Butter converter

Sticks, tablespoons, cups and grams of butter, in every direction.

Fractions like 1 1/2 work

tablespoons
8

8

teaspoons
24

24

cups
½

0.5

grams
113.4 g
ounces
4

4

pounds
¼

0.25

UK 250 g blocks
7/16

0.454

The stick, at a glance

ButterSticksTbspCupsGrams
¼ sticks¼228 g
½ sticks½4¼57 g
1 stick18½113 g
1 ½ sticks1 ½12¾170 g
2 sticks2161227 g
3 sticks3241 ½340 g
4 sticks4322454 g

How it works

A US stick of butter is a quarter-pound: 4 oz, 113 g, half a cup, or 8 tablespoons. The wrapper is printed with tablespoon marks, which is why American recipes cheerfully call for “6 tablespoons of butter” — you just cut on the line.

1 stick = 1/2 cup = 8 tbsp = 4 oz = 113.4 g

Outside the US

Most of the world sells butter in 250 g or 500 g blocks with no markings, so recipes specify weight instead. A 250 g block is about 2.2 US sticks — which is why halving an American recipe with a European block usually means reaching for the scale.

East-coast vs west-coast sticks

Both weigh 4 oz, but they are shaped differently: “Elgin” sticks (eastern US) are long and thin, western sticks are short and stubby. The weight and the tablespoon markings are identical, so any recipe works with either.