Recipe Scaler
Scale any recipe up or down by servings, with fractions, cups-to-grams conversion and pan size scaling by area. Free, no sign-up, and it runs in your browser.
Dedicated page: /en/recipe-scaler
Fractions work: 1/2, 3/4, 1 1/2 and unicode fractions like ½ are all read. Lines without a number, such as "salt to taste", pass through unchanged.
Cups to grams (and back)
Pan size scaling
A bigger pan needs more batter. The area ratio gives the scale factor.
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Quick answer
A recipe scaler multiplies every ingredient by the ratio of the servings you want to the servings the recipe was written for. A recipe for 4 scaled to 6 uses a factor of 1.5, so 2 1/4 cups of flour becomes 3 3/8 cups. It also converts cups to grams and scales recipes between pan sizes by area.
About this Recipe Scaler
Scale any recipe up or down by servings, with fractions, cups-to-grams conversion and pan size scaling by area. It is one of the Food, Kitchen and Everyday on ToolUstad, and like every tool here it runs entirely in your browser: nothing you type, paste or open is uploaded to a server, and there is no sign-up or usage limit.
What a recipe scaler does
A recipe scaler takes a recipe written for one number of servings and rewrites it for another. The maths is one division: the servings you want divided by the servings the recipe was written for gives the scale factor, and every amount is multiplied by that factor. A recipe for 4 scaled to 6 has a factor of 1.5, so 2 1/4 cups of flour becomes 3 3/8 cups, 1 cup of butter becomes 1 1/2 cups and 2 eggs become 3. A recipe for 4 scaled to 2 has a factor of 0.5, so the flour becomes 1 1/8 cups and the eggs become 1. The hard part is not the multiplication. It is reading the fractions people actually write, rounding the answers to amounts a cook can measure, and handling the lines that have no amount at all.
This scaler reads whole numbers, simple fractions, mixed numbers and unicode fractions, rounds to the nearest eighth, quarter or half, and passes lines like salt to taste through unchanged. It also fixes the grammar, so a halved recipe says 1 egg and 1 cup, not 1 eggs and 1 cups.
How scaling works
Every ingredient scales by the same factor, which is the new serving count divided by the old one. The factor is shown on the page, so the working can be checked: 6 divided by 4 is 1.5, 12 divided by 4 is 3, 2 divided by 4 is 0.5. The amounts are rounded to kitchen-friendly fractions. The default is the nearest eighth, which is the finest a measuring cup set usually goes. A quarter or a half is coarser and easier to measure, and the exact option shows the unrounded number for weighing on scales. Rounding to the nearest eighth means 1.125 cups stays 1 1/8 cups, while 1.17 cups becomes 1 1/8 as well, a small error that does not matter in most cooking and matters more in baking, where weighing is better.
Cups to grams
Volume and weight are not the same thing, and cups are a volume measure. One cup of flour weighs about 120 grams, but one cup of honey weighs 340 grams, because honey is denser. That is why converting cups to grams needs a density for each ingredient, and why a single cups to grams chart cannot exist. The converter on this page holds densities for 15 ingredients: all-purpose flour 120 grams per cup, bread flour 127, whole wheat flour 113, granulated sugar 200, brown sugar 220, powdered sugar 120, butter 227, cocoa powder 100, oats 90, honey 340, milk 245, water 237, olive oil 216, chocolate chips 170 and rice 185. It converts both ways, so 2 1/4 cups of flour is 270 grams, and 500 grams of sugar is about 2 1/2 cups. Baking by weight is more accurate than baking by volume, because a cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 110 to 140 grams depending on how it is scooped.
Learn: how to use the Recipe Scaler
- Enter the servings the recipe was written for and the servings you want.
- Paste or type the ingredients, one per line, with the amount first.
- Pick how exact the amounts are rounded: nearest eighth, quarter or half, or exact.
- Read the scaled recipe, with the original amounts shown in brackets.
- Use the cups to grams converter for baking ingredients.
- Use the pan size tool to scale the recipe to a different tin.
Features
- Scales from any serving count to any other, up or down.
- Reads whole numbers, fractions, mixed numbers and unicode fractions.
- Rounds to the nearest eighth, quarter or half, or shows exact amounts.
- Passes lines without a number through unchanged.
- Cups to grams converter for 15 ingredients, with densities.
- Pan size scaling by area, for round and square tins.
- Copy the scaled recipe or download it as a text file.
- Singular and plural units are fixed automatically, so 1 egg, not 1 eggs.
Worked example
A chocolate chip cookie recipe for 4 servings becomes a recipe for 6 with a scale factor of 1.5. The flour goes from 2 1/4 cups to 3 3/8 cups, the butter from 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups, the sugar from 3/4 cup to 1 1/8 cups and the eggs from 2 to 3. One cup of flour weighs 120 grams, so 2 1/4 cups is 270 grams. Moving the same recipe from an 8 inch round tin to a 9 inch round tin needs a factor of about 1.27, because the 9 inch tin holds about 27 percent more.
Frequently asked questions
How do I scale a recipe from 4 to 6 servings?
Divide the servings you want by the servings the recipe was written for: 6 divided by 4 is 1.5. Multiply every amount by 1.5.
How many grams is a cup of flour?
One cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 120 grams. Other ingredients weigh different amounts per cup: granulated sugar is 200 grams, brown sugar 220, butter 227, cocoa powder 100, oats 90 and honey 340.
Does scaling work for baking?
Mostly yes, but with two warnings. First, yeast and baking powder do not scale in a straight line on very large batches: doubling a recipe does not always mean doubling the yeast.
How do I scale a recipe for a different pan?
Scale by area, not by diameter. A 9 inch round tin has an area of about 64 square inches and an 8 inch round has about 50, so the ratio is 1.27 and you need 27 percent more batter.
What if an ingredient has no amount?
Lines without a number, such as salt to taste or a pinch of cinnamon, pass through unchanged. The calculator only scales lines that start with a number or a fraction.
Can I use fractions in the recipe?
Yes. Whole numbers, simple fractions like 1/2 and 3/4, mixed numbers like 1 1/2 and 2 1/4, and unicode fractions like one half, one quarter and three quarters are all read.
Should I scale salt and spices the same way?
Taste and adjust. Salt, spices, chilli and vanilla scale less well than flour and sugar, because their effect is not linear and small errors are easy to taste.
How do I convert cups to grams for other ingredients?
Pick the ingredient and enter the cups, and the calculator multiplies by the density.
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