Grams to Tablespoons Converter
Convert grams to tablespoons for over 50 common cooking and baking ingredients. Because a tablespoon of honey weighs nearly four times more than a tablespoon of cocoa powder — density matters, and our converter accounts for it.
Quick reference: All-purpose flour
125g
= 1 cup
7.81g
= 1 tbsp
2.6g
= 1 tsp
4.41oz
= 1 cup
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Try MealMatics FreeWhy Grams to Tablespoons Is Tricky (and How to Do It Right)
NIST's Handbook 44 puts a US tablespoon at exactly 14.786 millilitres, but that number tells you nothing about weight — and weight is what most recipes actually mean when they say '15 grams of olive oil.' The density spread across common pantry ingredients is enormous: a tablespoon of all-purpose flour weighs just 8 grams, olive oil comes in at 13.5 grams, table salt at 18 grams, and honey at 21 grams. That is a 2.6x range between the lightest and heaviest items in the same drawer, which is why the generic '1 tablespoon equals 15 grams' shortcut falls apart the moment you step away from water — undershooting salt by 20 percent and overshooting flour by nearly double.
Baking is where this really bites you, because baking ratios are unforgiving in a way that stovetop cooking is not. Use the generic 15-gram rule for flour and you end up adding almost twice the actual weight — your cookies come out dry and crumbly, your bread dough feels like concrete. Measure honey at 15 grams per tablespoon instead of its real 21 and your dessert loses a third of its sweetness. King Arthur Baking publishes density values for every flour and sugar they sell, and their measurement guide warns against volume-to-weight shortcuts for exactly this reason. Our database covers 50-plus ingredients — baking staples like flour, sugar, and cocoa, pantry basics like oil, butter, honey, salt, and cornstarch, and a bunch more — so whether you are scaling a recipe down, converting between measurement systems, or eyeballing tablespoons because your kitchen scale is buried in a drawer, you get a number that actually works.
Grams to Tablespoons — Quick Reference Chart
| Ingredient | 1 tbsp (g) | 2 tbsp (g) | 4 tbsp (g) |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 8g | 16g | 32g |
| Granulated sugar | 12.5g | 25g | 50g |
| Powdered sugar | 7.5g | 15g | 30g |
| Butter (softened) | 14g | 28g | 57g |
| Olive oil | 13.5g | 27g | 54g |
| Honey | 21g | 42g | 85g |
| Cocoa powder | 5.4g | 11g | 22g |
| Cornstarch | 8g | 16g | 32g |
| Salt (table) | 18g | 36g | 72g |
| Peanut butter | 16g | 32g | 64g |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many grams is 1 tablespoon?
It depends entirely on the ingredient. Water is about 15g per tablespoon, which is why 15g is often used as a rough default. But flour is only 8g per tablespoon, honey is 21g, and salt is around 18g. There's no single answer — always check by ingredient.
Is it the same for all types of flour?
No. All-purpose flour is about 8g per tablespoon, bread flour is slightly heavier at around 9g, and cake flour is lighter at roughly 7g. The difference comes down to how finely the flour is milled and how densely it packs.
Why does a tablespoon of salt weigh so much more than a tablespoon of flour?
Salt granules are dense and pack together tightly — there's very little air between them. Flour particles are irregular and fluffy, trapping a lot of air in the same space. That's why the same volume produces very different weights.
Can I use this for liquid ingredients too?
Yes. Water and most thin liquids are close to 15g per tablespoon. Oils are slightly lighter (olive oil ≈ 13.5g/tbsp, vegetable oil ≈ 14g/tbsp). Honey and maple syrup are heavier because they're denser than water.
What size tablespoon does this converter use?
We use the US tablespoon, which is 14.787 ml. This is the standard in American recipes. The metric tablespoon (used in Australia and some European countries) is 15 ml — slightly larger.
My recipe says 30g of butter — how many tablespoons is that?
Butter is about 14g per tablespoon (when softened). So 30g of butter is approximately 2 tablespoons. If your butter is very cold and hard, it may pack slightly more densely — but for practical purposes, 2 tablespoons is the right answer.