NumberTally Recipe Scaler
Scale any recipe up or down in seconds. List your ingredients, enter the original and desired servings, and get every amount recalculated — with kitchen-friendly fractions like ½ and ¾ instead of awkward decimals.
Ingredients
How recipe scaling works
Scaling a recipe is one multiplication applied to everything: scale factor = desired servings ÷ original servings. Doubling 4 servings to 8 is a factor of 2, so 2 cups of flour becomes 4 cups. Halving is a factor of 0.5. The tricky part is not the math — it is the measuring. Nobody wants to measure 0.6667 cups, so this tool snaps volume amounts to the nearest kitchen fraction (⅛, ¼, ⅓, ½, ⅔, ¾) that a real set of measuring cups can handle.
Eggs are the classic edge case: scaling 3 eggs by 1.5 gives 4.5 eggs. The table shows 4½ — in practice, beat the half egg and use half of it, or round to 4 or 5 and accept a slightly richer or lighter result. For leaveners (baking powder, baking soda, yeast), do not scale past about 2× linearly; too much leavener makes baked goods collapse. Season to taste instead of scaling salt and spices exactly — palates do not scale linearly either.
Tips for scaling recipes
Pan size matters more than math. A doubled cake batter in the same pan will be raw in the middle — use a larger pan or bake in two batches, and start checking doneness early. Cooking time barely changes when you scale; temperature stays the same and time shifts only modestly for much larger volumes. Write down the scaled version with the copy button so you are not re-doing the math next time, and note any judgment calls (like the egg rounding) right on the recipe.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I scale a recipe from 4 servings to 6?
Multiply every ingredient by 6 ÷ 4 = 1.5. So 2 cups of flour becomes 3 cups, and 1 teaspoon of salt becomes 1½ teaspoons.
Why does the tool show fractions instead of decimals?
Measuring cups and spoons come in fractions (¼, ⅓, ½, 1 cup), not decimals. 0.75 cups is exactly what your ¾-cup measure holds, so the fraction is the more useful answer.
Should I scale baking powder and yeast the same way?
Up to about double, yes. Beyond that, scale leaveners more conservatively — roughly 1.25× the amount for a tripled recipe is a safer starting point, then adjust from experience.
How do I handle half an egg when scaling?
Crack it, beat it, and use half by volume (about 1½ tablespoons per half egg). For most recipes, rounding to the nearest whole egg also works fine.
Does cooking time change when I scale a recipe?
Temperature stays the same. Time changes little for modest scaling; for much larger batches or thicker layers, start checking 5–10 minutes early and judge by look, temperature, or a toothpick test.