If you’re trying to halve a recipe, but wonder how to halve 1/3 cup (or other tricky measurements), we’ve got you covered!
Let’s find out what is half of 1/3 cup (and other difficult measurements) so you can easily adjust quantities for the ingredients in your favorite recipes!
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If you’ve been baking and cooking for very long, you’ve probably had to cut a recipe in half before.
Maybe you don’t need an entire pan of Biscoff blondies, so you want to prepare a smaller batch.
Or maybe Easter dinner is going to be small this year, so you only need to make a handful of crescent rolls.
But just because you need to cut down a recipe doesn’t mean you need to be a whiz at fractions, decimals, and long division.
Adjusting quantities of ingredients is fairly simple to do, thanks to the US spoon and cup measurement system.
These spoons and cups generally double in size as they increase, so a standard measuring cup set often includes a 1/4 cup, 1/2 cup, 1 cup, and sometimes 1/3 cup.
- Two 1/4 cups = 1/2 cup
- Four 1/4 cups = 1 cup
- Two 1/2 cups = 1 cup
- Three 1/3 cups = 1 cup
A standard measuring spoon set generally includes 1/4 teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon, 1 teaspoon, and 1 Tablespoon.
- Two 1/4 teaspoons = 1/2 teaspoon
- Four 1/4 teaspoons = 1 teaspoon
- Two 1/2 teaspoons = 1 teaspoonn
- 3 teaspoons = 1 Tablespoon
If you need to convert between spoons and cups, you can use this handy metric:
- 1 cup = 16 Tablespoons
- 1/2 cup = 8 Tablespoons
- 1/4 cup = 4 Tablespoons
You can also see our full conversion chart for common measurements below, including how to cut them down.
How Much is Half of 1/3 cup?
Using the information above, it’s easy to cut nice, even numbers in half, such as a full cup or half of a cup.
But what do you do when the numbers aren’t as easy to divide?
One tricky measurement that’s difficult to simply “cut in half” with mental math is 1/3 cup.
Because 1/3 cup is the same as 5 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon (or 16 teaspoons total), we could halve that to be 2 Tablespoons PLUS 2 teaspoons (which is the same as 8 teaspoons total).
So half of 1/3 cup is 2 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons.
More Tricky Measurements to Cut in Half
Here are a couple more measurements that can be difficult to divide when you’re cutting down a recipe.
How Much is Half of 1/4 Cup?
Dry measuring cups don’t often go any smaller than 1/4 cup, so aside from “eyeballing” it, how do you cut 1/4 cup in half?
This one’s a little easier, since we have nice round numbers to work with. Since 1/4 cup is 4 Tablespoons, we can easily cut that in half to 2 Tablespoons.
So half of 1/4 cup is 2 Tablespoons.
What is Half of 3/4 cup
How much is half of 3/4 cup?
If half of 1/4 cup is 2 Tablespoons, we can multiply that by three to find out that half of 3/4 cup is 6 Tablespoons.
This is the same as 1/4 cup PLUS 2 Tablespoons.
Reference Chart for Cutting Down a Recipe
The conversion chart below shows common measurements, along with 1/2 the amount and 1/3 of the amount. This is perfect for those times when you need to cut down a recipe!
| Amount | 1/2 of Amount | 1/3 of Amount |
| 1 cup | 1/2 cup | 1/3 cup |
| 3/4 cup | 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons | 1/4 cup |
| 1/2 cup | 1/4 cup | 2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons |
| 1/3 cup | 2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons | 1 Tablespoon + 1 1/4 teaspoons |
| 2/3 cup | 1/3 cup | 3 Tablespoons + 1 1/2 teaspoons |
| 1/4 cup | 1/8 cup | 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon |
| 1/8 cup | 1 Tablespoon | 2 teaspoons |
| 1 Tablespoon | 1 1/2 teaspoon | 1 teaspoon |
| 1 teaspoon | 1/2 teaspoon | heaping 1/4 teaspoon |
| 1/2 teaspoon | 1/4 teaspoon | N/A |
| 1/4 teaspoon | 1/8 teaspoon | a dash or pinch |
Guide to Dividing Wet Ingredients in Half
The chart above for halving amounts of ingredients is the same for wet and dry.
However, it’s worth mentioning that liquid ingredients, such as water, oil, vinegar, etc., are measured with a liquid measuring cup instead of standard dry-ingredient measuring cups.
You can also use measuring spoons for small amounts of liquid, such as when measuring vanilla extract.
Some wet ingredients, especially thick ones like sour cream, are best measured with a dry-ingredient measuring cup, since they don’t “settle” into a liquid measuring cup the same way.
Halving Ingredients When Using the Metric System
The metric system is a system of measurement used in many parts of the world.
It includes units such as grams and liters, and their smaller and larger increments, such as milligrams, kilograms, and milliliters.
As a nurse and former science teacher, I’m accustomed to the metric system–but I still use the US cups and spoons system in my kitchen.
However, if you are using a recipe written with the metric system, you can halve the ingredients by simply halving the amount.
For example, 500 grams would be halved to 250 grams.
When measuring ingredients by weight, it can be very beneficial to have a kitchen scale.
But if you’re in a pinch and don’t have a scale, you can simply convert the metric measurements to US cups and spoons measurements.
Cutting 1/3 cup in half
Hopefully these tips and the handy conversion chart will take the guesswork out of your math the next time you need to cut down a recipe, particularly if you need to halve 1/3 cup!
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