US, metric and Australian cups and spoons
"1 cup" and "1 tablespoon" don't mean the same amount everywhere. Most of the time the difference is small, but for some ingredients, and for big batches, it adds up.
Sizes at a glance
| Where | Cup | Tablespoon | Teaspoon | How sure we are |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 236.6 mL | 14.8 mL | 4.9 mL | Exact, from NIST definitions |
| Canada | 250 mL | 15 mL | — | A food-labelling regulation; home recipes may use US cups |
| Australia | 250 mL | 20 mL | 5 mL | Australian standard AS 1325, known to us from secondary sources only |
| New Zealand | 250 mL | 15 mL | 5 mL | Edmonds, a major NZ recipe publisher |
| United Kingdom | — | 15 mL | 5 mL | No UK standard found; common spoon sets |
US cups
A US cup is half a US pint: exactly 236.5882365 mL. A US tablespoon is 1/16 cup (about 14.8 mL) and a teaspoon is a third of a tablespoon (about 4.9 mL). US nutrition labels use a rounded 240 mL "cup", but that's a labelling rule, not a measuring cup.
Metric cups (Canada, Australia, New Zealand)
A metric cup is 250 mL, about 5.7% more than a US cup. For one cup of flour that's roughly 7 g. Across a recipe with several cups, or when you double it, the difference becomes noticeable.
The Australian tablespoon
An Australian tablespoon is 20 mL: four teaspoons, not three. That's a third more than a 15 mL tablespoon. It matters most for strong ingredients measured by the spoon, such as baking powder, salt and spices. If an Australian recipe says "1 tablespoon" and you use a 15 mL spoon, you'll use a quarter less than the author.
The UK
We couldn't find a UK standard for kitchen cups or spoons. UK measuring spoon sets are commonly 15 mL and 5 mL, so ScaleMyBake offers those as "metric" spoons. When a UK recipe gives weights, use them.
Fluid ounces
A US fluid ounce is about 29.6 mL; a UK (imperial) fluid ounce is about 28.4 mL. And neither is the same as an ounce of weight (28.35 g). ScaleMyBake keeps all three separate.
Which does my recipe use?
- Check where the recipe was written, and whether it mentions mL or grams anywhere.
- Recipes from Australian publishers usually mean the 20 mL tablespoon.
- If you can't tell, the difference between US and metric cups is small for most ingredients; the tablespoon difference matters more.
Both the recipe scaler and the cups to grams converter name the cup and spoon size on every amount.