Tablespoons to Milliliters

The US customary tablespoon is 14.79 mL, three teaspoons, and sixteen of them fill a cup. The UK, Canada, New Zealand and most of Europe use a metric tablespoon of 15 mL, which is so close to the US spoon that the difference rarely matters. Australia is the outlier: since the 1970s its standard tablespoon has been 20 mL, equal to four teaspoons.

That Australian spoon is a third larger than the others. Using a US spoon for an Australian recipe that calls for 2 tablespoons of baking powder or salt gives 30 mL instead of 40 mL, which shows in the result.

Oil, vinegar, soy sauce and syrup are measured by the spoon in many recipes, and converting to milliliters lets you scale a batch with a measuring jug: 8 tablespoons of oil is 118 mL, half a US cup. Butter is often given in tablespoons in the US, where one tablespoon of butter is about 14 g and a 4 oz stick has 8 tablespoons.

For liquid medicine, a household tablespoon is not a dosing device. Labels in the US and elsewhere now give doses in milliliters, and a 15 mL dose should be measured with the cup or oral syringe that comes with the product.

Level dry ingredients with a knife; a heaped tablespoon can hold half again as much. Sticky liquids such as honey cling to the spoon, so a light coat of oil helps them slide out. For volumes larger than about 4 tablespoons, a liquid measuring cup is quicker and more accurate.

For smaller spoons, see teaspoons to milliliters. Fluid ounces and cups are on the unit converter.