Butter Conversion Calculator

About the Butter Conversion Calculator

Butter is measured in more ways than almost any other ingredient. American recipes use sticks and cups; British and European recipes use grams; older recipes use ounces and pounds; and butter is sold in sticks, pound packs and 250 gram blocks depending on the country. Converting between them usually means hunting for a chart halfway through a recipe with greasy hands.

This butter conversion calculator converts any amount of butter between US sticks, cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, grams, ounces, pounds and 250 gram blocks. Enter the amount in whichever unit the recipe uses, and every other measure appears at once.

How to Use the Butter Conversion Calculator

Enter the amount of butter.

Choose the unit it is given in.

Read the equivalent in every other unit.

How Butter Conversions Work

  1 US stick   =  ½ cup  =  8 tablespoons  =  4 oz  =  113.4 g
  1 cup        =  2 sticks  =  16 tablespoons  =  227 g
  1 tablespoon =  3 teaspoons  ≈  14.2 g
  1 pound      =  4 sticks  =  453.6 g
  1 block      =  250 g  (common in Europe)

Butter is converted by weight, so the result is the same whether the butter is cold, soft or melted.

Step-by-Step Example

1½ sticks of butter.

  Grams:          1.5 × 113.4         =  170 g
  Cups:           170 ÷ 226.8         =  ¾ cup
  Tablespoons:    170 ÷ 14.17         =  12 tbsp
  Ounces:                                6 oz

250 grams of butter.

  Sticks:         250 ÷ 113.4         =  2.2 sticks
  Cups:           250 ÷ 226.8         =  1.1 cups
  Tablespoons:    250 ÷ 14.17         =  17.6 tbsp

Butter Conversion Chart

| ½ | ¼ | 4 | 57 | 2 | | 1 | ½ | 8 | 113 | 4 | | 1½ | ¾ | 12 | 170 | 6 | | 2 | 1 | 16 | 227 | 8 | | 4 | 2 | 32 | 454 | 16 |

Measuring Butter Easily

Use the wrapper. US sticks are marked in tablespoons along the paper, so you can cut exactly the amount needed without a scale or measuring cup.

Weigh it. For recipes in grams, cut the butter straight onto a plate on the scale. It is quicker and more accurate than pressing soft butter into a cup.

Avoid packing cups. Pressing softened butter into a measuring cup traps air pockets and is messy. If you must, use the water displacement method: fill a jug with a known amount of cold water, add butter until the level rises by the amount needed, then drain.

Cut cold, measure soft. Butter is easiest to cut accurately when cold, and many recipes then want it softened at room temperature.

Salted, Unsalted and Other Butters

Recipes, especially for baking, usually call for unsalted butter so the salt can be controlled separately. Salted butter can be used weight for weight: a US stick of salted butter contains somewhere around a quarter to half a teaspoon of salt, so reduce the recipe's salt a little.

European-style butters often contain more fat and less water than standard American butter. They weigh the same per stick but can make pastry flakier and cookies spread slightly more.

Butter and Oil Substitutions

Butter and oil are not interchangeable one for one. Butter is roughly 80% fat and about 16% water, while oil is pure fat. When replacing melted butter with oil, many cooks use about three quarters as much oil. For creamed butter in cakes and cookies, oil changes the texture significantly, so a recipe written for oil is usually a better choice.

Softening Butter Quickly

Many recipes start with softened butter, which should give slightly when pressed but still hold its shape. Taking it out of the fridge an hour ahead is the simplest method. If you forget, cut the cold butter into small cubes and spread them on a plate; they soften in fifteen to twenty minutes. Grating cold butter works even faster. Microwaving is risky, because butter melts unevenly and partly melted butter changes the texture of cakes and cookies.

Butter in Pastry and Baking

The temperature of butter matters as much as its weight. Pastry and biscuits need cold butter, cut or rubbed into the flour so that small pieces stay solid and create flaky layers as they melt in the oven. Cakes need softened butter creamed with sugar to trap air for a light texture. Melted butter gives chewier cookies and denser brownies. Measuring the right amount is the first step; using it at the right temperature is the second.

Butter Around the World

Butter packaging differs by country. In the United States, a one-pound box usually holds four quarter-pound sticks, each wrapped and marked in tablespoons; on the West Coast the sticks are often shorter and wider, but they weigh the same. In the UK and most of Europe, butter comes in 250 gram blocks, sometimes marked in 25 or 50 gram sections on the wrapper. Australian butter is also sold in 250 gram blocks. Knowing the local pack size makes it easy to work out how many to buy.

Understanding Your Result

Butter is the weight in grams.

Sticks gives the number of US sticks.

Cups and tablespoons gives the volume in cups and tablespoons.

Ounces and pounds gives imperial weights.

250 g blocks shows the European block equivalent.

Worth knowing gives a tip on measuring sticks.

When Should You Use This Calculator?

Following an American recipe with butter sold in blocks or by weight.

Following a European recipe with American sticks.

Scaling a recipe that uses butter in several forms.

Checking how many packs to buy.

Converting old family recipes written in ounces.

Common Mistakes

Confusing a stick with a cup. A stick is half a cup.

Packing soft butter into cups and trapping air.

Swapping oil for butter one for one.

Ignoring the salt in salted butter.

Measuring melted butter by volume when a recipe gives weight.