Two-thirds cup of butter equals 10 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons, or about 151 grams and 1⅓ sticks.
If you’ve ever stopped mid-recipe and stared at “2/3 cup butter” for a beat, you’re not alone. It’s one of those amounts that sounds simple until you grab the wrapper, the spoons, and the scale and realize none of them line up at a glance.
The good news is that this one converts cleanly. Once you know the exact match, you can measure it in seconds and move on without second-guessing your dough, batter, or pan sauce.
How Much Is 2 3 Cup Of Butter? In Tablespoons, Grams, And Sticks
In standard U.S. kitchen terms, 2/3 cup of butter equals:
- 10 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons
- 32 teaspoons
- 1⅓ sticks of butter
- About 151 grams
- About 5⅓ ounces
- 160 milliliters
That gives you a few clean ways to get there, which is handy because not every kitchen is set up the same way. Some people work from stick markings. Some trust a scale. Others reach for tablespoon measures because they’re already on the counter.
If your butter comes in sticks with wrapper marks, the fastest read is 1 full stick plus 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons. Since one stick equals 8 tablespoons, you only need to add 2 more tablespoons and 2 teaspoons to hit the full 2/3 cup.
Why This Amount Trips People Up
Quarter-cup and half-cup butter amounts feel familiar. Two-thirds cup is less friendly. It doesn’t land on a full stick, and it doesn’t sit on the most common measuring-cup line people memorize first.
That’s why cooks often make one of two slips. They either round down to 1/2 cup because it’s easy to spot, or they round up to 3/4 cup because it looks close enough. In baking, that small gap can change texture. Cookies may spread more than you planned. Cakes can feel heavier. Frostings may turn softer than planned.
It also helps to separate volume from weight. A cup is volume. Grams are weight. They can point to the same butter amount, but they are not interchangeable numbers. Two-thirds cup is 160 mL in volume, while the weight of that butter lands at about 151 grams.
Best Ways To Measure It
There are three easy routes, and each one works well in a different setup.
Stick Wrapper Method
Use 1 stick, then cut 2 more tablespoons, then add 2 teaspoons from the next tablespoon. This is the cleanest path when you’re working with U.S. butter sticks and want the least cleanup.
Spoon Method
Scoop 10 level tablespoons, then add 2 level teaspoons. It takes a little longer, though it’s dead accurate when you don’t have marked sticks or a scale nearby.
Scale Method
Set a bowl on the scale and weigh out about 151 grams of butter. This is the least fussy route when you’re baking from metric recipes or cutting butter from a large block.
If the butter is soft, a scale saves a lot of mess. Spoon measures get sticky fast with warm butter, and cup measures can turn into a smear job.
What 2 3 Cup Of Butter Looks Like On The Counter
Most people don’t need a full chart for every butter amount. They just need one clear mental picture. For 2/3 cup, think of it this way: start with one full stick, then add one-third cup more.
That extra one-third cup equals 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon. Put together, that lands you right back at 10 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons. Same butter. Same result. Just a different way to see it.
This also helps when you’re using partial sticks left from another recipe. Maybe you already have half a stick in the fridge. Add 1/4 cup and 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons, and you’re there. Once the amount is broken into smaller kitchen-friendly chunks, it stops feeling awkward.
| Measurement Form | Equivalent Amount | When It Helps |
|---|---|---|
| Cup Measure | 2/3 cup | Reading a U.S. recipe as written |
| Tablespoons | 10 tbsp + 2 tsp | Measuring with spoons |
| Teaspoons Only | 32 tsp | Useful when tablespoons are missing |
| Butter Sticks | 1⅓ sticks | Using standard U.S. stick wrappers |
| Stick Plus Extra | 1 stick + 2 tbsp + 2 tsp | Fastest no-math shortcut |
| Metric Volume | 160 mL | Working from metric jugs |
| Metric Weight | About 151 g | Best for scale users |
| Ounces | About 5⅓ oz | Reading older recipe cards |
How Standard Kitchen Rules Back This Up
The conversion isn’t guesswork. NIST’s cooking measurement equivalencies list 1 tablespoon as 15 mL and 1 cup as 240 mL. The FDA uses the same household measure system in its metric equivalent guidance, which is why 2/3 cup lands at 160 mL.
Butter sticks follow their own familiar pattern. Land O Lakes’ butter conversion table lists one full stick as 1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons, with 2/3 cup shown as 10 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons and 160 mL. So whether you count by spoon, wrapper marks, or metric volume, the math lands in the same place.
To check the standards yourself, those three pages line up on the core numbers. That’s why this butter conversion stays steady from one recipe card to the next.
Recipe Scaling That Saves Time
Two-thirds cup shows up a lot in cookie dough, quick breads, frostings, and old family cake recipes. Once you know where it sits next to nearby butter amounts, scaling gets smoother.
The table below makes those nearby amounts easier to spot before you start creaming or melting anything.
| Cup Amount | Tablespoons | Grams |
|---|---|---|
| 1/4 cup | 4 tbsp | About 57 g |
| 1/3 cup | 5 tbsp + 1 tsp | About 76 g |
| 1/2 cup | 8 tbsp | About 113 g |
| 2/3 cup | 10 tbsp + 2 tsp | About 151 g |
| 3/4 cup | 12 tbsp | About 170 g |
| 1 cup | 16 tbsp | About 227 g |
A small chart like this earns its keep when you’re halving or doubling a recipe. If a cake calls for 1 1/3 cups of butter, you can spot that as 2/3 cup plus 2/3 cup. If a frosting calls for 3/4 cup and you only have one stick on hand, you know you need 4 more tablespoons.
Common Slipups That Can Throw Off A Recipe
A few butter mistakes show up again and again:
- Treating 160 mL as 160 grams. Those are not the same thing.
- Cutting 1 stick plus 2 tablespoons and stopping there. That only gets you to 5/8 cup.
- Packing soft butter into a dry cup. Cups work best when the butter is pressed in cleanly with no air gaps.
- Mixing melted-butter volume with solid-butter volume without checking the recipe style.
- Rounding 2/3 cup to 3/4 cup because the difference looks small on paper.
The safest move is to pick one measuring system and stick with it for the full recipe. If you start with grams, stay with grams. If you start with stick marks, stay there. Jumping back and forth is where little errors sneak in.
Salted Vs Unsalted And Block Vs Stick
The conversion math stays the same whether the butter is salted or unsalted. One stick still equals 1/2 cup. Two-thirds cup still equals 10 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons.
What changes is the recipe flavor and, at times, the dough feel. Salted butter can shift the salt level in baking, while unsalted butter gives you tighter control. But the measuring side does not change.
Block butter works the same way too. The only real difference is convenience. Sticks are pre-marked, so they’re faster. Blocks push more people toward a scale, which is often the cleaner move anyway.
What To Write Down On Your Recipe Card
For one line to save for later, use this:
2/3 cup butter = 10 tbsp + 2 tsp = 1⅓ sticks = 160 mL = about 151 g
That note clears up most recipe confusion in a glance. The next time you hit this amount in a pie crust, brownie batter, or buttercream, you won’t need to pause and do kitchen math from scratch.
References & Sources
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).“Metric Kitchen: Cooking Measurement Equivalencies.”Lists cup, tablespoon, teaspoon, and milliliter kitchen equivalents used in the article.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).“Guidance for Industry: Guidelines for Determining Metric Equivalents of Household Measures.”States the household-measure standards behind 1 cup = 240 mL and 1 tablespoon = 15 mL.
- Land O Lakes.“Measurements + Abbreviations – Butter Conversion Calculator.”Shows butter stick, tablespoon, teaspoon, gram, ounce, and milliliter conversions for common kitchen amounts.
