Butter Measurements Explained: Sticks, Tablespoons, Cups and Grams
One US stick of butter is 1/2 cup, 8 tablespoons and about 113 g. Here is how sticks, blocks, cups and grams convert, plus how to measure butter without a stick.
American recipes often measure butter in sticks or tablespoons, while recipes from elsewhere use grams. Butter is one of the easiest ingredients to convert, because it is solid and packs the same way every time.
The key numbers
| US butter | Cups | Tablespoons | Grams | Ounces |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 tablespoon | 1/16 | 1 | about 14 g | 0.5 oz |
| 1/2 stick | 1/4 | 4 | about 57 g | 2 oz |
| 1 stick | 1/2 | 8 | about 113 g | 4 oz |
| 2 sticks | 1 | 16 | about 227 g | 8 oz |
| 4 sticks (1 lb box) | 2 | 32 | about 454 g | 16 oz |
Reading the wrapper
US butter sticks are usually printed with tablespoon markings along the wrapper, so you can cut off exactly what you need. Sticks come in two shapes, long and thin or short and wide, depending on the region and brand, but both weigh the same 4 ounces.
Butter outside the US
In the UK, Europe, Australia and many other places, butter is sold in blocks, commonly 250 g. Recipes there give butter in grams. To convert:
- 250 g block ≈ 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (a little over two US sticks)
- 100 g ≈ 7 tablespoons
- 50 g ≈ 3 1/2 tablespoons
The easiest approach is to weigh it: put a plate on the scale, tare, and cut slices from the block until you reach the weight.
Measuring butter without markings
If your butter has no markings, or you are using a partly used block, you have three options:
- Weigh it. The quickest and most accurate method.
- Use the water displacement method. Fill a liquid measuring jug with cold water to a known level, say 1 cup. Add butter until the water rises by the amount you need, for example to 1 1/2 cups for 1/2 cup of butter. Drain the water. This works because butter is solid and pushes aside its own volume of water.
- Pack it into a cup. Softened butter can be pressed into a dry measuring cup and leveled, but it is messy and air pockets make it less accurate.
Melted vs solid butter
Butter weighs the same melted or solid, so 113 g is 113 g either way. By volume, melted butter is very close to solid butter, so "1/2 cup melted butter" is still about one stick. Where it can go wrong is with whipped butter, sold in tubs, which has air beaten into it: a cup of whipped butter contains noticeably less butter. Do not use whipped butter for baking by volume.
Salted or unsalted?
Salted and unsalted butter weigh the same, so the conversions are identical. Most baking recipes call for unsalted butter so you can control the salt. If you only have salted butter, many bakers reduce the recipe's added salt by about 1/4 teaspoon per stick.
Butter vs oil
Butter is roughly 80% fat, with the rest mostly water. Oil is 100% fat. That is why recipes that swap oil for melted butter typically use less oil, often about 3/4 of the amount. Our baking substitutions guide covers this and other swaps.