How many teaspoons are in a tablespoon? There are 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon. Learn how to use this important conversion for cooking and baking.
Both tablespoons and teaspoons are essential in both cooking and baking. Measuring spoons are used to measure small amounts of dry and liquid ingredients, such as ground spices or liquid vanilla.
Learning how to convert tablespoons (tbsp) and teaspoons (tsp) is important when you want to halve or scale up a recipe. This helpful article is another within our cooking conversions series to help you navigate, double and cut down all recipes with ease.
Jump to:
- How Many Teaspoons in a Tablespoon?
- Teaspoons & Tablespoons Defined
- Converting to Metric
- How to Measure Accurately
- Abbreviations
- Mathematical Conversion Formula
- 📌Teaspoon to Tablespoon Conversion Chart (US/Imperial/Standard/Customary)
- Teaspoons & Tablespoons Both Imperial/Standard/Metric
- How to Convert tablespoon to teaspoon to Cups
- 📌Teaspoon to Tablespoon to Cup Conversion Chart
- Converting to Metric
- 📌Teaspoon to Tablespoon to Metric Conversion Chart
- 📌Free Kitchen Measuring Conversion Chart
- FAQS
- More Cooking Conversions
How Many Teaspoons in a Tablespoon?
The answer is there are 3 teaspoons in 1 tablespoon.
That means that if you were to measure salt, for instance, 3 teaspoons full of salt would be the exact same as 1 tablespoon of salt.
Teaspoons & Tablespoons Defined
Tablespoons and teaspoons measure volume and are primarily used to measure small amounts of ingredients such as spices, baking soda or vanilla extracts used in recipes. Teaspoons are smaller than tablespoons.
Converting to Metric
The United States uses the imperial system, or U.S. customary units, but sometimes an American cook may want to know a metric conversion to be able to tackle an international recipe.
Within the metric system, teaspoons and tablespoons can be converted to milliliters. A teaspoon holds 5 milliliters and a tablespoon holds 15 milliliters.
How to Measure Accurately
When measuring dry ingredients with teaspoons and tablespoons, it is important to fill them, then take a knife and level off the top to get an accurate measurement.
Some recipes will allow non-leveling, calling this "heaping" tablespoon or teaspoon. This means to fill the spoon slightly above the rim, allowing for more ingredient than a level measurement would provide.
Abbreviations
Teaspoon and tablespoon are abbreviated teaspoon and tbsp, respectively. Although they are technically spelled lowercase, some recipe creators capitalize tablespoon because the spelling is so close and they want to avoid home cooks from mistaking one for the other.
Mathematical Conversion Formula
Converting tablespoon to teaspoon may seem like a simple conversion that doesn't need math, but math is behind it and here is the formula:
1 tablespoon (tbsp) = 3 teaspoons (tsp)
The reverse is also true to convert teaspoons to tablespoons. (tsp to tbsp).
3 teaspoons (tsp) = 1 tablespoon (tbsp)
This formula comes in handy when you need to convert more than one tablespoon into tsp. For instance, 2 tablespoon would equal 6 teaspoon and the formula depicts this:
2 x [1 tablespoon (tbsp)] = 2 x [3 teaspoons (tsp)] = 6 teaspoons
And to convert multiple teaspoons, simple reverse it.
2 x [3 teaspoons (tsp)] = 2 x [1 tablespoon (tbsp)] = 2 tablespoons
To speed things along, though, and help you avoid doing the math each time, here is a simple chart. You can screenshot it for handy reference.
📌Teaspoon to Tablespoon Conversion Chart (US/Imperial/Standard/Customary)
| Tablespoon (tbsp) | Teaspoon (tsp) |
|---|---|
| 1 tbsp | 3 tsp |
| 2 tbsp | 6 tsp |
| 3 tbsp | 9 tsp |
| ½ tbsp | 1 ½ tsp |
| 2 tbsp | ⅛ cup |
| 4 tbsp | ¼ cup |
| 16 tbsp | 1 cup |
Teaspoons & Tablespoons Both Imperial/Standard/Metric
Although the U.S. uses a version of the imperial system better known as the US customary system, and the rest of the world uses the metric system, both systems use the same teaspoons and tablespoons. Actually there are meniscal differences in volume apparently between the European version and the Australian system, but the differences are too small to affect recipes.
How to Convert tablespoon to teaspoon to Cups
Sometimes you might need to convert teaspoons and tablespoons into cups, especially if you are scaling up. In this case, here is a chart to help you with that.
📌Teaspoon to Tablespoon to Cup Conversion Chart
| Cup | Tablespoon | Teaspoon |
|---|---|---|
| 1/16 cup | 1 tbsp | 3 tsp |
| ⅛ cup | 2 tbsp | 6 tsp |
| ⅙ cup | 2 tablespoon + 2 tsp | 8 tsp |
| ¼ cup | 4 tbsp | 12 tsp |
| ⅓ cup | 5 tablespoon + 1 tsp | 16 tsp |
| ⅜ cup | 6 tbsp | 18 tsp |
| ½ cup | 8 tbsp | 24 tsp |
| ⅔ cup | 10 tablespoon + 2 tsp | 32 tsp |
| ¾ cup | 12 tbsp | 36 tsp |
| 1 cup | 16 tbsp | 48 tsp |
Converting to Metric
You sometimes might need to convert your teaspoons (tsp) and tablespoons (tbsp) into metric, such as milliliters (mL). To do this use the following conversions:
1 teaspoon (tsp) = 5 milliliters (mL)
1 tablespoon (tbsp) = 15 milliliters (mL)
The mathematics behind these conversions is simple, so if you need to convert more than one teaspoon or tbsp, follow these formulas.
1.To convert teaspoons (tsp) to milliliters (mL), multiply the number of teaspoons by 5. For example, 4 teaspoons = 4 x 5 = 20 milliliters.
2.To convert tablespoons (tbsp) to milliliters (ml), multiply the number of tablespoons by 15. For example, 4 tablespoons = 4 x 15 = 60 milliliters.
For your convenience, I have provided a table of conversions of teaspoon and tablespoon to the metric unit milliliters (mL):
📌Teaspoon to Tablespoon to Metric Conversion Chart
| Teaspoons (tsp) | Tablespoons (tbsp) | Milliliters (mL) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 tsp | ⅓ tbsp | 5 mL |
| 2 tsp | ⅔ tbsp | 10 mL |
| 3 tsp | 1 tbsp | 15 mL |
| 4 tsp | 1 ⅓ tbsp | 20 mL |
| 5 tsp | 1 ⅔ tbsp | 25 mL |
| 6 tsp | 2 tbsp | 30 mL |
📌Free Kitchen Measuring Conversion Chart
Download my free kitchen measuring conversion chart and either post it on your refrigerator, or laminate it and add it to your recipe notebook. It can be a handy reference when you want to convert measurements to adjust a recipe, both imperial or metric.
FAQS
There are 6 half (½) teaspoons in 1 tablespoon based on the U.S. Imperial system.
Since the UK follows the metric system, the number of teaspoons in a UK tablespoon is different than a US tablespoon. There are 4 teaspoons in 1 UK tablespoon.
Like the UK, Australia (AUS) follows the metric system alhtough with some differences. There are 4 teaspoons in 1 AUS tablespoon.
More Cooking Conversions
If you found this basic kitchen measurement post helpful, you might also like some of my other cooking conversion posts and even my Celsius and Fahrenheit conversion chart and explainer.
Also, if you visit any other articles or recipes on my website, please leave a 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 review on a recipe or a 📝 comment here if you have thoughts or questions.
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