What ingredient line formats does it understand?

Whole numbers, decimals, simple fractions (1/2) and mixed numbers (1 1/2), each followed by an optional unit word (cups, tbsp, g, lb, cloves and about 30 others) and the ingredient name. Lines with no leading number, like 'salt to taste', are recognized and passed through unscaled rather than causing an error.

How do I scale by servings instead of a raw factor?

Divide your target servings by the recipe's original servings to get the scale factor — for example, turning a 4-serving recipe into 6 servings is a factor of 6 ÷ 4 = 1.5. Enter that number directly as the scale factor.

Why are some scaled quantities awkward decimals like 1.33?

Scaling by a fraction like two-thirds rarely lands on a clean kitchen measurement — the calculator shows the precise decimal rather than rounding to a 'nice' number, so you can decide whether to round to the nearest 1/4 or 1/8 unit yourself for practical measuring.

Does it convert between units, like cups to grams?

No — this tool only multiplies the quantity you entered by your scale factor; it keeps whatever unit was on the original line. For converting a specific ingredient's cup measurement into grams, use the cups-to-grams converter instead.

Recipe Scaler

Paste an ingredient list and scale every quantity by any factor — doubling, halving or adjusting servings — with fractions and mixed numbers parsed automatically.

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Formula: Scaled quantity = original quantity × scale factor, parsed per ingredient line (quantity, unit, ingredient name)

Worked examples

Double a simple 3-ingredient recipe
Doubling a basic recipe — the simplest scale factor, useful as a sanity check.
Scale a recipe down to two-thirds, with a mixed number and a no-unit line
Shrinking a recipe to serve fewer people, showing mixed-number fractions and an ingredient with no unit word.
Scale a recipe up 3x, including a line with no leading quantity
Ingredient lines without a measurable quantity (like 'salt to taste') pass through unscaled instead of breaking the parser.

What this calculator does

Doubling a recipe, halving it, or adjusting it from four servings to six all require multiplying every single ingredient quantity by the same factor — tedious and error-prone to do by hand across a long ingredient list. Paste your ingredient list into this tool, set a scale factor, and every line is scaled and shown in a clean table, with the original and scaled quantities side by side.

How the parser reads your ingredients

Each line is read as a quantity, an optional unit, and an ingredient name — "2 cups flour" becomes quantity 2, unit "cups", ingredient "flour". The parser understands whole numbers, decimals (0.5), simple fractions (1/2), and mixed numbers (1 1/2), followed by any of about 30 common cooking units (cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, ounces, pounds, grams, cloves and more). If a line doesn't start with a recognizable quantity — "salt to taste," for example — it's passed through unscaled rather than causing an error, since not every ingredient line specifies a precise amount.

Calculating your scale factor

If you're working from a target number of servings, divide the number you want by the recipe's original serving count — scaling a 4-serving recipe up to 6 servings means a factor of 6 ÷ 4 = 1.5. For simple doubling or halving, just enter 2 or 0.5 directly. The tool applies the same factor to every line uniformly: scaled quantity = original quantity × scale factor.

Why some results are awkward decimals

Scaling by a fraction like two-thirds rarely produces a clean kitchen number — 1 cup scaled by 0.667 comes out to 0.667 cups, not a tidy fraction. Rather than guessing at what rounding you'd prefer, this tool shows the precise decimal result, so you can decide whether to round to the nearest 1/4 cup, 1/8 teaspoon, or whatever precision your measuring tools and the ingredient's sensitivity actually allow. Some ingredients (leavening agents like baking soda, for instance) are more sensitive to small errors than others (a pinch more or less of a vegetable rarely matters).

What this tool doesn't do

Scaling ingredient quantities is only part of adjusting a recipe — cooking and baking times, pan sizes and oven temperatures often don't scale linearly with quantity the way ingredients do. Doubling a cake batter, for example, usually means a bigger pan and a longer bake time, not simply twice the batter in the same pan for the same duration. This tool leaves those adjustments to your own judgment; it only handles the ingredient-quantity math.

Limits

The parser handles common, clearly formatted ingredient lines well, but unusual formatting, ranges ("2-3 cloves garlic"), or highly specific brand-name quantities may not parse as cleanly as a standard line. This is a cooking-math convenience tool, not food-safety or nutrition advice — always follow safe food-handling and cooking-temperature guidance separately from any quantity scaling.

Frequently asked questions

What ingredient line formats does it understand?: Whole numbers, decimals, simple fractions (1/2) and mixed numbers (1 1/2), each followed by an optional unit word (cups, tbsp, g, lb, cloves and about 30 others) and the ingredient name. Lines with no leading number, like 'salt to taste', are recognized and passed through unscaled rather than causing an error.
How do I scale by servings instead of a raw factor?: Divide your target servings by the recipe's original servings to get the scale factor — for example, turning a 4-serving recipe into 6 servings is a factor of 6 ÷ 4 = 1.5. Enter that number directly as the scale factor.
Why are some scaled quantities awkward decimals like 1.33?: Scaling by a fraction like two-thirds rarely lands on a clean kitchen measurement — the calculator shows the precise decimal rather than rounding to a 'nice' number, so you can decide whether to round to the nearest 1/4 or 1/8 unit yourself for practical measuring.
Does it convert between units, like cups to grams?: No — this tool only multiplies the quantity you entered by your scale factor; it keeps whatever unit was on the original line. For converting a specific ingredient's cup measurement into grams, use the cups-to-grams converter instead.

These calculators give general estimates from published formulas. They are not medical advice and do not account for your individual health; talk to a qualified professional before changing your diet or training.