Recipe Scaler

Scale a recipe for the number of people actually eating.

This tool works directly in your browser. Your entries stay on your device.

What it does

Paste a recipe’s ingredients and tell the scaler how many it serves and how many people are actually eating. It scales every quantity, can switch between cups and grams, and rounds to amounts you can actually measure. A third of three eggs is not one egg, and the scaler will say so.

How to use it

1. Paste the ingredient list, one ingredient per line, exactly as written in the recipe.
2. Enter how many the recipe serves and how many you want.
3. Choose how to measure: keep the recipe’s own units, switch to metric (grams and millilitres), or switch to cups, ounces and spoons.
4. Read the new list and any notes about awkward amounts.

Things that don’t scale simply

• Weight and volume aren’t interchangeable. A cup of flour and a cup of honey weigh very different amounts, so the scaler converts volume to volume and weight to weight.
• Tin and dish sizes. Doubling a cake doesn’t mean a tin twice as wide. The notes give the nearest sensible size.
• Salt and spices scale less than linearly. Use about three-quarters of the scaled amount and adjust at the end.
• Cooking time. Twice the stew in the same pan takes longer to heat and reduce. Go by how it looks, not the original time.