Tablespoons to Millilitres (tbsp to mL)

Common questions

How many mL is 1 tablespoon?

14.7867647812 mL as the converter prints it, exactly 14.78676478125 mL by definition, and 15 mL if you are working from a metric recipe that rounds. The amounts asked for next most often: half a tablespoon is 7.39338239062 mL, 1.5 tbsp is 22.1801471719 mL, 2 tbsp is exactly 29.5735295625 mL, 3 tbsp is 44.3602943437 mL, 4 tbsp is 59.147059125 mL, 6 tbsp is 88.7205886875 mL, 8 tbsp is 118.29411825 mL and 16 tbsp, one US cup, is 236.5882365 mL. Type any of them into the From box and the headline changes without pressing anything.

Is a tablespoon 15 mL or 14.79 mL?

Both, depending on whose spoon it is. This page converts the US customary tablespoon, which the menu names Tablespoon (US) and which is exactly 14.78676478125 mL, half a US fluid ounce and 3 US teaspoons. The measuring spoon sold in the UK, Canada and New Zealand is the metric tablespoon of exactly 15 mL, 1.44 percent larger. On one spoonful the gap is 0.21 mL, smaller than the error of levelling a spoon by hand. Over sixteen spoonfuls it is 3.41 mL, 240 mL against 236.59 mL, and over a hundred it is 21.3 mL, 1,500 mL against 1,478.68 mL, which is where a scaled batch starts to notice.

How do I convert mL back to tablespoons?

Divide by 14.78676478125, or press the Swap units button between the two boxes, which turns this page into a millilitres to tablespoons converter without reloading it. It then reads 5 mL as 0.338140227018 tbsp, 10 mL as 0.676280454037 tbsp, 15 mL as 1.01442068106 tbsp, 20 mL as 1.35256090807 tbsp, 30 mL as 2.02884136211 tbsp, 50 mL as 3.38140227018 tbsp, 100 mL as 6.76280454037 tbsp and 250 mL as 16.9070113509 tbsp. That 1.0144 is the same 1.44 percent from the other direction: a 15 mL spoon is just over one US tablespoon.

What about the Australian tablespoon?

It is 20 mL, four metric teaspoons rather than three, so it is a third larger than every other tablespoon and the one that genuinely changes a recipe. It is not a unit in this menu, so convert it as millilitres instead: swap the boxes and 20 mL reads 1.35256090807 US tablespoons, and 4 Australian spoons of 80 mL read 5.41024363229 of them. Going the other way is 14.79 mL out of 20 mL, so a US tablespoon is about 0.7393 of an Australian one. A metric teaspoon is 5 mL against the US teaspoon's 4.92892159375 mL, which is why the Australian spoon lands on 20 rather than 15.

What is the formula, and is the factor exact?

mL = tbsp × 14.78676478125 going this way, and tbsp = mL ÷ 14.78676478125 going back. The factor is exact by definition rather than a rounded ratio: a US gallon is exactly 231 cubic inches, an inch is exactly 2.54 cm, a fluid ounce is a 128th of that gallon, and a tablespoon is half a fluid ounce, a 256th of the gallon. The only rounding on this page is in the printing, which stops at twelve significant digits, so 1 tbsp shows 14.7867647812 rather than the full 14.78676478125 and 3 tbsp shows 44.3602943437 rather than 44.36029434375. Amounts whose exact answer fits inside twelve digits print exactly: 2 tbsp is 29.5735295625 mL and 16 tbsp is 236.5882365 mL.

How do I enter half a tablespoon, or a third of one?

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 7.39338239062 mL; 0.25 tbsp is 3.69669119531 mL and 0.75 tbsp is 11.0900735859 mL. A third of a tablespoon is one US teaspoon, exactly 4.92892159375 mL, and typing 0.333333333333 prints that figure because the rounding at twelve digits lands on it. Thousands separators are the one extra character the field accepts, so 1,000 reads as a thousand and comes back as 14,786.7647812 mL. For an awkward fraction, the fraction calculator gives the decimal form first.

Is a tablespoon of flour also 14.79 mL?

As a volume, yes: the spoon holds the same space whatever is in it, so a tablespoon of flour, oil or salt is 14.7867647812 mL. What changes with the ingredient is the weight, and that is a density question rather than a unit conversion, so this converter will not answer it: it keeps Volume and Mass in separate categories and never turns one into the other. Water is the case where the two nearly line up, since a millilitre of water weighs about a gram, so a tablespoon of water is close to 14.8 g. For flour, sugar, butter and the rest, the grams to cups tool names the density it used and prints tablespoons beside the cups.

Does the page keep this pair, and does anything leave my browser?

The pair belongs to this page, so it opens on Tablespoon (US) into Millilitre (mL) even when you last used the main converter on kilometres, and it leaves that remembered pair alone: only the amount you type and the switch marked Show 5 more carry between the two pages. That switch adds the five uncommon volume units, the imperial fluid ounce, pint and gallon plus the cubic inch and cubic foot, to the list under the answer. The Start over button above the heading clears what is kept. Nothing is uploaded, because the conversion is one multiplication 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 for a spreadsheet.