Citrus Juicers · Updated November 14, 2026 · By Editorial Team

How much juice is in one lime?

Quick answer. A standard 2-inch lime gives about 2.9 tablespoons (43 ml) of juice, from one USDA figure (single source). For 1/4 cup you need 2 limes; for 1/2 cup, 3. We have no sourced yield for key limes.

1 medium lime gives about 2.9 tbsp of juice.

For 1/2 cup you need about 3 medium limes.

Single source One published source; squeeze one fruit to check.

Unit	Juice
tsp	8.73
tbsp	2.91
fl oz	1.45
cup	0.18
ml	43

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How many limes for 1 tablespoon, 1/4 cup and 1 cup

USDA's yield is for one lime size, a 2-inch lime weighing 67 g edible. Only one published figure turned up, so there is no range, and we show it as a single value.

How many standard 2-inch limes for a given amount of juice
Juice needed	limes (standard 2-inch)	In ml
1 tbsp	1	15
2 tbsp	1	30
1/4 cup	2	59
1/3 cup	2	79
1/2 cup	3	118
3/4 cup	5	177
1 cup	6	237

Juice from limes (medium size)
Limes	Tablespoons	Fl oz	Cups	ml
1	2.9	1.5	0.18	43
2	5.8	2.9	0.36	86
3	8.7	4.4	0.55	129
4	11.6	5.8	0.73	172
6	17.5	8.7	1.09	258
8	23.3	11.6	1.45	344

Key lime vs Persian lime

Recipes for key lime pie ask for key limes; most grocery stores sell the larger Persian type. Neither USDA FoodData Central nor the NDSU guide names the variety behind its figures or gives a key lime yield, so the table says what we can and cannot back with a source. The descriptive rows are general culinary knowledge, not from our data sources.

	Persian lime (common grocery lime)	Key lime
Juice yield per fruit	USDA lists 2.9 tbsp for a 2-inch lime but does not name the variety	No sourced figure. We do not give one
Size	Larger	Smaller
Flavor	Tart, milder	More tart and aromatic
Where you find it	Most supermarkets	Specialty shops, or bottled juice
Counting limes for a recipe	Use the table above	Squeeze and measure, below

No key lime figure? Measure it

When a recipe says "the juice of 12 key limes" and you cannot tell how many to buy, do a short test instead of trusting a number we cannot source.

Juice 3 key limes into a small cup.
Measure the juice in tablespoons and divide by 3.
Divide what the recipe needs by that figure and round up. The calculator above converts tablespoons to cups.

What is in a tablespoon of lime juice

Amount	Calories	Sugars	Potassium
1 tablespoon raw lime juice	4 kcal	0 g	18 mg
1 lime's juice (about 2.9 tbsp)	10 kcal	0.7 g	51 mg

Lime juice, raw, FDC 168156, at 242 g per cup.

Swapping limes for something else

We found no sourced ratio for lime-juice swaps, so we give none. If a recipe needs a swap, the lemon page has the swaps that NDSU Extension does list.

Squeezing limes

Limes are small and the juice is in the pulp, so a handheld press or reamer is the usual tool. How to choose a citrus juicer for lemons and limes compares them.

Sources and how we checked

Lime: USDA FoodData Central, Lime juice, raw (FDC 168156): 1 lime yields 44 g; 242 g per cup.
Key lime: No juice yield in FDC portion data or NDSU FN198. We do not give a number.

All values read on 2026-11-14, logged in content/data/sources.json. The official USDA Food Buying Guide could not be opened from our build machine (it blocks automated requests), so no figure is taken from it. Size rows scale the medium figure by USDA edible fruit weight; that scaling is our assumption, not a published yield.

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