Free Cooking Unit Converter

Convert between cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, fluid ounces, milliliters, grams, ounces, and pounds. Includes density-aware conversion for flour, sugar, butter, milk, honey, and oil.

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What is this calculator for?

You're following a British baking blog calling for 200g flour, 100ml milk, and a "moderate oven" — but your scale only shows ounces, your measuring cup is in cups, and "moderate" doesn't translate to your digital oven dial. The cooking converter handles the specific conversions cooks actually need: weight-to-volume for common ingredients, US-UK-metric volume, US butter sticks to grams, oven temperature descriptions to actual Fahrenheit/Celsius.

Cooking conversion is more complex than general unit conversion because of ingredient density. 1 cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 125g; 1 cup of sugar weighs about 200g; 1 cup of butter weighs 227g. The same cup measure produces very different weights depending on what's in it. Professional baking measures by weight (precise across all ingredients); home cooking measures by volume (convenient but variable). Conversion requires knowing the density of each ingredient.

This calculator handles common conversions across ingredients: flour, sugar (granulated/brown/powdered), butter (sticks/tbsp/grams), oils, milk/cream, eggs (sizes vary), oven temperatures (descriptions to F/C), and the standard US-UK-metric volume system.

How to use this calculator

Pick the category: ingredient weight↔volume, oven temperature, US↔UK measures, or general baking units (sticks of butter, packages of yeast, eggs by size).

Enter the known measurement. For ingredient conversions, specify which ingredient — flour vs sugar vs butter all have different density. For oven temperatures, you can enter description (gas mark, slow, moderate, hot) and get F/C, or vice versa.

The calculator returns equivalents. For ingredient conversions, the output reflects typical home-cooking density; professional bakers may have slightly different reference densities. For best accuracy in baking: weigh everything in grams using a kitchen scale; even a basic digital scale ($15-30) eliminates conversion errors and produces more consistent results than volume-based measuring.

Understanding your results

The calculator returns ingredient-specific conversions, oven temperature equivalents, and standard volume conversions.

Common reference conversions: 1 cup all-purpose flour = 125g. 1 cup whole wheat flour = 113g. 1 cup granulated sugar = 200g. 1 cup brown sugar (packed) = 220g. 1 cup powdered sugar = 120g. 1 stick US butter = 8 tablespoons = 113g. 1 cup oil = 218g (depends on oil type slightly). 1 cup milk = 245g. 1 cup honey = 340g. 1 large US egg = ~50g (without shell, 33g white + 17g yolk).

UK vs US volume. UK pint = 568ml (20 UK fl oz). US pint = 473ml (16 US fl oz). UK fl oz = 28.41ml; US fl oz = 29.57ml. The difference matters in baking: a UK "pint of milk" is 568ml, not 473ml — using US 473ml will leave a UK recipe under-hydrated. UK tablespoon = 17.7ml; US tablespoon = 14.8ml — UK tablespoons are 20% larger. UK teaspoon = 5.9ml; US teaspoon = 4.93ml.

Oven temperature equivalents:

Very slow / "low" = gas mark 1 = 275°F = 135°C.

Slow / "moderate low" = gas mark 2-3 = 300-325°F = 150-160°C.

Moderate / "moderate" = gas mark 4 = 350°F = 175-180°C.

Moderately hot = gas mark 5-6 = 375-400°F = 190-200°C.

Hot = gas mark 7-8 = 425-450°F = 220-230°C.

Very hot = gas mark 9 = 475°F = 245°C.

The egg-size question. US eggs sized: small (38g), medium (44g), large (50g), extra-large (57g), jumbo (63g). UK eggs sized: small (53g), medium (58g), large (68g). "1 egg" in a US recipe means a US large (50g); in a UK recipe means UK medium (58g) or large (68g) — different! When scaling internationally, double-check which size system the recipe uses; a US recipe with 3 eggs (150g total) requires only 2 UK large eggs (136g total — close but not exact).

A worked example

Aisha is making a British biscuit recipe (which means "cookies" in American English). The recipe calls for: 250g flour, 175g sugar, 1 stick of butter (UK = 250g), 1 large egg, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla. Oven: 180°C, 12-15 minutes.

Conversions for US kitchen:

250g flour = 2 US cups (using 125g per cup density). Or by weight on scale: 250g, no conversion needed.

175g sugar = 3/4 cup + 1.5 tablespoons (using 200g per cup density). Easier: weigh 175g on scale.

1 UK stick butter (250g) = 2.2 US sticks butter (since US stick = 113g). Use 2 sticks + 1.5 tablespoons of a 3rd stick.

1 UK large egg (68g) vs US large (50g): use 1 US large + a splash of beaten white from a second egg (or accept the smaller size — for cookies the difference is small).

180°C oven = 350°F + a touch (more precisely 356°F). Set oven to 350°F.

The cookie recipe works. Total prep time including conversions: 5 extra minutes. Total cost of having a kitchen scale ($20-40) vs not: the scale is worth its weight in saved conversion errors and consistency across recipes.

Variation: same recipe scaled by ingredients, no scale. 250g flour at "2 cups" — but cup measurements are affected by how packed the flour is. Scooped tightly: 1 cup = 140g (so 250g = 1.78 cups). Spooned loosely: 1 cup = 110g (so 250g = 2.27 cups). The "2 cups" approximation is correct on average but can be off by 10%+ depending on technique. For baking, where ratios matter, this is the difference between a great cookie and a mediocre one. Weight (with a scale) eliminates the variability; serious bakers all use scales.

Related resources

For oven temperature specifically, see Cooking Temperature Converter. For general unit conversions, the Unit Converter. For specific volume conversions across systems, the Unit Converter handles fluid ounce / ml / cup math. The King Arthur Flour ingredient weight chart is the most-cited US baking reference for gram-to-cup densities; BBC Good Food publishes UK conversion charts.

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Frequently asked questions

How many grams in a cup of flour?

One US cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 120 g (4.25 oz) when scooped and leveled correctly. Spooning flour into the cup (instead of scooping with the cup) gives a more accurate weight — direct scooping packs flour and can land between 130 and 150 g. King Arthur and most American baking blogs standardize on 120 g/cup; Cook's Illustrated uses 142 g/cup.

Is a UK tablespoon the same as a US tablespoon?

No. A US tablespoon is 14.79 mL (3 US teaspoons). A UK / Imperial tablespoon is 17.76 mL (the same as the Imperial fluid ounce divided by 1.6). An Australian tablespoon is 20 mL — even more different. For small quantities like baking-powder, the difference can throw off chemistry. Use a kitchen scale or convert through a known mL value when adapting recipes between countries.

How can I measure flour without a scale?

Use the spoon-and-level method: stir the flour in its container to aerate it, spoon it lightly into a dry measuring cup until heaping, then level the top with the flat side of a knife — never tap the cup or pack the flour. This lands within ±5 g of the standard 120 g/cup. For higher precision, a $15 digital scale pays for itself the first time it saves a batch of cookies.

How many cups in a stick of butter?

Half a cup. 1 US stick of butter = 1/2 cup = 8 tablespoons = 113g = 4 oz. Two sticks = 1 cup = 16 tablespoons = 227g = 8 oz. The stick is sold pre-marked with tablespoon-level lines, making it easy to cut precise amounts without measuring. UK butter is typically sold in 250g packs (not sticks); a US recipe calling for '1 stick' is 113g — about half a typical UK pack. Recipes from European or international sources usually specify butter in grams to avoid the US-specific stick reference.

How do I convert grams to cups for baking?

Depends on the ingredient. There's no universal grams-to-cups conversion because density varies. Flour: 1 cup = 125g (all-purpose). Sugar (granulated): 1 cup = 200g. Sugar (brown packed): 1 cup = 220g. Sugar (powdered): 1 cup = 120g. Butter: 1 cup = 227g. Honey: 1 cup = 340g. Oats: 1 cup = 90g. Cocoa powder: 1 cup = 100g. Heavy cream: 1 cup = 240g. Always use ingredient-specific conversions; using a generic conversion factor produces inconsistent results. Best practice: get a $20 kitchen scale and weigh everything.

What temperature is 'medium' or 'moderate' oven?

350°F (175°C). The traditional baking descriptors: very slow 250-275°F (120-135°C); slow 300-325°F (150-160°C); moderate 350°F (175°C); moderately hot 375-400°F (190-200°C); hot 425-450°F (220-230°C); very hot 475-500°F (245-260°C). UK gas marks: gas mark 1 = ~275°F; gas mark 4 = ~350°F; gas mark 7 = ~425°F (each step ~25°F). Modern recipes typically specify the actual temperature; vintage cookbooks and some British recipes use descriptive terms or gas marks.

Why does 1 cup of flour weigh different amounts in different recipes?

Measurement technique. Spooning flour loosely into a cup yields ~110-125g. Scooping the cup directly into the bag (packing the flour) yields 140-160g — up to 40% more flour for the same 'cup.' Different recipe authors use different conventions: King Arthur uses 120g/cup; Joy of Cooking uses 125g/cup; some older cookbooks use 140g/cup. This is one of the biggest sources of baking failure for US home cooks — recipes don't always specify the measuring technique, leading to inconsistent results. The fix: use a scale and follow gram measurements when available; aerate flour and use 'scoop and level' technique when measuring by volume.

Are US and UK teaspoons the same?

Close but not identical. US teaspoon = 4.93ml. UK teaspoon = 5.9ml — about 20% larger. US tablespoon = 14.8ml. UK tablespoon = 17.7ml. Australian tablespoon = 20ml (unique). For most cooking the small difference doesn't matter; for baking (where exact ratios affect rise and texture), the difference can be noticeable. UK recipes typically specify '1 tsp' meaning UK teaspoon (5.9ml); US recipes mean US (4.93ml). When converting UK to US: use 1 1/4 US teaspoons for each UK teaspoon for closest match. For most home cooking: the difference rounds away and isn't worth obsessing about.

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