To convert tablespoons of peanut butter into grams, multiply by 16.125: one tablespoon comes to 16.125 grams. Every ingredient has its own figure here, because the units are measuring different things and only the density links them.
Put next to water — 1 g per mL exactly — peanut butter measures 1.0905 g per mL. That ratio, 109.1%, is what separates this page from every other ingredient in the same units, and it is measured rather than defined.
A level tablespoon of peanut butter is 16.12 g, which puts a teaspoon at 5.375 g and a tablespoon and a half — the quantity recipes are fondest of — at 24.19 g. Levelling twice is where the error comes from, so the scale is the faster instrument once the quantity passes a couple of spoons.
Grams are the unit this conversion is really for. A domestic scale resolves to a gram, which is 0.388% of a cup of peanut butter, so weighing gets an accuracy no measuring cup can reach. A 500 g pack of it is 1.938 cups, and a 1 kg pack 3.876.
How the figure is arrived at: Smooth, at room temperature. Straight from the fridge it is far harder to level into a cup, and that shows up on the scale.
The formula
tablespoons- The amount of peanut butter you are converting, in tablespoons
16.125- Grams per tablespoon for peanut butter, from its density of 1.0905 g/mL
grams- The equivalent quantity in grams
How it works, step by step
- Enter the quantity in tablespoons.
- It is multiplied by 16.125, the grams-per-tablespoon figure for peanut butter.
- The result appears in grams, with a second reading in oz beneath it.
- Use the measure table if you want a standard recipe quantity rather than a number you type in.
Worked examples
2 tbsp of peanut butter in grams
2 tbsp of peanut butter weighs out at 32.25 grams. Divide 32.25 by 16.125 and you get back to 2 tbsp, which is the quickest check that the factor is the right way up.
4 tbsp of peanut butter in grams
A recipe calling for 4 tbsp of peanut butter needs 64.5 grams on the scale. The arithmetic is 4 × 16.125 = 64.5, and halving the recipe halves the weight to 32.25 grams.
12 tbsp of peanut butter in grams
Take 12 tbsp of peanut butter: 12 × 16.125 gives 193.5 grams. Doubling the batch takes it to 387 grams, because the relationship is a straight proportion once the density is known.
How to read your score
Frequently asked questions
How many grams are in 1 tbsp of peanut butter?
One tablespoon of peanut butter is 16.125 grams. Half that quantity is 8.0625 grams and double it is 32.25 grams, so the figure scales straight up and down — there is no offset in this conversion, only the factor.
Why is a cup of peanut butter not 236 g like water?
Because weight per cup depends on what is in the cup. Peanut butter has a density of 1.0905 g per mL where water has 1.00, so a cup of it weighs 258 g rather than 236.6 g. That is a difference of 21.4 g per cup, and it is the reason a single volume-to-weight factor cannot be applied to every ingredient.
Does how I measure it change the weight?
Barely. Peanut butter does not compress, so a cup of it is 258 g however it is poured — within about 1%, which is inside the accuracy of a domestic scale. This is the group where measuring by volume is defensible.
Is a fluid ounce of peanut butter the same as an ounce?
No. A fluid ounce is a volume — one eighth of a US cup, 29.57 mL — and an ounce is a weight. One fluid ounce of peanut butter weighs 1.138 oz, so the two readings differ by 13.8%. They coincide only for something with the density of water, and then only roughly.
Is this a US cup or a metric cup?
US customary: 236.59 mL, which is the cup every US recipe means. A metric cup is 250 mL, so the same cup of peanut butter would weigh 272.63 g instead of 258 g — 14.6 g more, or 5.67%. Australian and some European recipes use the metric cup, and the difference is large enough to matter in baking.
Do I need a scale for this, or will measuring cups do?
A scale, if the result matters. Volume measuring carries a spread of about 1% for peanut butter — roughly 2.58 g on a 258 g cup — while a domestic scale is accurate to a gram or two. For anything where the ratio of ingredients drives the outcome, bread and pastry above all, weigh it.
How many tablespoons of peanut butter is 500 g?
500 g of peanut butter is 31.008 tablespoons — 0.0620155 tablespoons to one gram, so 500 × 0.0620155 = 31.008. Going that way is a division by 16.125, or a multiplication by 0.0620155 if you prefer.
Peanut butter in tablespoons and grams
| Tablespoons | Grams | Unrounded |
|---|---|---|
| 1/2 tbsp | 8.0625 g | 8.0625 |
| 1 tbsp | 16.125 g | 16.125 |
| 2 tbsp | 32.25 g | 32.25 |
| 3 tbsp | 48.375 g | 48.375 |
| 4 tbsp | 64.5 g | 64.5 |
| 6 tbsp | 96.75 g | 96.75 |
| 8 tbsp | 129 g | 129 |
| 12 tbsp | 193.5 g | 193.5 |
| 16 tbsp | 258 g | 258 |
Based on 258 g per cup of peanut butter. One tablespoon of peanut butter is 16.125 grams.
| Measure | Grams | Ounces | Millilitres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cup | 258 g | 9.1 oz | 236.6 mL |
| 1 tbsp | 16.12 g | 0.569 oz | 14.79 mL |
| 2 tsp | 10.75 g | 0.379 oz | 9.858 mL |
| 1 tsp | 5.375 g | 0.19 oz | 4.929 mL |
| 3/4 tsp | 4.031 g | 0.142 oz | 3.697 mL |
| 1/2 tsp | 2.688 g | 0.0948 oz | 2.464 mL |
| 1/4 tsp | 1.344 g | 0.0474 oz | 1.232 mL |
| 1/8 tsp | 0.6719 g | 0.0237 oz | 0.6161 mL |
US customary measures: 1 cup = 236.59 mL, 1 tbsp = 14.79 mL, 1 tsp = 4.93 mL.
| Ingredient | Grams per cup | Ounces per cup | Density (g/mL) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato sauce | 245 g | 8.642 oz | 1.036 |
| Orange juice | 248 g | 8.748 oz | 1.048 |
| Evaporated milk | 252 g | 8.889 oz | 1.065 |
| Peanut butter (this page) | 258 g | 9.101 oz | 1.091 |
| Sweetened condensed milk | 306 g | 10.79 oz | 1.293 |
| Maple syrup | 322 g | 11.36 oz | 1.361 |
| Corn syrup | 328 g | 11.57 oz | 1.386 |
Ordered by weight. The spread across this group is why a single generic cups-to-grams factor cannot work.