Tablespoons to Fluid Ounces (tbsp to fl oz)
A US fluid ounce is exactly 2 US tablespoons, so this conversion is one halving: fluid ounces = tablespoons ÷ 2. Both units are definitions rather than measurements, because a US gallon is exactly 231 cubic inches and an inch is exactly 2.54 cm, which puts the tablespoon at exactly 14.78676478125 mL and the fluid ounce at exactly 29.5735295625 mL. That makes 1 tbsp exactly 0.5 fl oz, 3 tbsp 1.5 fl oz, 4 tbsp 2 fl oz and 16 tbsp 8 fl oz, which is one US cup. This page opens the converter on the Volume category with Tablespoon (US) in the From box and Fluid ounce (US) in the To box, whatever pair you converted last, and it answers while you type. Halving a decimal never starts a repeating digit, so the headline here comes out clean: 0.5, not the 0.166666666667 a teaspoon gives. Under the answer the same spoonful is listed in the volume units the converter treats as common: millilitres, litres, cubic metres, teaspoons, fluid ounces, cups, pints, quarts and gallons, with those last six in their US sizes. Those figures print to twelve significant digits, so the millilitre row reads 14.7867647812 for one tablespoon, a hair short of the exact 14.78676478125. The unit menus use British spellings, so Millilitre (mL) and Litre (L) are the milliliter and liter. The tablespoon here is the US customary one and it is the only tablespoon in the menu, so the 15 mL metric spoon and the 20 mL Australian one are worked out in the questions below, along with the imperial fluid ounce.
1 tbsp in every volume unit
Tablespoons in fluid ounces, teaspoons, millilitres and cups
Every figure is this converter's own output for that many US tablespoons. The fluid ounce, teaspoon and cup columns are exact, because halving, tripling and dividing by 16 all terminate. Millilitres are the one rounded column, shown to two decimal places: one tablespoon is exactly 14.78676478125 mL.
| Tablespoons (US) | Fluid ounces (US) | Teaspoons (US) | Millilitres | Cups (US) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.25 tbsp | 0.125 | 0.75 | 3.70 | 0.015625 |
| 0.5 tbsp | 0.25 | 1.5 | 7.39 | 0.03125 |
| 0.75 tbsp | 0.375 | 2.25 | 11.09 | 0.046875 |
| 1 tbsp | 0.5 | 3 | 14.79 | 0.0625 |
| 1.5 tbsp | 0.75 | 4.5 | 22.18 | 0.09375 |
| 2 tbsp | 1 | 6 | 29.57 | 0.125 |
| 3 tbsp | 1.5 | 9 | 44.36 | 0.1875 |
| 4 tbsp | 2 | 12 | 59.15 | 0.25 |
| 5 tbsp | 2.5 | 15 | 73.93 | 0.3125 |
| 6 tbsp | 3 | 18 | 88.72 | 0.375 |
| 8 tbsp | 4 | 24 | 118.29 | 0.5 |
| 10 tbsp | 5 | 30 | 147.87 | 0.625 |
| 12 tbsp | 6 | 36 | 177.44 | 0.75 |
| 16 tbsp | 8 | 48 | 236.59 | 1 |
| 20 tbsp | 10 | 60 | 295.74 | 1.25 |
| 24 tbsp | 12 | 72 | 354.88 | 1.5 |
| 32 tbsp | 16 | 96 | 473.18 | 2 |
| 48 tbsp | 24 | 144 | 709.76 | 3 |
| 64 tbsp | 32 | 192 | 946.35 | 4 |
Common questions
- How many fluid ounces is 1 tablespoon?
- Half of one exactly: 0.5 fl oz, and the converter prints a clean 0.5 rather than a run of decimals. The amounts asked for next most often: half a tablespoon is 0.25 fl oz, 1.5 tbsp is 0.75 fl oz, 2 tbsp is exactly 1 fl oz, 3 tbsp is 1.5 fl oz, 4 tbsp is 2 fl oz, 6 tbsp is 3 fl oz, 8 tbsp is 4 fl oz, 12 tbsp is 6 fl oz and 16 tbsp is 8 fl oz. Type any of them into the From box and the headline changes without pressing anything.
- How many tablespoons are in a fluid ounce?
- Two exactly, in US measure. Half a fluid ounce is 1 tbsp, 2 fl oz is 4 tbsp, 4 fl oz is 8 tbsp, and 8 fl oz, which is one US cup, is 16 tbsp. The Swap units button between the two boxes turns this page into a fluid ounces to tablespoons converter without reloading it, and the list under the answer then reads the other way too, with the tablespoon row among the units it prints.
- Is this the US tablespoon, the metric one or the Australian one?
- The US customary tablespoon, which the unit menu names Tablespoon (US) and which is exactly 14.78676478125 mL, half a US fluid ounce and 3 US teaspoons. It is the only tablespoon in this converter. The measuring spoon sold in the UK, Canada and New Zealand is the metric tablespoon of exactly 15 mL, about 1.4 percent larger, and the Australian tablespoon is 20 mL, a third larger again because it counts four metric teaspoons rather than three. Neither is a separate unit here, so convert one by typing its millilitres instead: 15 mL is 0.507210340528 US fl oz and 20 mL is 0.676280454037 US fl oz.
- Does an imperial fluid ounce change the answer?
- Yes, by about 4 percent. A US fluid ounce is 29.5735295625 mL against 28.4130625 mL for the imperial one, so measured against the imperial ounce a US tablespoon is 0.520421365393 fl oz rather than a clean 0.5, and 1 imperial fluid ounce is 1.92151988081 US tablespoons rather than 2. Both unit menus carry Fluid ounce (imperial) at all times, so you can select it in the To box; the converter counts it as uncommon, so it only joins the list under the answer once the switch marked Show 5 more is ticked.
- How many tablespoons make a cup, and what is a quarter cup?
- Sixteen to a US cup, because the cup is 8 fl oz and every tablespoon is half an ounce. Three quarters of a cup is 12 tbsp, two thirds is 10 tbsp and 2 tsp, half a cup is 8 tbsp, a third is 5 tbsp and 1 tsp, and a quarter cup is 4 tbsp, which the headline reads as 2 fl oz. The Cup (US) row sits in the list under every answer, so 6 tbsp shows as 0.375 cups there while the headline shows 3 fl oz.
- Is a fluid ounce the same as an ounce on the scale?
- No, and the converter keeps them apart: the fluid ounce lives in Volume and the ounce of weight in Mass, so it will not turn one into the other. A fluid ounce is 29.5735295625 mL of space, while an ounce of weight is 28.349523125 g. They only line up for something as dense as water, where 2 tablespoons weigh close to 29.6 g, about 4 percent more than an ounce on the scale. A tablespoon of flour and a tablespoon of honey weigh very different amounts, so spoonfuls into grams is a density question instead: the grams to cups tool asks which ingredient first, carries 92 of them, and prints tablespoons beside the cups.
- Is dividing by 2 exact, or is the answer rounded?
- The 2 is exact by definition rather than a rounded ratio. A US gallon is exactly 231 cubic inches, a fluid ounce is a 128th of that gallon and a tablespoon is half a fluid ounce, so a 256th of the gallon. The fluid ounce headline therefore needs no rounding at all: 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.5 tablespoons come out as 0.125, 0.25, 0.375 and 0.75 fl oz. Rounding only shows up in the other rows, which print to twelve significant digits, so 1 tbsp reads 14.7867647812 mL rather than the full 14.78676478125.
- How do I enter half a tablespoon or one and a half?
- As a decimal, not a fraction. The From box takes digits, one decimal point and an optional minus sign, so a typed 1/2 raises a message saying it is not a number instead of guessing at what you meant. Use 0.5, which is 0.25 fl oz; 0.25 tbsp is 0.125 fl oz, 0.75 tbsp is 0.375 fl oz and 1.5 tbsp is 0.75 fl oz. Thousands separators are the one extra character the field accepts, so 1,000 reads as a thousand. For an awkward fraction, the fraction calculator gives the decimal form beside the fraction.
- Why does the page open on tablespoons, and does anything leave my browser?
- This pair belongs to this page, so it opens on Tablespoon (US) into Fluid ounce (US) even when you last used the main converter on kilometres, and it leaves that remembered pair alone: only the amount you type and the uncommon-units switch carry between the two pages. The Start over button above the heading clears what is kept. Nothing is uploaded in either direction, because the conversion is one division against a table of factors that ships with the page, so it needs no account and keeps working with the network off. The Copy result button puts the headline on your clipboard without the thousands separators, ready to paste into a spreadsheet.
Conversion factors are the exact legal definitions where one exists. An inch is exactly 2.54 cm and a pound exactly 0.45359237 kg, so those conversions are exact rather than approximate. Temperature uses offsets rather than factors, and that is shown in the working.