Butter is measured more inconsistently than any other common ingredient. A single recipe collection can call for it in sticks, cups, tablespoons, grams, ounces, or — if the recipe is old enough — a lump the size of an egg. This guide pulls every one of those into a single reference, and, more usefully, tells you which conversions you actually need to get right.
Start Here: One Line Solves Most of It
1 US stick = ½ cup = 8 tablespoons = 4 oz = 113g. Two sticks make a cup (227g); four sticks make a pound (454g). Nearly every butter question is arithmetic on that line, which is why it's worth memorising rather than looking up.
The wrapper does most of the remaining work. US sticks are printed with tablespoon markings, so cutting 3 tablespoons means cutting at the mark rather than measuring anything. If the wrapper is gone or the butter came as a block, the sections below cover it.
Which Conversion Do You Need?
| Your situation | What you need | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Any amount, any unit, instantly | Interactive converter | Butter Converter |
| How to physically measure it without a scale | Technique by butter state | How to Measure Butter |
| Recipe in grams, you have sticks (or vice versa) | Weight ↔ volume | Cups to Grams Calculator |
| No butter — can you use oil? | Substitution ratios | Baking Substitutions |
| Old recipe says "size of an egg" or "a knob" | Vintage term decoding | Vintage Recipe Measurements |
| Scaling a recipe up or down | Scaling factor maths | Recipe Multiplier |
The Master Table
| Sticks | Cups | Tablespoons | Grams | Ounces |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ⅛ stick | 1/16 cup | 1 tbsp | 14g | 0.5 oz |
| ¼ stick | ⅛ cup | 2 tbsp | 28g | 1 oz |
| ½ stick | ¼ cup | 4 tbsp | 57g | 2 oz |
| 1 stick | ½ cup | 8 tbsp | 113g | 4 oz |
| 1½ sticks | ¾ cup | 12 tbsp | 170g | 6 oz |
| 2 sticks | 1 cup | 16 tbsp | 227g | 8 oz |
| 3 sticks | 1½ cups | 24 tbsp | 340g | 12 oz |
| 4 sticks | 2 cups | 32 tbsp | 454g | 16 oz (1 lb) |
Salted and unsalted butter weigh and convert identically — the only difference is salt content. Brand doesn't change anything either, since the US stick size is a packaging convention rather than a manufacturer choice.
Butter by Where the Recipe Came From
The unit a recipe uses tells you where and roughly when it was written, and that's more useful than it sounds — it tells you what else to expect from the recipe.
| How it's written | Origin | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "2 sticks" / "1 cup butter" | US / Canada | Use the table above. Volume-based; a scale is optional |
| "250g butter" | UK, Europe, Australia | Weigh it. 250g ≈ 2¼ sticks — the block is not two sticks |
| "200g butter" | Continental Europe | Weigh it. ≈ 1¾ sticks |
| "Butter the size of an egg" | Pre-1950 American | ¼ cup / 4 tbsp (~55-60g) |
| "A knob of butter" | British, informal, still current | ~1 tbsp (~14g) |
| "A lump of butter" | Older British | ~2 tbsp (~28g) |
| "Butter the size of a walnut" | Vintage, for finishing | 1-2 tbsp (~15-25g) |
The 250g block is the trap here. It looks like it should be two sticks — the shape is similar and the packaging is comparable — but 250g is about 2¼ sticks, and treating it as 2 sticks (227g) leaves you 10% short. In a cookie dough nobody notices; in shortcrust pastry it changes the texture. Full vintage terms are in Vintage Recipe Measurements Decoded.
When Butter Precision Actually Matters
Not every recipe cares. Knowing which do saves a lot of unnecessary fussing with scales — and tells you when the fussing is warranted.
| Precision needed | Recipes | Why |
|---|---|---|
| High — weigh it | Laminated dough (croissants, puff pastry), shortcrust, shortbread | The fat-to-flour ratio is the recipe; a 10% error changes the structure |
| Moderate — measure carefully | Cookies, cakes, buttercream | Affects spread and crumb, but there's tolerance |
| Low — eyeball it | Sautéing, greasing pans, finishing sauces, butter on toast | Nothing structural depends on the amount |
Two things matter more than the number in the high-precision row: European butter's higher fat content (82-84% vs 80% for US butter) and the temperature of the butter. Both change the outcome even when the weight is identical, and both are covered in How to Measure Butter.
Temperature Is a Separate Variable From Amount
Worth stating plainly because conversion charts imply butter is butter: 113g of cold, softened and melted butter are the same weight and completely different ingredients. Softened butter holds air when creamed, which is what makes cakes light. Melted butter can't hold air, which is why melted-butter cookie recipes come out chewy and dense on purpose. Cold butter stays in distinct pieces, which is what creates flaky layers in pastry.
So converting the amount correctly and then using the wrong temperature still gives you the wrong result. If a recipe specifies a state, that instruction is doing as much work as the quantity is.
When Something Goes Wrong
| Symptom | Likely butter cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Cookies spread into one sheet | Butter too warm, or too much | Chill the dough; weigh rather than pack a cup |
| Cookies didn't spread at all | Too little butter, or straight from the fridge | Check the stick maths; soften to 65-68°F |
| Cake dense, not light | Melted or too-soft butter — no air creamed in | Use properly softened butter, cream longer |
| Pastry tough, not flaky | Butter warmed and blended into the flour | Keep it cold and in visible pieces |
| 10% off following a European recipe | Treated a 250g block as 2 sticks | 250g ≈ 2¼ sticks; weigh it |
| Everything tastes salty | Salted butter in a recipe written for unsalted | Cut added salt ~¼ tsp per stick |
Every Related Tool and Guide, in One List
- Butter Converter — sticks, cups, tablespoons, grams, ounces
- How to Measure Butter — technique, salted vs unsalted, European butter, softened vs melted vs cold
- Cups to Grams Calculator — for recipes written by weight
- Baking Substitutions — oil for butter and other swaps
- Vintage Recipe Measurements Decoded — knob, lump, size of an egg
- Recipe Multiplier — scaling butter amounts up or down
- The Complete Baking Measurement & Conversion Guide