Does every ingredient scale by the exact same ratio?

Most ingredients do, but spices, seasoning, and leavening agents like baking powder often need adjustment rather than a strict linear scale-up, since their effect isn't always proportional to quantity.

Does cooking time scale the same way as ingredient amounts?

No, a larger batch typically needs more cooking time but not in direct proportion to the quantity increase — pan size and heat distribution also affect how long it takes.

How do I calculate the scale factor for a recipe?

Divide the desired number of servings by the recipe's original number of servings, then multiply every ingredient amount by that factor.

Recipe Scaler

Scale any recipe up or down. Enter your ingredients, set servings, and get perfectly rounded measurements.

Recipe Name

Original Servings

Desired Servings

Ingredients Smart rounding

AMOUNT UNIT INGREDIENT

How to use

Enter your recipe name and the original number of servings.
Set your desired serving count — scale up or down to any amount.
Add each ingredient with its amount, unit, and name.
Enable Smart Rounding to get clean measurements like "1/2 cup" instead of "0.48 cups".
Click Scale Recipe to see all adjusted quantities.
Save recipes to localStorage to load them later.
Use Print to get a clean printout of the scaled recipe.

About this Recipe Scaler

Scaling a recipe up or down means multiplying every ingredient by the same ratio — straightforward in principle, but easy to get wrong by hand once fractional measurements and odd serving-size changes are involved.

The scaling formula

Scale factor = Desired servings ÷ Original servings
New ingredient amount = Original amount × Scale factor

Worked example

A recipe serving 4 that needs to serve 6 has a scale factor of 6 ÷ 4 = 1.5. An ingredient listed as 2 cups becomes 2 × 1.5 = 3 cups. A 3/4 teaspoon becomes 3/4 × 1.5 = 1 1/8 teaspoons — the kind of fractional math that gets error-prone across a full ingredient list done by hand.

What doesn't scale linearly

Spices and seasoning: often scale at a slightly lower ratio than the main ingredients, since strong flavors can become overpowering when simply doubled
Leavening agents (baking soda, baking powder, yeast): large scale-ups don't always need a proportional increase and can affect texture if scaled linearly
Cooking time: a larger batch in a bigger pan often needs more time, but not in direct proportion to the quantity increase

Best practice

Scale the core ingredients precisely, but taste and adjust seasoning at the end rather than assuming a flat multiplier will produce the right balance of flavor at a different batch size.