Butter: Sticks, Cups, Tablespoons & Grams
Updated August 15, 2026
One US stick of butter equals ½ cup, 8 tablespoons, 4 ounces, or 113 grams. A full pound of butter is 4 sticks (2 cups, 454 grams).
| Sticks | Cups | Tablespoons | Grams |
|---|---|---|---|
| ¼ stick | ⅛ cup | 2 tbsp | 28 g |
| ½ stick | ¼ cup | 4 tbsp | 57 g |
| 1 stick | ½ cup | 8 tbsp | 113 g |
| 2 sticks | 1 cup | 16 tbsp | 227 g |
| 4 sticks (1 lb) | 2 cups | 32 tbsp | 454 g |
The wrapper is the measuring tool
US butter wrappers print tablespoon marks along the stick — cut through the paper at the line and you're done. When a wrapper's gone missing, remember one stick is 8 tablespoons, so "3 tablespoons" is ⅜ of a stick: just past a third.
European and block butter
European butter typically comes in 250 g blocks without tablespoon markings — a scale is the honest tool, and the chart above converts any US recipe (a stick is 113 g; halve and quarter from there). European-style butter also runs higher fat (82–85% vs. 80%), which rarely breaks a recipe but makes pastry noticeably better.
Water-displacement, for the deeply scale-averse: fill a liquid cup to 1 cup with cold water, add butter until it reads 1¼ cups — you've measured ¼ cup of butter.
Quick answers
- How many tablespoons in a stick of butter?
- 8 tablespoons — the wrapper markings divide it for you.
- How much is a stick of butter in grams?
- 113 grams (4 oz). Two sticks make 227 g, one US cup.
- Can I substitute European butter 1:1?
- Yes by weight. Its slightly higher butterfat and lower water make doughs a touch softer and pastries flakier — a feature, not a bug.