How many ounces in a pound?, 16, and here is the converter.

There are 16 ounces in a pound. That is the whole answer for the everyday ounce, the avoirdupois ounce used for food, post and body weight. To change pounds to ounces, multiply by 16: 3 lbs is 48 oz. To change ounces to pounds, divide by 16: 40 oz is 2.5 lbs, which is 2 lbs 8 oz. The converter below does both and splits pounds and ounces for you.

How to use the converter

1. Type a weight in the Pounds (lb) box, for example 2.5. The Ounces (oz) result shows 40.
2. To work backwards, type ounces in the Ounces (oz) box. You get pounds, and the cards show pounds and ounces together.
3. Click a row in Common values, for instance 0.75 lb, to see it as 12 oz.
4. The cards give the same weight in grams and kilograms, and in stone and pounds.
5. Use Copy result for a one line answer, or Print chart for an ounces chart for the kitchen.

The definition

NIST Handbook 44 (2026), Appendix C lists the avoirdupois weights as 16 drams = 1 ounce, 16 ounces = 1 pound, and 1 pound = 7,000 grains. The same document gives 1 avoirdupois ounce as 28.349 523 125 grams and 1 pound as 0.453 592 37 kilograms. NIST Special Publication 811, Appendix B.8 rounds those to 28.34952 grams and 0.4535924 kilograms. Both were checked 18 Oct 2026. So an ounce is one sixteenth of a pound exactly, and the conversion has no rounding at all: it is plain multiplication or division by 16.

A way to do it in your head

Count in halves. Half a pound is 8 oz, a quarter is 4 oz, three quarters is 12 oz, an eighth is 2 oz. For a fraction of a pound, take that fraction of 16: a quarter of 16 is 4, and three eighths of 16 is 6. Whole pounds are multiples of 16. For 2 lbs 5 oz: 2 × 16 = 32, plus 5 = 37 oz. For 100 oz: 16 goes into 100 six times (96), with 4 left, so 6 lbs 4 oz. There is no error to track here, because the relation is exact.

Worked examples

• A 1.5 lb roast. 1.5 × 16 = 24 oz. In grams that is 680 g.
• A recipe asking for 12 oz of pasta. 12 ÷ 16 = 0.75 lb, so three quarters of a pound.
• A parcel of 2 lbs 5 oz. 2 × 16 + 5 = 37 oz, which is 2.3125 lbs and 1.049 kg.
• A kitchen scale showing 100 oz. 100 ÷ 16 = 6.25 lbs, which is 6 lb 4 oz.
• A baby at 118 oz. 118 ÷ 16 = 7.375 lbs, or 7 lb 6 oz.

The mistake to avoid: three kinds of ounce

The ounce that is 1/16 of a pound is for ordinary goods. Two other things are also called ounce. A fluid ounce measures volume, not weight: NIST Handbook 44 (2026), Appendix C puts 16 fluid ounces in a US pint, which is a different relation. And the troy ounce, used for gold and silver, is heavier: 12 troy ounces make a troy pound, and one troy ounce is 31.103 476 8 grams against 28.349 523 125 for the ordinary one. So a troy pound is 0.8229 avoirdupois pounds, not 1. If a price is for gold or silver, check the ounce. For fluid ounces and cups, see the Ounces to cups converter.

Fractions of a pound in ounces

Recipes and shop signs use fractions of a pound. Since a pound is 16 ounces, every fraction with a power of two under the line is a whole number of ounces. The table shows the common ones, with the grams they weigh.

A quarter pound is 4 ounces, so a quarter pound of ground beef is 4 oz, and a half pound is 8 oz. These are exact, because the ounce is a sixteenth of the pound by definition. The grams in the last column are the exact weights to one decimal.

Where other numbers of ounces come in

16 is for the everyday avoirdupois pound. A troy pound has 12 troy ounces and weighs 31.1035 g per ounce, so a troy pound is 373.242 g. The ordinary pound is 453.592 g, so the troy pound is lighter even though it has fewer ounces: a troy ounce is the heavier ounce. Do not use 16 for gold, silver or some medicine measures. Use the troy card on the Grams to ounces converter when you need to compare a metric weight with a troy one.

Who needs ounces in a pound

Cooks following a US recipe with a pound of meat or butter. Anyone sending a parcel whose rate is set by weight. Parents reading a baby's weight, given in pounds and ounces. Shoppers comparing a price per pound with a price per ounce. If you also work in metric, the Grams to ounces converter and the LBS to KG converter cover the rest.