A little less mental math
Recipe Serving Size Calculator: Scale Ingredients
Cooking for a different number of people? Enter the original servings, the servings you want, and your ingredients. Get adjusted quantities you can download and keep.
Free, no account needed. Ingredient entries are calculated in this browser and are not uploaded or saved by this tool.
How to scale a recipe to a different serving size
Divide the servings you want by the original servings. Multiply every ingredient quantity by that factor. A recipe for two people expanded to six uses a factor of 3. A recipe for eight reduced to two uses 0.25.
New quantity = original quantity × wanted servings ÷ original servings. The unit does not change: 200 grams becomes 400 grams when doubled. A cup stays a cup. This calculator does not convert cups to grams because that conversion depends on the ingredient.
Example: turn two servings into three
The scale factor is 3 ÷ 2 = 1.5. Here is the arithmetic before any adjustments for taste or the pan you use.
| Ingredient | For 2 | For 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Pasta | 200 g | 300 g |
| Tomatoes | ½ cup | ¾ cup (0.75) |
| Olive oil | 1½ tbsp | 2¼ tbsp (2.25) |
Enter fractions exactly as written in the original, and check that ingredients repeated in different steps are not counted twice. Decimal results are shown with up to six significant digits. Keep more precision during calculation, then choose an amount your measuring equipment can actually measure.
Does doubling ingredients mean doubling the cooking time?
No. This tool changes ingredient amounts only. It does not calculate oven temperature, cooking time, pan dimensions, or doneness. Follow a reliable recipe's guidance for batch size and cooking checks. A larger batch may need separate pans; changing the depth of food can change how it cooks.
Seasonings, thickening, and baking recipes may need more care than a simple multiplier. If the result is 1.5 eggs or a very small fraction of a spoon, decide how to measure it using the recipe's own instructions. A numerical answer is not a tested recipe. Preserve the original so an experiment does not overwrite a version that worked.
Keep the adjusted recipe and the original together
Download the result as a text file, label it with the intended servings, and keep the original source link. Before scaling an imported recipe, use the recipe import checklist to verify the source amounts. Then use the recipe-to-grocery-list workflow to combine shopping quantities.
Cookit helps turn links and screenshots into editable recipe cards on iPhone. The free calculator works independently of the app. For weekly spending, try the grocery budget calculator.
By Soldra · Published . Editorial policy and corrections.