Teaspoon to Grams Calculator
Select an ingredient, enter your amount — get the exact weight in grams. Works with teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, and millilitres. Plus reverse: grams to teaspoons.
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Why Teaspoons and Grams Don't Match Up
Here's the thing most cooking guides skip over: a teaspoon is a volume measurement, and a gram is a weight measurement. They're not the same thing, and they never will be — unless you're measuring water. The conversion between them always depends on the density of the specific ingredient you're working with.
Think of it this way. Fill a teaspoon with feathers and fill another with iron pellets. Same volume, wildly different weights. Cooking ingredients work on exactly this principle. A teaspoon of flour is light and airy — it sits loosely in the spoon with lots of air gaps. A teaspoon of honey is dense and heavy — it packs into every corner. That's why 1 tsp of flour weighs around 2.6 g while 1 tsp of honey weighs about 7 g. Same spoon, same level, nearly three times the weight difference.
This matters in baking more than anywhere else. Professional bakers weigh everything in grams because volume measurements introduce inconsistency — how tightly you pack a cup of flour can vary its weight by 20–30%. A gram reading from a kitchen scale is the same every time. Our calculator bridges the gap when you only have volume measures available but need weight precision.
For cooking your way through a full recipe and checking the nutritional breakdown, our Recipe Nutrition Calculator lets you build a full ingredient list and get calories, macros, and vitamins in one go.
The Most Searched Teaspoon Conversions
Some ingredients come up constantly in kitchen conversions. Here are the exact values our calculator uses, with a note on why each one varies from the simple "about 5 grams" approximation that gets repeated everywhere.
Denser than water. Fine salt crystals pack tightly. Kosher/sea salt: 3.5–4.8 g because coarser crystals trap air. Always specify salt type in precise recipes.
Standard white sugar. Brown sugar (packed) weighs ~4.60 g/tsp. Powdered/icing sugar is only ~2.50 g/tsp — much less dense due to milling.
The lightest common baking ingredient. Bread flour: ~2.73 g/tsp. Cake flour: ~2.42 g/tsp. Never pack flour — spoon it lightly for consistent results.
Slightly less than water density. Cold vs room-temperature butter packs differently — always measure melted butter by ml for precision.
One of the heaviest common kitchen liquids — 43% heavier per teaspoon than water. This gap catches people off guard when substituting honey for sugar by volume.
Baking soda is denser at ~6.0 g/tsp. These two are not interchangeable at equal volumes — baking soda is about 3–4× more potent per gram.
Slightly less dense than water (density ~0.92). All cooking oils are similarly lighter than water — roughly 4.1–4.6 g/tsp depending on oil type.
Very low density — freshly ground coffee is mostly air. This is why coffee recipes often specify grams rather than spoons for repeatability.
The "1 teaspoon = 5 grams" shortcut you'll find in older cookbooks comes from the metric system's original intent to align 1 ml of water with 1 gram. One metric teaspoon (5 ml) of water does equal exactly 5 grams. But for any other ingredient, you need that ingredient's specific density — which is what this calculator stores for 60+ ingredients.
Teaspoon Sizes Around the World
Not all teaspoons are the same size — and this causes real confusion when following international recipes. Here's a complete breakdown of the standard teaspoon volumes used in different countries:
| Country / Standard | Teaspoon Volume | Tablespoon Volume | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸 United States | 4.929 ml | 14.787 ml (3 tsp) | Most common standard worldwide |
| 🇦🇺 Australia | 5 ml | 20 ml (4 tsp) | Australian tablespoon = 4 tsp, not 3 |
| 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 5 ml | 15 ml (3 tsp) | Matches metric; older UK tbsp was 17.7 ml |
| 🇨🇦 Canada | 5 ml | 15 ml (3 tsp) | Metric system; same as UK |
| Metric (international) | 5 ml | 15 ml | ISO standard |
The Australian tablespoon difference is the most important one for everyday cooking. An Australian recipe calling for 2 tablespoons means 40 ml of ingredient. A US cook reading the same recipe and using their tablespoon gets only 30 ml — a 25% shortfall. In baking, that can noticeably affect the result. Our calculator uses the US teaspoon (4.929 ml) as the standard, which is the most common reference for English-language recipes globally.
For general unit conversion needs in the kitchen and beyond, our mm to Inches Converter and other measurement tools cover length, weight, and temperature alongside cooking volumes.
Volume-to-Weight Reference: Teaspoons, Tablespoons, and Cups
Here's the fixed volume hierarchy used in US cooking — these ratios are always true regardless of ingredient:
Knowing this hierarchy lets you scale recipes up and down mentally without a calculator. If a recipe needs ¼ cup of something and you want a third of the recipe, you can reason: ¼ cup = 12 tsp → ⅓ of 12 tsp = 4 tsp. No extra tool needed for simple scaling once the conversion chain is clear.
Scaling recipes when cooking for a group? Our Tip Calculator can handle the bill split after, and our Air Fryer Calculator converts oven times and temperatures for any dish you're making.
Tips for More Accurate Measuring
Even with a perfect conversion chart, the accuracy of your result depends on how you actually fill the spoon. These small technique differences add up, especially in baking.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on the ingredient. 1 teaspoon of water = 4.93 g. Table salt = 5.69 g. White sugar = 4.17 g. All-purpose flour = 2.60 g. Butter = 4.73 g. Honey = 7.05 g. The density of each ingredient determines its weight per teaspoon, which is why a single universal answer doesn't exist. Use the calculator above to get the exact gram value for any ingredient.
1 teaspoon of granulated white sugar = approximately 4.17 grams. Brown sugar (packed) is heavier at about 4.60 grams per teaspoon. Powdered (icing) sugar is lighter at about 2.50 grams per teaspoon because it's finely milled and less dense. When tracking nutrition, 4.17 g is the standard figure for 1 tsp of white sugar, containing about 16 calories.
1 teaspoon of fine table salt = approximately 5.69 grams. Coarse sea salt or kosher salt is lighter — about 3.5–4.8 grams per teaspoon — because larger crystals create air gaps in the spoon. This is a meaningful difference: a teaspoon of kosher salt delivers notably less sodium than a teaspoon of fine table salt. Always confirm salt type in precise recipes or nutrition calculations.
1 teaspoon of all-purpose flour = approximately 2.60 grams. Bread flour is slightly heavier at ~2.73 g/tsp. Cake flour is lighter at ~2.42 g/tsp. Flour is one of the lightest common baking ingredients because it's airy and does not pack tightly. For quantities beyond a few teaspoons, weighing flour on a kitchen scale is always more accurate than measuring by volume.
A teaspoon measures volume (how much space something takes up). A gram measures weight (how heavy something is). The link between them is density. Dense ingredients like salt pack more grams into a teaspoon than light, airy ingredients like flour. Water sits at 1 g/ml, so 1 tsp water = 4.93 g. Honey is 1.42 g/ml, so 1 tsp honey = ~7 g. Same volume, very different masses — which is why ingredient-specific density values are essential.
3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon in the US measurement system. This is a fixed volume ratio that applies to all ingredients. One US tablespoon = 14.787 ml. In Australia, a tablespoon equals 4 teaspoons (20 ml) — a significant difference that catches people out when using Australian recipes. The UK uses a 15 ml tablespoon (3 tsp), same as the US in tsp count but slightly different in volume.
1 teaspoon of baking powder = approximately 4.60 grams. Baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) is denser at about 6.0 grams per teaspoon. These two ingredients are not interchangeable at equal volumes — baking soda is roughly 3–4× more potent per gram. A recipe calling for 1 tsp baking powder cannot simply be replaced by 1 tsp baking soda without adjusting the amount significantly.
A US teaspoon = 4.929 ml. A metric teaspoon = exactly 5 ml. The difference is just under 2%, which is negligible for everyday cooking. It only matters in very precise baking or pharmaceutical contexts. Our calculator uses the US teaspoon (4.929 ml) as the standard, matching the most common reference used in English-language recipe calculators. Australian and UK recipes typically use the 5 ml metric standard.