Scale any recipe to the servings you need
This recipe scaler takes an ingredient list exactly as you would copy it from a cookbook or a website — “2 1/2 cups flour”, “250 g butter”, “3 eggs”, “2–3 tbsp milk” — and rescales every line for a different number of servings or by a plain factor. It reads whole numbers, decimals, fractions, unicode fractions such as ½ and ranges, keeps the ingredient names and notes, and leaves lines without a quantity (“salt to taste”) untouched.
The hard part of scaling is not the multiplication but the measuring: ¼ cup × 1.5 is 0.375 cup, which no measuring cup shows. The scaler therefore snaps results to real kitchen measures — ¼, ⅓, ½, ⅔, ¾ and eighths of a cup, halves of a tablespoon, quarters of a teaspoon — and switches units when that is easier, so 0.375 cup becomes 6 tbsp and 4 tbsp becomes ¼ cup. Whole items such as eggs round to the nearest half: 3 eggs × 1.5 shows “4 ½ eggs”.
A units switch converts the whole list to metric (grams and millilitres) or to US cups, tablespoons and teaspoons, using an embedded density table for about forty common ingredients. Everything runs in your browser; the recipe is never uploaded.
How to use the Recipe Scaler
- Paste or type the ingredients into the box, one per line. A sample recipe is loaded so you can see how lines are read.
- Choose Servings and enter how many the recipe serves and how many you want, or choose Factor and type a multiplier (the × ½, × 1½, × 2 and × 3 buttons are shortcuts).
- Leave Units on “Keep as written”, or convert the list to metric or to US measures.
- Check the table: the left column is the original line, the right column is the scaled amount, with the unrounded value shown underneath whenever rounding changed it.
- Press Copy scaled recipe to paste the list into your notes, or Print for a clean sheet with only the scaled ingredients.
Recipe Scaler features
Reads real-world ingredient lines
Mixed numbers (“1 1/2”), unicode fractions (“2½”), decimals, ranges (“2 to 3”), bullets, numbering, “of”, bracketed weights such as “1 cup (125 g) flour” and over thirty unit spellings (tbsp, tbs, tablespoons, T…).
Kitchen-measure rounding
Cups snap to quarters, thirds and eighths; tablespoons to halves; teaspoons to quarters and eighths. Grams and millilitres round to 0.5, 1, 5 or 10 depending on size. Switch to “Exact” to see two-decimal values instead.
Automatic unit switching
Volumes below ¼ cup become tablespoons, below 1 tbsp become teaspoons, and 4, 8 or 12 tablespoons become ¼, ½ or ¾ cup, so every line is something you can actually measure.
Metric ↔ US conversion with densities
Cups of flour become grams using 125 g per cup; a cup of honey is 340 g; liquids go to millilitres. Metric lists convert back to cups the same way. Unknown dry ingredients convert by volume and are marked.
Copy and print
One click copies the scaled list as plain text; printing hides everything except the ingredients.
How the rounding works
Every quantity is first multiplied exactly, then converted to the requested unit system, then rounded according to its unit. The exact figure is kept and shown under the rounded one when they differ, so nothing is hidden from you.
| Unit | Rounds to | Example |
|---|---|---|
| cup | ¼ ⅓ ½ ⅔ ¾ and eighths | 2 ½ cups × 1.5 = 3.75 → 3 ¾ cups |
| tbsp / tsp | ½ tbsp · ¼ and ⅛ tsp; unit switches when smaller or larger | ¼ cup × 0.5 → 2 tbsp · 1 tsp × 1.5 → 1 ½ tsp |
| g / ml | 0.5 under 10, whole under 100, then 5s and 10s | 250 g × 1.5 → 375 g · 23.4 g → 23 g |
| oz / lb / fl oz | quarters | 1 lb × 1.5 → 1 ½ lb |
| eggs, onions, cans, cloves… | nearest half | 3 eggs × 1.5 → 4 ½ eggs |
Cups to grams: the densities used
Volume-to-weight conversion depends on the ingredient. The table lists the embedded values for one US cup (236.6 ml), following commonly published kitchen references for spooned-and-levelled dry ingredients.
| Ingredient | g per cup | Ingredient | g per cup |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour / maida | 125 | Granulated sugar | 200 |
| Bread flour | 127 | Brown sugar / jaggery (packed) | 220 |
| Whole-wheat flour / atta | 120 | Icing (powdered) sugar | 120 |
| Cornstarch | 128 | Honey / golden syrup | 340 |
| Butter / ghee | 227 | Maple syrup | 315 |
| Cocoa powder | 85 | Rolled oats | 90 |
| Rice, lentils, dal (raw) | 190 | Chocolate chips | 170 |
| Chopped nuts | 130 | Table salt | 290 |
Scaling tips cooks learn the hard way
- Spices, salt and leavening do not scale perfectly. When tripling a recipe, start with about 2–2.5× the chilli, salt, baking powder and yeast, then adjust to taste.
- Pan size and time change too. Doubled batter in the same tin is twice as deep and needs a longer, cooler bake; the cake pan converter finds a tin of the right area.
- Bread is easier in percentages — the baker’s percentage calculator scales by flour weight and keeps hydration readable.
- Weigh when you can. A scale removes the biggest source of baking variation — how you fill a cup. The cooking converter handles single conversions and oven temperatures.
Recipe Scaler FAQ
How do I double or halve a recipe with this recipe scaler?
Paste the ingredients, choose Factor and press × 2 or × ½. Every quantity is multiplied, rounded to a measurable amount and listed next to the original line.
What happens to “3 eggs” when I multiply by 1.5?
The result is 4.5, shown as “4 ½ eggs”. Beat one egg, use half of it and keep the rest for an egg wash — or round to 4 or 5 depending on whether the recipe is forgiving. Switch rounding to Exact to see 4.5 directly.
Why did ¼ cup become 2 tablespoons after halving?
Half of ¼ cup is ⅛ cup, which few measuring sets include. 2 tbsp is the same volume and is easy to measure, so the tool shows that instead.
Can it convert cups to grams?
Yes. Choose “Convert to metric” and cups, tablespoons and teaspoons of known ingredients become grams using the density table above; liquids become millilitres. Ingredients it does not recognise are converted by volume and marked “by volume”.
Is my recipe sent anywhere?
No. Parsing, scaling and conversion are JavaScript running in your browser; nothing is uploaded and the text is gone when you close the page.