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Cooking Unit Converter

Convert volumes and weights between US, metric, and imperial cooking units.

Written by Golam Rabbani, Founder & Lead Engineer

Unit kind:

How to use this cooking unit converter

  1. Choose Volume or Weight depending on what you need to convert.
  2. Pick the From and To units from the dropdowns — US, metric, and imperial are all in the same list.
  3. Type the value you want to convert.
  4. Use the swap (⇄) button to flip From and To without re-typing.
  5. Press Convert to see the result, then Copy to send it to your clipboard.

About this cooking unit converter

Recipes scatter across measurement systems: an American cup, a metric cup, an imperial pint, and an Australian tablespoon are all different sizes, and getting one wrong can ruin a bake. The cooking unit converter uses exact factors from NIST Special Publication 811 and the UK Weights & Measures Act so the math is reproducible: 1 US cup = 236.5882365 mL exactly, 1 metric cup = 250 mL, 1 imperial cup = 284.130625 mL, 1 ounce (avoirdupois) = 28.349523125 g exactly, 1 pound = 453.59237 g exactly. Whichever direction you convert, the factor is the same — just inverted.

Worked example: a UK recipe calls for 2 imperial pints of stock and you only have a US measuring jug. 2 × 568.26125 mL = 1136.5 mL, which is about 4.81 US cups (because 1 US cup = 236.59 mL). For a weight conversion, 8 oz of butter is 8 × 28.349523125 = 226.8 g — close enough to a standard 250 g block. The converter never rounds the underlying factor; what you see at the top is just the display rounding (up to four decimal places).

FAQ

Why are US, metric, and imperial cups different sizes?
They were standardised independently. US cup = 8 US fl oz ≈ 236.59 mL, metric cup = 250 mL (Australian / EU recipe convention), imperial cup ≈ 284.13 mL (10 imperial fl oz). Always match the cup type to the recipe's country of origin.
Are dry and liquid US cups different?
No. A US cup is a fixed volume (236.5882365 mL). The "dry vs liquid measuring cup" distinction is about which physical cup is easier to fill — the volume they measure is identical.
How accurate are the factors?
Exact. NIST SP 811 fixes 1 in = 2.54 cm exactly, 1 lb = 453.59237 g exactly, and the US/imperial cup definitions are derived from those. The tool stores those exact decimals in code.
Can I convert weight to volume?
Not directly — that depends on density. 100 g of flour and 100 g of honey occupy very different volumes. The tool keeps weight and volume separate to avoid that confusion.
Does it convert teaspoons and tablespoons?
Yes — US (1 tbsp = 14.787 mL), metric (1 tbsp = 15 mL), and imperial variants are all in the list. Same for teaspoons.
Is the converter free?
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser, never sends inputs over the network, and has no usage limit.