Free teaspoons to grams calculator
Enter a teaspoon amount and pick your ingredient — this teaspoons to grams converter uses per-teaspoon density data for salt, sugar, baking powder, yeast, and other essentials, updated live, as you type.
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Volume-to-weight conversions are approximate and vary by ingredient brand, moisture, and packing method.
Results are estimates. Consult a professional.
How the teaspoons-to-grams calculator works
One US teaspoon has a fixed volume of 4.929 mL, but the weight it holds depends entirely on what is inside. Water weighs 4.93 g per teaspoon; table salt weighs 5.7 g; ground cinnamon weighs only 2.6 g because it is much less dense. The calculator looks up the density of each ingredient and multiplies by the number of teaspoons to give you the gram weight.
Worked example: converting a spice blend to grams
A sandwich loaf recipe calls for 1 tsp table salt, 2 tsp instant yeast and 1 tsp granulated sugar. A baker scaling the recipe by weight wants to know the gram equivalent of each.
Teaspoons to grams for common baking ingredients
All values assume level US teaspoons. Gram values are rounded to one decimal place. The density differences are striking: the same teaspoon holds nearly twice as much salt as cinnamon by weight.
| Teaspoons | Salt | Sugar | Bkg Powder | Bkg Soda | Butter | Yeast |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ¼ | 1.4 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 0.8 |
| ½ | 2.9 | 2.1 | 2.3 | 3.0 | 2.4 | 1.6 |
| 1 | 5.7 | 4.2 | 4.6 | 6.0 | 4.7 | 3.1 |
| 2 | 11.4 | 8.4 | 9.2 | 12.0 | 9.5 | 6.2 |
| 3 | 17.1 | 12.6 | 13.8 | 18.0 | 14.2 | 9.3 |
| 4 | 22.8 | 16.8 | 18.4 | 24.0 | 18.9 | 12.4 |
Source: King Arthur Baking weight chart; USDA FoodData Central. Table salt 5.7 g/tsp. Granulated sugar 4.2 g/tsp. Baking powder 4.6 g/tsp. Baking soda 6.0 g/tsp. Unsalted butter (softened) 4.73 g/tsp. Instant yeast 3.1 g/tsp.
Tips for teaspoons-to-grams conversions in baking
Small ingredient quantities have an outsized effect on baked goods. A gram off in baking soda creates a metallic aftertaste; too much salt can slow yeast. These five tips help you measure small quantities accurately.
- Use a jewellery or pocket scale for sub-gram accuracy — Most kitchen scales read only to ±1 g, which is a 17% error on a 6 g measurement. A pocket scale accurate to 0.1 g costs under $15 and transforms your baking precision for salt, yeast, and leavening.
- Baking soda and baking powder are not interchangeable — Baking soda (6.0 g/tsp) is about three times stronger than baking powder (4.6 g/tsp) as a leavening agent. When the calculator converts teaspoons to grams for each, remember that substituting one for the other also changes the required quantity.
- Salt type changes the density — and the flavour — Table salt is about 5.7 g/tsp; Diamond Crystal kosher salt is about 2.8 g/tsp; Morton kosher salt is about 4.8 g/tsp. If your recipe calls for kosher salt, the teaspoon-to-gram conversion is different from table salt even though the volume is the same.
- Vanilla extract density is similar to water — Vanilla extract is mostly water and alcohol: about 4.2 g/tsp. For small quantities (½–1 tsp) the difference between measuring by volume and by weight is negligible, but at 2+ teaspoons a scale reading is cleaner.
- Spices vary widely in density — Ground cinnamon ≈ 2.6 g/tsp; ground cumin ≈ 2.1 g/tsp; ground ginger ≈ 1.8 g/tsp. If your spice is not in the calculator's list, use 2.5–3.0 g/tsp as a rough working estimate for ground dried spices.
Accuracy and limitations
The teaspoon volume is fixed (4.929 mL per NIST SP 811), so the only source of error is the ingredient density. Density values in this calculator come from King Arthur Baking and USDA FoodData Central and represent level teaspoons measured at room temperature. Actual density can vary with humidity (salt and sugar cake up), brand, grind size (coarser ground spices are lighter), and measuring technique (heaped vs. level).
For critical baking measurements — especially leavening agents, salt and yeast — always prefer weighing with a digital scale over volume conversion. A 10–15% density variation in how finely ground a spice is can shift the gram weight by more than ½ gram per teaspoon, which matters in small-batch baking and spice blends.
Baking ingredient terms defined
About this teaspoons-to-grams calculator
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