How Many Ounces in a Cup? Fluid Ounces, Dry Ounces and a Full Chart

There are 8 fluid ounces in 1 US cup. Half a cup is 4 fl oz, a quarter cup is 2 fl oz, and 2 cups make 16 fl oz. That answer is exact, because the US cup is defined as 8 US fluid ounces.

The catch is the word “ounce”. A fluid ounce measures volume (how much space something takes up). A plain ounce measures weight. For water the two are close: a cup of water weighs about 8.3 oz. For almost everything else they are not. A cup of all-purpose flour weighs only about 4.25 oz, and a cup of granulated sugar about 7 oz.

If you just need a number, the Cups to Ounces converter does it as you type. Below you will find a chart for every common cup size, how cups relate to pints, quarts and gallons, the tablespoon equivalents, and how UK and metric cups differ. We calculated every figure on this page from the legal definitions of the units.

All figures are US customary measures. 1 US fluid ounce is 29.57 mL.

Going the other way is just as quick: 8 oz is 1 cup, 12 oz is 1 1/2 cups, 16 oz is 2 cups, 24 oz is 3 cups, and 32 oz is 4 cups. A 16.9 oz water bottle (500 mL) is a little over 2 cups.

“Dry ounces” is not a separate unit. When people say it they mean ounces of weight, which is what a kitchen scale reads. A cup is a volume, so how many ounces it weighs depends entirely on what is in it.

• Liquids: measure in fluid ounces. A cup of water, milk, stock or juice is 8 fl oz, and because these are mostly water, a cup weighs roughly 8 to 8.6 oz as well.
• Dry ingredients: the cup still holds 8 fl oz of space, but the weight varies widely. Flour is light and full of air; sugar packs tighter; honey is heavier than water.

Typical weights, from King Arthur Baking’s ingredient weight chart:

Water is the one ingredient where a cup and 8 ounces nearly agree: 1 cup of water weighs about 8.3 oz (236.6 g). That is why “a pint’s a pound” works as a rough rule for water, and fails badly for flour. Your own scoop of flour can easily land 10 to 20% either side of the chart figure depending on how you fill the cup, which is why bakers who want repeatable results weigh it.

1. Cups to fluid ounces: multiply the number of cups by 8.
2. Fluid ounces to cups: divide the number of fluid ounces by 8.
3. Cups to ounces of weight: look up the ingredient’s weight per cup (table above) and multiply. There is no single factor.

Worked examples

• 2 1/2 cups of milk: 2.5 × 8 = 20 fl oz.
• A 12 oz can of soda: 12 ÷ 8 = 1 1/2 cups.
• A 64 oz jug of juice: 64 ÷ 8 = 8 cups, which is half a gallon.
• 3/4 cup of water: 0.75 × 8 = 6 fl oz.
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour by weight: 2 × 4.25 = about 8.5 oz, not 16.

The Cups to Ounces converter handles decimals and the swap button turns it into ounces to cups. For milliliters, use Cups to ML or Fluid Ounces to ML.

US liquid measures double at each step from the cup up to the quart, then the gallon is four quarts.

So there are 4 cups in a quart, 16 cups in a gallon, 32 ounces in a quart and 128 ounces in a gallon. A liter is about 4.23 cups or 33.8 fl oz, a little more than a quart. The Gallons to Cups, Pints to Cups and Gallons to Quarts converters cover the in-between amounts.

• 1 cup = 16 tablespoons = 48 teaspoons
• 1 fluid ounce = 2 tablespoons
• 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons (about 14.8 mL)
• 1/4 cup = 4 tablespoons, 1/3 cup = 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon, 1/2 cup = 8 tablespoons

These are handy when a recipe asks for 1/3 cup of something and the measuring cup is in the dishwasher, or when you are scaling a recipe down. The Fluid Ounces to Tablespoons and Tablespoons to Teaspoons converters do the arithmetic for odd amounts.

If a recipe comes from outside the US, its “cup” may be a different size.

There is no single standard British cup. Modern UK recipes mostly use grams and milliliters, and older ones vary from book to book, so check the book’s own conversion page. The imperial fluid ounce is also slightly smaller than the US one (28.4 mL vs 29.6 mL), so a British recipe’s “10 fl oz” is about 9.6 US fl oz. For most cooking the difference between a 237 mL and a 250 mL cup does not matter; for baking with several cups of flour it can, and weighing is the safer route.

• Use a liquid measuring cup for liquids. Set it on the counter and read the line at eye level; looking down from above makes you over-pour.
• Use dry measuring cups for dry ingredients. Spoon flour into the cup and level it with a knife. Scooping straight from the bag packs it down and can add a lot of extra flour.
• Pack brown sugar, do not pack flour. Recipes assume packed brown sugar unless they say otherwise.
• Weigh when it matters. For bread and cakes, grams on a kitchen scale beat cups every time, and you dirty fewer measuring cups.
• Check which ounce the recipe means. “8 oz chocolate” or “8 oz cheese” is weight. “8 oz milk” is fluid ounces. If it is a solid, it is almost certainly weight.

One US cup is 8 fluid ounces: multiply cups by 8, divide ounces by 8. Half a cup is 4 fl oz, a quarter cup is 2, a pint is 16, a quart is 32 and a gallon is 128. If the recipe means ounces of weight, the cup gives you no shortcut, so check the ingredient or use a scale. For any other amount, the Cups to Ounces converter works it out as you type, free and in your browser.