Volume units from kitchen to fuel tank
Volume measures the space a liquid or gas occupies. Metric units are based on the litre (one cubic decimetre) and its thousandth, the millilitre. US customary units, such as the teaspoon, tablespoon, fluid ounce, cup, pint, quart and gallon, are defined in terms of the US gallon of exactly 231 cubic inches, which equals 3.785411784 litres. This converter keeps each unit as a multiple of one litre and converts through that common base.
US versus UK measures
The word "gallon" and "pint" mean different amounts in the United States and the United Kingdom. A US gallon is 3.785 litres, while an imperial (UK) gallon is exactly 4.54609 litres, about 20% larger. That is why a car's fuel economy in miles per US gallon looks lower than the same car rated in miles per imperial gallon. This tool lists both gallons separately so you can tell them apart. The cup, tablespoon and teaspoon here are the US customary versions. Metric cooks in many countries use a 250 mL cup, which is close to the US cup of 236.6 mL but not identical.
Cooking conversions you can check
- 1 US cup = 236.59 mL = 16 tablespoons = 8 fluid ounces.
- 1 tablespoon = 14.79 mL = 3 teaspoons.
- 1 US pint = 2 cups = 473.18 mL; 1 quart = 2 pints = 946.35 mL.
- 1 litre = 4.2268 US cups = 33.814 US fluid ounces.
Fluid ounces versus weight ounces
A fluid ounce measures volume. An ounce on a kitchen scale measures weight. They are only close for water-like liquids, where one US fluid ounce weighs about 1.04 ounces. Flour, sugar and honey have very different densities, so a cup of each weighs a different amount. If a recipe lists a dry ingredient in cups, a conversion to millilitres will not give you grams. Use a weight-based recipe or a trusted density chart for that.
Using the tool
Enter the amount, choose the unit you have and the unit you want, then read the highlighted result. Use the swap button to reverse the direction. Numbers are shown to up to eight significant digits, and nothing is sent anywhere because the calculation runs in the page.