A tablespoon of butter has about 102 calories, and a tablespoon of olive oil about 119, according to USDA FoodData Central. Butter comes out lower because about a sixth of it is water. Every liquid cooking oil lands between 119 and 124 calories per tablespoon, and a teaspoon of any of them is about 40. Which oil you pick barely changes the count; how much you pour does.
This article is general information about calories in cooking fats. It is not medical advice. If you have a health condition or follow a medical diet, ask a doctor or a registered dietitian.
Calories per teaspoon, tablespoon and ¼ cup
Here are the common US cooking fats side by side. Each cell gives the calories, then the weight of that measure in grams.
| Fat | 1 teaspoon | 1 tablespoon | ¼ cup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Butter, salted or unsalted | 34 kcal (4.7 g) | 102 kcal (14.2 g) | 407 kcal (57 g) |
| Whipped butter | 23 kcal (3.1 g) | 69 kcal (9.4 g) | 276 kcal (38 g) |
| Ghee (clarified butter) | 38 kcal (4.3 g) | 115 kcal (12.8 g) | 461 kcal (51 g) |
| Olive oil | 40 kcal (4.5 g) | 119 kcal (13.5 g) | 477 kcal (54 g) |
| Canola oil | 40 kcal (4.5 g) | 124 kcal (14 g) | 482 kcal (54.5 g) |
| Vegetable oil (soybean) | 40 kcal (4.5 g) | 120 kcal (13.6 g) | 482 kcal (54.5 g) |
| Coconut oil | 40 kcal (4.5 g) | 121 kcal (13.6 g) | 486 kcal (54.5 g) |
| Avocado oil | 40 kcal (4.5 g) | 124 kcal (14 g) | 482 kcal (54.5 g) |
| Sesame oil | 40 kcal (4.5 g) | 120 kcal (13.6 g) | 482 kcal (54.5 g) |
| Stick margarine (80% fat) | 33 kcal (4.7 g) | 100 kcal (14 g) | 402 kcal (56 g) |
| Tub spread (60% fat) | 26 kcal (4.8 g) | 75 kcal (14 g) | 305 kcal (57 g) |
| Lard | 38 kcal (4.3 g) | 115 kcal (12.8 g) | 462 kcal (51 g) |
| Vegetable shortening | 38 kcal (4.3 g) | 113 kcal (12.8 g) | 453 kcal (51 g) |
| Cooking spray | about 2 kcal per ⅓-second spray (0.3 g) | n/a | n/a |
Calories per 100 g and the gram weights come from USDA’s SR Legacy entries, listed under Sources. Where USDA gives no teaspoon or cup weight for a fat, I divided its tablespoon by 3 or multiplied it by 4. USDA’s ghee entry has no spoon weights at all, so the ghee row uses the 12.8 g tablespoon from USDA’s anhydrous butter oil, which is essentially the same fat.
A few US sizes that come up a lot:
- A stick of butter is 8 tablespoons, or ½ cup (113 g): about 810 kcal.
- A restaurant pat of butter, about 1 inch square and ⅓ inch high, weighs 5 g: about 36 kcal.
- Salted and unsalted butter have the same calories. The salt changes the sodium, about 91 mg per tablespoon for salted against 2 mg for unsalted.
Why a spoon of oil has more calories than a spoon of butter
Per gram, the liquid oils are all the same: they’re pure fat, and fat has about 9 calories per gram. The difference is in the spoon. A tablespoon measures volume, not weight, and each fat packs a different amount of fat into that volume.
- Butter is about 81% fat and 16% water. A 14.2 g tablespoon holds about 11.5 g of fat, so it comes to 102 kcal instead of the roughly 125 kcal the same weight of oil would have.
- Whipped butter has air beaten into it. A tablespoon weighs 9.4 g instead of 14.2 g, so the same butter gives you about a third fewer calories per spoon.
- Liquid oils weigh about 0.91 g per milliliter. USDA measured 90.7 g in 100 ml of extra virgin olive oil. A level US tablespoon is about 14.8 ml, so it holds roughly 13.4 g. USDA’s tablespoon weights for the different oils run from 13.5 g to 14 g, which is a gap of about 4 calories, smaller than the difference between a level spoon and a slightly heaped one.
- Ghee, lard and shortening are solid fats with almost no water. USDA weighs their tablespoon at 12.8 g, a little lighter than a spoon of liquid oil, which puts them at 113 to 115 kcal.
- Margarine and spreads follow their fat content. Stick margarine is 80% fat, like butter, and lands at 100 kcal per tablespoon. A 60% tub spread has more water and comes to about 75.
Why labels and apps show 100, 102, 119, 120 or 126
These are the same fats, measured or rounded in different ways, and the gaps are small.
- Nutrition Facts labels round. FDA rules have labels round calories above 50 to the nearest 10. Butter’s 102 prints as 100, and olive oil’s 119 prints as 120.
- USDA has more than one database. SR Legacy, which I use throughout this page, lists olive oil at 884 kcal per 100 g and 13.5 g per tablespoon, which gives 119. USDA’s Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS) lists olive oil at 900 kcal per 100 g and 14 g per tablespoon, which gives 126. Both are USDA numbers; they just start from slightly different values.
- Cooking spray can say 0 calories. FDA rules let a label show 0 calories when a serving has fewer than 5, and 0 g of fat when it has under 0.5 g. USDA weighs one spray of about ⅓ second at 0.3 g, about 2 calories, so a zero on the can is allowed. The spray still contains oil. At that rate, a 1-second spray is roughly 0.9 g (about 7 kcal), and a 5-second coat on a large skillet is about 4.5 g, the same as a teaspoon of oil. Those are my own extrapolations from USDA’s ⅓-second figure, and real spray rates vary.
How much oil food soaks up when you pan-fry
Pan-fried food keeps some of the oil, not all of it, and how much depends a lot on the food. USDA has lab values for raw and pan-fried versions of the same foods, and comparing them shows the range:
| Food | Before cooking | After pan-frying or sautéing | Fat the food picked up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 large egg | 50 g, 72 kcal, 4.8 g fat | 46 g, 90 kcal, 6.8 g fat | about 2 g (under ½ tsp of oil) |
| Frozen hash browns, 12 oz bag | 340 g, 279 kcal, 2.1 g fat | 205 g, 449 kcal, 23.8 g fat | about 22 g (about 1½ tbsp) |
| Yellow onion, 1 cup sautéed | raw onion is 0.1 g fat per 100 g | 87 g, 107 kcal, 9.4 g fat | about 9 g (about 2 tsp) |
| Red bell pepper, 1 cup sautéed | raw pepper is 0.3 g fat per 100 g | 106 g, 141 kcal, 13.5 g fat | about 13 g (about 1 tbsp) |
What stands out:
- An egg takes up very little. A fried egg ends up with about 2 g more fat than the raw egg, so most of the butter or oil in the pan stays in the pan. I go through boiled, fried and scrambled eggs in how many calories are in an egg.
- Vegetables and potatoes act like sponges. In a cup of sautéed onions or peppers, most of the calories come from the oil, not the vegetable. Frying a bag of hash browns added about 170 kcal.
- Lean foods pick up more than fatty ones. In a study of pan-fried fish, frying raised the fat and calories of lean cod significantly but barely changed farmed salmon (Ansorena et al., 2010).
USDA doesn’t publish how much oil went into the pan for these samples, so the table shows what the food kept, not what was left behind. To count your own cooking:
- If nothing gets drained, as in a sauce, stew, stir-fry or tray of roasted vegetables, count all of the fat. I explain how to split a pot’s total into portions in how to count calories in homemade food.
- If oil is left in the pan, measure what goes in. After cooking, let the pan cool, tip what’s left into a measuring spoon, and count the difference.
- If you didn’t measure, count all of it for vegetables and potatoes. For a fried egg, the USDA numbers suggest only about ½ teaspoon ends up on the plate.
Adding the butter or oil to a meal you log
A photo of fried eggs or sautéed vegetables shows the food, but not how much fat went into the pan. In CaloriePix, the easiest fix is to say it: describe the meal in text or by voice, with the fat and the amount. For example, “2 eggs fried in 1 teaspoon of butter, 1 slice of toast with 1 tablespoon of butter”.
Check the estimate on the review screen before saving. If the butter or oil is listed, edit its quantity to match what you used. If it isn’t, edit the calories and fat, or log the fat as its own entry: search the USDA foods for “oil, olive” or “butter, salted”, or use Enter manually with the numbers from the table above.
If you add the same teaspoon of oil most days, make it a saved food with Save to my foods and add it next to the meal each time. I explain why photos miss oil, sauces and portion size in how accurate AI calorie counting is.
The numbers to remember
A tablespoon of butter is about 102 calories, a tablespoon of any liquid oil about 120, and a teaspoon of oil about 40. A ¼ cup of oil, common in baking recipes, is close to 480. The spoon you pour makes a bigger difference than the oil you pick, so measuring it a few times is worth it even if you stop later. Two tablespoons of oil a day is around 240 calories, which matters more on a smaller target; the calorie calculator estimates yours.
This article is general information and is not medical advice.
