The short answer: 16 tablespoons
One US cup holds 16 US tablespoons. Since 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons, one cup is also48 teaspoons and 8 fluid ounces (236.588 ml). This is the figure nearly every online recipe means when it says "1 cup".
Fractions of a cup in tablespoons
| Amount | Tablespoons | Teaspoons | Millilitres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cup | 16 tbsp | 48 tsp | 236.588 ml |
| ¾ cup | 12 tbsp | 36 tsp | 177.441 ml |
| ⅔ cup | 10 tbsp + 2 tsp | 32 tsp | 157.725 ml |
| ½ cup | 8 tbsp | 24 tsp | 118.294 ml |
| ⅓ cup | 5 tbsp + 1 tsp | 16 tsp | 78.863 ml |
| ¼ cup | 4 tbsp | 12 tsp | 59.147 ml |
| 1 tablespoon | 1 tbsp | 3 tsp | 14.7868 ml |
US vs UK vs metric tablespoons
A US tablespoon is 14.7868 ml; a UK tablespoon is traditionally 15 ml — close enough that the two are interchangeable in cooking. The real outlier is the Australian tablespoon at 20 ml. Metric cups are 250 ml, so a metric cup is 250 ÷ 14.7868 ≈ 16.9 US tablespoons — call it 17 for rough work, but use the cups to tablespoons converter for exact figures.
Worked example
A recipe calls for ¾ cup of oil. That's 12 tablespoons — or, if you only have a teaspoon, 36 teaspoons. For a liquid, measuring in millilitres is easier: ¾ cup = 177.441 ml, via the cups to ml converter.
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