Tablespoons to Cups Converter

How to convert tablespoons to cups

1 tablespoon = 0.0625 cups. To convert tablespoons to cups, divide by 16 (or multiply by 0.0625). A US tablespoon is half a fluid ounce, about 14.79 ml (3 teaspoons). A US customary cup is 8 US fluid ounces, about 236.6 ml (nutrition labels use a rounded 240 ml).

Worked examples

• 4 tablespoons = 0.25 cup (4 ÷ 16)
• 8 tablespoons = 0.5 cup (8 ÷ 16)
• 12 tablespoons = 0.75 cup (12 ÷ 16)

Where this conversion comes up

Tablespoons are used for recipes, cooking oil and medicine; cups for US recipes and nutrition labels. A US cup is exactly 16 tablespoons, so 4 tbsp is 1/4 cup and 8 tbsp is 1/2 cup (one stick of butter).

Quick estimate

Divide by 16.

Common mistakes

• Multiplying instead of dividing. A cup is larger than a tablespoon, so the number of cups must come out smaller: 4 tablespoons = 0.25 cup.
• Mixing fluid ounces with weight ounces. A fluid ounce is a volume (29.57 ml); an ounce on a kitchen scale is a weight (28.35 g). A cup of flour is 8 fl oz by volume but only about 4.25 oz by weight.
• Rounding too early. Keep the full factor until the last step; rounding 0.0625 to 0.06 first puts large values noticeably off.

Going the other way? Use the cups to tablespoons converter. Related volume converters: ml to oz, oz to ml, liters to gallons, gallons to liters, liters to quarts, quarts to liters.