What can I use instead of butter?
You have a few good choices. Which one works best depends on what you are making. Here are the swaps, in plain words, with the amounts.
The short answer
If your recipe calls for butter, you can use:
| When | Use this instead |
|---|---|
| For most cooking | Use liquid oil, but use less of it. 1 cup of butter → ¾ cup of oil. |
| For baking | Swap half the butter for applesauce or another fruit puree. 1 cup of butter → ½ cup butter (or oil) + ½ cup applesauce. |
| For frying in a pan | Use cooking spray, or a little water or broth, in a nonstick pan. |
Not sure which one to pick? The safest start is to swap only half and keep half the butter. The sections below explain each swap.
Why you use less oil than butter
Butter is not all fat. Butter is about 80% fat and about 16% water — the rest is milk parts, not fat.
Oil is different. Oil is 100% fat — there is no water in it.
That is why the oil amount is smaller. If you used a full cup of oil where the recipe wanted a cup of butter, you would be adding more fat than the recipe was made for. So you use one-quarter less oil:
- 1 cup of butter → ¾ cup of oil
- ½ cup of butter → ⅜ cup of oil (6 tablespoons)
- ¼ cup of butter → 3 tablespoons of oil
Use this swap for everyday cooking — things like cooking vegetables, making a sauce, or greasing a pan.
Baking: swap half for fruit puree
When you bake, applesauce or another fruit puree can replace half the fat. You keep the other half as butter or oil.
If the recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, use:
½ cup butter (or oil) +
½ cup applesauce
The puree adds moisture, so the food still comes out soft. Check the oven sooner than usual — the baking time may need to drop by up to 25%.
This half-swap works well in things like muffins, cakes, and quick breads.
Cooking and frying in a pan
For pan frying and sautéing — cooking food in a hot pan — you may not need butter or oil at all. These can cut the fat a lot:
- Cooking spray instead of a spoonful of fat
- A little water or broth in the pan
- A nonstick pan, so food does not stick
In many recipes, the fat can be cut by up to one-third and the food still comes out fine. This works best in gravies, sauces, puddings, and quick breads.
When not to swap
A swap changes the flavor and the feel of the food. Oil has no butter taste, so food made with oil will not taste like food made with butter.
Some recipes really need butter itself, and will not come out the same with oil:
- Recipes that need cold pieces of butter mixed into flour — like flaky pastry and biscuits. The cold pieces are what make the layers.
- Recipes where butter is beaten (creamed) with sugar first. Oil cannot be creamed the same way.
When you are not sure, swap only half and keep half butter. That is the safest way to try a change.
Try it: the butter swap calculator
Type how much butter your recipe calls for. The page works out the swap amounts right here — nothing you type is sent anywhere.
The oil amount is one-quarter less than the butter amount, because oil is all fat and butter is not. The half-swap is the baking swap from the section above.
Sources: University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Bulletin #4167, “Altering Recipes for Better Health” (extension.umaine.edu), and USDA FoodData Central. Checked November 2026.
This page is general cooking information only.