Unit converter

Oven temperatures.

Gas mark to °C and °F, with fan oven settings alongside. Gas marks are not a unit — they are a numbered scale with a conventional temperature attached to each step — so they come from the chart below rather than from the converter, which handles °C and °F exactly.

°C → °FExact definition
Gas mark to conventional oven, fan oven and Fahrenheit — the settings UK recipes assume.
Gas markConventionalFanFahrenheit
¼110 °C90 °C225 °F
½120 °C100 °C250 °F
1140 °C120 °C275 °F
2150 °C130 °C300 °F
3160 °C140 °C325 °F
4180 °C160 °C350 °F
5190 °C170 °C375 °F
6200 °C180 °C400 °F
7220 °C200 °C425 °F
8230 °C210 °C450 °F
9240 °C220 °C475 °F
°F=°C×95+32 °C=59×(°F32)

Definitions

  • A gas mark is a numbered position on a dial, not a unit of temperature. The chart gives the temperature each mark is conventionally taken to mean; there is no formula, and manufacturers differ slightly.
  • Between gas mark 1 and 9 the steps are close to 25 °F apart, which is why the Fahrenheit column is made of round numbers and the Celsius one is not.
  • The fan column is the conventional setting less 20 °C, the rule UK recipes and oven manuals use. Some manufacturers say 15 °C and a few say 25 °C — check the manual before trusting the round number.
  • A domestic oven's thermostat is typically within about 10–15 °C of the dial, and the air near the door is cooler than the air at the back. Converting to a tenth of a degree is arithmetic, not accuracy.
  • °C and °F themselves are defined against the kelvin, so that part of the conversion is exact — the converter above handles it, and will happily work outside oven temperatures.

How it works

To convert an oven temperature from Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 1.8 and add 32; to go the other way, subtract 32 first and then multiply by 5/9. That part is exact, and the converter above does it in both directions for any value you type.

Gas marks work differently. They are steps on a dial that a chart maps to temperatures, so the only honest way to convert one is to look it up — which is what the table does. Marks ¼ and ½ exist because the bottom of the range needed finer steps than whole numbers allowed.

For a fan oven, drop the conventional temperature by 20 °C and expect to shorten the time a little as well: moving air transfers heat faster, so the same dial setting cooks harder. A recipe that says 180 °C without qualification means a conventional oven.

Common questions this answers: what gas mark 4 is (180 °C conventional, 160 °C fan, 350 °F), what 180 °C is in a fan oven (160 °C), what 200 °C is in Fahrenheit (392 °F, usually rounded to 400 on a dial), and why the Fahrenheit column is rounder than the Celsius one.