How Many Cups in a Stick of Butter?

1 stick of butter = ½ cup = 8 tablespoons = 4 oz = 113g. Two sticks make 1 cup. Four sticks make 1 pound.

That single line answers most butter questions. The rest of this page is for the cases where it doesn't — going the other direction, and the two common amounts that a stick wrapper stubbornly refuses to divide into.

Sticks to Cups

Sticks	Cups	Tablespoons	Grams
¼ stick	⅛ cup	2 tbsp	28g
½ stick	¼ cup	4 tbsp	57g
1 stick	½ cup	8 tbsp	113g
1½ sticks	¾ cup	12 tbsp	170g
2 sticks	1 cup	16 tbsp	227g
3 sticks	1½ cups	24 tbsp	340g
4 sticks	2 cups	32 tbsp	454g (1 lb)

Cups to Sticks

Recipes written in cups are just as common, and this is the direction people search for almost as often. The rule is simply the reverse: multiply cups by two to get sticks.

Cups	Sticks	Tablespoons	Grams
⅛ cup	¼ stick	2 tbsp	28g
¼ cup	½ stick	4 tbsp	57g
⅓ cup	⅔ stick	5⅓ tbsp	~76g
½ cup	1 stick	8 tbsp	113g
⅔ cup	1⅓ sticks	10⅔ tbsp	~151g
¾ cup	1½ sticks	12 tbsp	170g
1 cup	2 sticks	16 tbsp	227g
1½ cups	3 sticks	24 tbsp	340g
2 cups	4 sticks	32 tbsp	454g

The two bolded rows are the awkward ones. Everything else lands on a whole number of tablespoons, which means you can cut it straight off the wrapper.

The Two Amounts the Wrapper Can't Give You

A US stick is printed with eight tablespoon marks, so any amount that works out to whole tablespoons is a knife cut away. ⅓ cup and ⅔ cup are the exceptions, and they turn up constantly in cookie and quick-bread recipes.

You need	Exactly	What to actually do
⅓ cup	5⅓ tbsp	Cut at the 5-tbsp mark, then add 1 teaspoon. Or weigh 76g
⅔ cup	10⅔ tbsp	Cut a full stick plus 2 tbsp and 2 teaspoons. Or weigh 151g

Why a teaspoon works: a tablespoon is three teaspoons, so the leftover ⅓ tablespoon in ⅓ cup is exactly one teaspoon, and the ⅔ tablespoon in ⅔ cup is exactly two. Nothing is being rounded here — the teaspoon closes the gap precisely.

Some brands print a ⅓-cup line on the wrapper alongside the tablespoon marks, which saves the arithmetic when it's there. It often isn't, and it's worth checking rather than assuming, because misreading a ⅓-cup line as a tablespoon mark is a five-fold error.

A 250g European Block Is Not Two Sticks

Two US sticks weigh 227g. A European or UK block is usually 250g, which is about 10% more — closer to 2¼ sticks. It looks like the same product in a similar shape, which is exactly why the substitution slips through.

For cookies or a cake batter, 10% of the butter is a difference you probably won't notice. For shortcrust or laminated pastry, where the fat-to-flour ratio is doing structural work, it changes the result. Weigh it when the recipe is pastry. Our complete butter conversion guide covers the other origin mismatches, including old recipes that call for a knob or a lump.

Measure Before You Melt

When a recipe says "½ cup melted butter," measure the stick first and melt it afterwards. Pouring melted butter into a measuring cup is the less accurate route: foam sits on top, a film stays behind in the pan, and reading the meniscus in a cup of opaque liquid is guesswork.

The weight doesn't change when butter melts, so if you have a scale the question disappears entirely — 113g is 113g in either state. The order only matters when you're measuring by volume.

Salted or Unsalted Doesn't Change the Conversion

Salted and unsalted butter are identical in weight and volume, so every number on this page applies to both. What changes is the seasoning: if you use salted butter in a recipe written for unsalted, reduce the added salt by roughly ¼ teaspoon per stick. Brand doesn't affect the conversion either, since the US stick is a packaging standard rather than a manufacturer's choice.

Whipped butter is the real exception. It has air beaten into it, so a cup of whipped butter weighs noticeably less than 227g and shouldn't be substituted by volume in baking. Full detail on measuring technique is in how to measure butter.

Frequently Asked Questions