US vs UK vs Metric Cups Explained

Not every cup is the same size. If you bake from recipes written in other countries, the cup in the recipe may be slightly bigger or smaller than yours.

Cup sizes around the world

• US cup: about 236.6 ml (8 US fluid ounces). Nutrition labels in the US round it to 240 ml.
• Metric cup: 250 ml. Used in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and most modern metric recipes.
• Old UK imperial cup: about 284 ml (10 imperial fluid ounces). Rarely used in modern recipes, but you may see it in older cookbooks.

The difference between a US and a metric cup is only about 6 percent, which is fine for most cooking. It becomes noticeable in baking when the recipe has many cups of flour.

Spoons differ too

• A US tablespoon is about 14.8 ml, and a teaspoon about 4.9 ml.
• The UK and many metric recipes use 15 ml and 5 ml.
• An Australian tablespoon is 20 ml, so it is larger than most others.

For small amounts of salt, spices or baking powder, the Australian tablespoon is the one to watch. When in doubt, use the smaller measure and adjust to taste.

Fluid ounces and pints

A US fluid ounce is about 29.6 ml, an imperial fluid ounce about 28.4 ml. A US pint has 16 fluid ounces (473 ml), while an imperial pint has 20 (568 ml), which is why a British pint is larger than an American one.

The simplest solution

Convert to grams. Weight is the same everywhere, so a recipe in grams works in any kitchen. Use the cups to grams converter to translate cup-based recipes, and the volume converter for spoons and milliliters.