Need an instant calculation for how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon? Want to convert tablespoons to cups? Want to scale up or down a recipe? Here is the ultimate measurement tool and conversion chart to make cooking a breeze!
Knowing how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon is essential for cooking and working with recipes.
Teaspoons and tablespoons are units of measurements. They are most often used when working with smaller amounts of ingredients, like spices, baking agents, salt, and extracts.
Understanding the difference between the two and how to scale up and down recipes using them both will come in handy, especially if you don’t have access to measuring cups or a kitchen scale.
How Many teaspoons in a tablespoon?
A tablespoon contains 3 teaspoons.
Remembering this simple conversion will make it easy for you to adjust ingredients in your recipes as per your taste and recipe’s requirement.
However, this only applies to the imperial measurement system. If the recipe you are following uses the metric system, the conversion with be a little different. In the metric system, a teaspoon is equal to 5 ml, and a tablespoon is 20 ml.
Imperial system: 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon (15 ml).
Metric system: 4 teaspoons in a tablespoon (20 ml).
Imperial Dry Measurements Conversions Chart
For many recipes, you’ll have to add dry ingredients, such as baking powder, flour, etc. To measure dry ingredients, you’ll need tablespoons and teaspoons. You’ll also often need cups, which is a bigger measurement tool than teaspoons and tablespoons.
If you don’t have a measuring cup on hand, you can easily make these recipes using tablespoons and teaspoons. An understanding of converting tablespoons and teaspoons to cups will come in very handy.
Using the calculation that a tablespoon has 3 teaspoons will convert to a cup being 16 tablespoons OR 48 teaspoons.
One cup = 16 tablespoons OR 48 teaspoons.
The chart below shows the dry measurement conversions.
| Cup |
Tablespoon (tbsp) |
Teaspoon (tsp) |
| 1 cup | 16 tablespoons |
48 tsp |
| 3/4 cup | 12 tablespoons |
36 tsp |
| 2/3 cup | 10 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons |
32 tsp |
| 1/2 cup | 8 tablespoons |
24 tsp |
| 3/8 cup | 6 tablespoons |
18 tsp |
| 1/3 cup | 5 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon |
16 tsp |
| 1/4 cup | 4 tablespoons |
12 tsp |
| 1/6 cup | 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons |
8 tsp |
| 1/8 cup | 2 tablespoons |
6 tsp |
| 1/16 cup | 1 tablespoon |
3 tsp |
Tips for Remembering Dry Measurements
Here are some useful tips for remembering dry measurement conversions:
For tablespoons to teaspoons
As mentioned earlier, 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons, which makes 1 teaspoon = 1/3 tablespoon.
If you want to tablespoon to a teaspoon, simply multiply the number of tablespoons by 3, and you’ll get the answer in teaspoons. Similarly, to get an answer in teaspoons, divide the tablespoons by 3 to get a measurement in tablespoons.
For cups to tablespoons
One cup contains 16 tablespoons. To know how many tablespoons you’ll need, multiply the number of cups used in the recipe by 16.
How many tablespoons are in a teaspoon?
As a tablespoon is greater than a teaspoon, one teaspoon would equal 1/3 of a tablespoon.
How many teaspoons in a half a tablespoon?
There are 1 1/2 teaspoons in half a tablespoon, or 7.5 ml.
How many tablespoons are in a 1/4 cup?
There are 4 tablespoons in a 1/4 cup.
More cooking resources
- How many ounces in a cup
- How many grams in an ounce
- Best egg substitutes
- How many tablespoons in a cup
- How many grams in a cup
Frequently Asked Questions
There are 4 teaspoons in a UK tablespoon.
In Australia, one tablespoon is equal to four teaspoons.
No, 2 tsp makes 2/3 of a tbsp. There are 3 tsp in 1 tbsp.
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