Everything you need to know about measuring fluid ounces and cups!
How Many Fluid Ounces Are In A Cup?
Ounces and cups are both Imperial measurements, meaning converting between them is pretty simple!
- 8 fluid ounces in a cup
- 1 fluid ounce is 1/8th of a cup
- 2 fluid ounces is 1/4th of a cup
- 4 fluid ounces in ½ of a cup
Always remember that for liquid ingredients you are best to use your measuring cup marked in fluid ounces.
Ounces vs. Fluid Ounces
Fluid ounces are more straight forward than ounces. While fluid ounces are more a measure of volume (meant to measure liquids), ounces are a measure of weight (meant to measure solids). Depending on what ingredient you’re measuring, there could be different ounces in a cup. For instance, 1 cup of sugar will be much heavier (more ounces) than 1 cup of rice puffs (less ounces). Get our guide to ounces in a cup here!
In cooking, and especially baking, precise measurements are often the difference between an okay (or worse) result and great cooking.
One key concept is weight vs volume measurements. We were raised to understand that there are 16 ounces in a pound, 16 ounces in a pint, 8 ounces in a cup, etc.
What we sometimes confuse, however, is that weight and volume are two different animals. 16 fluid ounces of water is a pint and also weighs a pound. Other ingredients, however, can vary greatly in their volume to weight ratio. 16 fluid olive oil weighs less than a pound, so always use your liquid measuring cups!
Quick Conversion Chart
| Fluid Ounces | Cups | Cups |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.125 | 1/8th |
| 2 | 0.25 | 1/4th |
| 4 | 0.5 | 1/2 |
| 6 | 0.75 | 3/4th |
| 8 | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | 1.5 | 1 1/2 |
| 16 | 2 | 2 |
What Is A Cup?
The standardized measure of a cup is relatively new. It was initiated by Fannie Farmer the director of the Boston Cooking School in 1896, and first appeared in her book “The Boston Cooking School Cook Book”. Prior to this it was common for recipes to use terms like a handful of rice or a generous portion of sugar.
Now I know people who can cook that way. They just pour in ingredients and their cooking always seems perfect. For the rest of us mere mortals Fannie Farmer’s standardization was a great service.
What Is A Fluid Ounce?
Ounce comes from the Roman term “uncia.” An uncia was 1/12 of a Roman copper bar that was used as a tool to measure the length of an inch and the weight of an ounce. Modern ounce weight and volume measurements, however, come from Britain. A fluid ounce is 1/32nd of a quart, and is the amount of water that weighs one ounce.
So, to wrap, up how many ounces are in a cup? The answer is 8!
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