Recipe Scaling Calculator
Scale any recipe up or down to any number of servings.
Enter up to 6 ingredients with units and get scaled amounts plus convenient unit conversions.
How Recipe Scaling Works Scaling a recipe means multiplying or dividing every ingredient by the same factor. This factor is the ratio of the new serving count to the original serving count.
The Formula Scale Factor = New Servings / Original Servings Scaled Ingredient = Original Amount × Scale Factor
For example: a recipe for 4 serves scaled to 10 has a factor of 2.5. Every ingredient is multiplied by 2.5.
When Scaling Is Not Linear Most ingredients scale perfectly linearly — double the servings, double the flour. However, there are important exceptions:
Leavening Agents (Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Yeast) For large batches (3× or more), do not scale leavening agents fully. Use approximately 75% of the calculated amount. Reason: leavening gas needs to overcome gravity, and a large pan does not need proportionally more lift than a small one.
Salt and Strong Spices Scale at 75% initially when cooking for a large crowd — you can always add more, but you cannot remove it.
Cooking Time and Temperature
- Temperature: never changes with scaling
- Time: for baked goods, a larger pan of the same depth cooks at nearly the same time. A doubled cake in one large pan may need 10–20% more time.
- For stovetop cooking, a larger batch may actually cook faster (more surface area on the pan).
Unit Conversions Used
- 1 cup = 16 tablespoons = 48 teaspoons
- 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons
- 1 kg = 1000g | 1 lb = 16 oz
- 1 L = 1000 ml | 1 fl oz = 29.57 ml
Tips for Large Batches For professional or catering-scale recipes (10× or more), always do a small test batch first. Flavor profiles and cooking times behave differently at very large scales.