How Many Grams in a Tablespoon? (By Ingredient)

Find out how many grams are in a tablespoon for butter, sugar, flour, oil, and 20+ other ingredients.

A tablespoon is a handy measurement for small amounts, but how many grams depends entirely on the ingredient.

Quick Reference Table

Ingredient — Grams per Tablespoon

Butter — 14g

White Sugar — 12.5g

Brown Sugar — 13.8g

Powdered Sugar — 7.5g

All-Purpose Flour — 7.8g

Cocoa Powder — 5.3g

Honey — 21.3g

Olive Oil — 13.5g

Milk — 15.3g

Heavy Cream — 14.9g

Salt (table) — 18g

Salt (kosher, Diamond Crystal) — 8g

Baking Powder — 12g

Baking Soda — 18g

Vanilla Extract — 13g

Cornstarch — 8g

Cinnamon — 7.8g

Maple Syrup — 20g

One tablespoon = approximately 14.79 mL of volume. But ingredients have different densities:

Honey is very dense (1.42 g/mL) → 21g per tablespoon

Flour is light (0.53 g/mL) → only 7.8g per tablespoon

Water is the baseline (1.0 g/mL) → about 15g per tablespoon

Grams per tablespoon = grams per cup ÷ 16

Since there are 16 tablespoons in a cup, just divide the grams-per-cup value by 16.

For dry ingredients: scoop and level with a straight edge

For sticky ingredients (honey, syrup): spray the spoon with oil first

For the most accuracy: use a kitchen scale set to grams