Scale any recipe up or down by servings — double it for a crowd, halve it for two, or hit an exact serving count. Enter the original and desired serving numbers, add each ingredient with its amount and unit, and every quantity recalculates instantly.
How it works
The tool computes a single scaling factor = desired servings ÷ original servings, then multiplies the amount of every ingredient by that factor. Units are free text, so grams, cups, tablespoons, millilitres, or simple counts all scale by the same number — the tool only touches the numeric amount, leaving your unit label unchanged. You can add or remove ingredient rows freely, and the scaled column updates as you type.
Example
A recipe serves 4 and you want 6, so the factor is 6 ÷ 4 = 1.5. Each ingredient is multiplied by 1.5:
| Ingredient | Original (4) | Scaled (6) |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 200 g | 300 g |
| Sugar | 100 g | 150 g |
| Eggs | 2 | 3 |
| Milk | 250 ml | 375 ml |
To halve a recipe instead, set desired servings to half the original (factor 0.5).
What scales linearly and what does not
Scaling by a simple multiplier is accurate for almost all main ingredients. However, a few categories behave differently and benefit from cook’s judgement:
Leavening agents (baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, yeast): These do not always scale perfectly. When doubling a cake batter, experienced bakers often reduce leavening by 10–20% rather than doubling it outright — too much baking powder causes a coarse, sunken crumb. Use the tool’s scaled figure as a starting point and reduce slightly for very large multiples.
Salt and spices: These are best adjusted by taste rather than exact arithmetic, especially for large scale-ups. A dish scaled 4× can taste overwhelmingly salty if the seasoning is scaled exactly; start at 75% of the calculated amount and adjust.
Cooking time: The tool scales quantities, not time. Larger batches in a deeper pan can take noticeably longer to cook through, and smaller batches cook faster. Test for doneness — with a skewer, thermometer, or the tap-to-sound test — rather than applying the same time multiplier.
Pans and vessels: Doubling a recipe often requires a different pan size, which changes depth and therefore heat penetration. Two pans side by side rather than one double-sized pan is sometimes the better approach for baked goods.
Practical tips
- For fractional servings (1.5×, 2.5×), set the desired servings accordingly — for example, 3 from 2 gives a 1.5× scale.
- Egg quantities that come out as fractions (like 2.5 eggs) can usually be rounded to the nearest whole egg without issue. For more precise work, beat and weigh a whole egg and measure the fraction by weight.
- Your ingredients and amounts stay entirely in your browser and are never uploaded.