Recipes mix cups, tablespoons, teaspoons and fluid ounces with metric millilitres and litres. All of these are volume units, so they convert exactly — this tool rebases any value through millilitres. The US relationships are clean whole numbers: 1 cup = 16 tbsp = 48 tsp = 8 fl oz and 1 tbsp = 3 tsp.
Reviewed: June 20, 2026 · Author: Naveen P N, Founder — AI Calculator · Verified against: US customary definitions (1 cup = 236.588 mL), recomputed in code.
How the conversion works
Each unit's volume in millilitres: cup = 236.588, tbsp = 14.7868, tsp = 4.92892, fl oz = 29.5735, mL = 1, L = 1000, pint = 473.176, quart = 946.353. Multiply by the from-value to land in millilitres, then divide by the to-value. Because these are pure volumes, the result is exact for any liquid — water, milk, oil or stock.
Worked examples
2 cups to millilitres:
250 mL back to cups:
3 tablespoons to teaspoons, and 1 litre to cups:
So a recipe asking for 2 cups of stock needs 473 mL, and a 250 mL measuring jug holds just over a cup. A litre of liquid is about 4¼ cups.
Frequently Asked Questions
1 US cup = 236.588 mL. So 2 cups = 473.18 mL and 250 mL ≈ 1.057 cups. (Australian metric cup is 250 mL.)
1 cup = 16 tbsp = 48 tsp = 8 fl oz, and 1 tbsp = 3 tsp — all exact in US measure.
× 3, since 1 tbsp = 3 tsp. So 3 tbsp = 9 tsp.
Not here — this is volume. Cups-to-grams needs the ingredient's density (flour ≠ sugar ≠ water).
US cup = 236.588 mL; metric cup = 250 mL. Small but it adds up. This tool uses the US cup.