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Convert US cups to litres

1 cup = 0.236588 L

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Questions

How many litres are in a US cup?

One US cup is 0.236588236 litres. To convert any amount, multiply by 0.236588236. Going the other way, one litre is 4.22675284 US cups.

What is the formula to convert cup to L?

Multiply the US cup figure by 0.236588236. So L = cup × 0.236588236. For a quick mental estimate, dividing by about 4.23 gets you close enough for most everyday purposes.

What does a US cup actually look like?

One US cup is a standard mug of coffee. The US customary cup is 8 US fluid ounces, about 237 mL. US legal cups are 240 mL, metric cups are 250 mL, and Japanese cups are 200 mL — recipes rarely say which.

And what is a litre?

One litre is a large bottle of soft drink. The litre is exactly one cubic decimetre. It is not strictly an SI unit but is accepted for use with SI, and it is the fuel and beverage unit almost everywhere.

Is this the US or the imperial measure?

US customary. The imperial gallon still used in some UK contexts is about 20% larger than the US gallon, which makes fuel-economy figures misleading when the unit is not stated. Imperial fluid ounces are slightly smaller than US ones, and imperial pints are 20 fluid ounces against the US 16. Cups are worse still: US customary is about 237 mL, US legal is 240, metric is 250 and Japanese is 200 — and recipes almost never say which.

Is this conversion exact?

Yes. Since the 1959 international yard and pound agreement, the imperial and metric systems are related by exact definitions rather than measurements — the inch is exactly 25.4 mm and the pound exactly 0.45359237 kg. Everything derived from those, including this conversion, is therefore exact. Round at the end rather than partway through, since rounding cup before converting introduces an error the conversion then multiplies.

About cup to l

How to convert US cups to litres

Multiply by 0.236588236. One US cup is 0.236588236 litres, and one litre is 4.22675284 US cups.

L = cup × 0.236588236

Worked example

10 cup = 2.365882 L. For a sense of scale, one US cup is a standard mug of coffee, and one litre is a large bottle of soft drink.

About the US cup

The US customary cup is 8 US fluid ounces, about 237 mL. US legal cups are 240 mL, metric cups are 250 mL, and Japanese cups are 200 mL — recipes rarely say which.

About the litre

The litre is exactly one cubic decimetre. It is not strictly an SI unit but is accepted for use with SI, and it is the fuel and beverage unit almost everywhere.

Quick reference

US cupslitres
1 cup0.236588 L
2 cup0.473176 L
5 cup1.18294 L
10 cup2.36588 L
25 cup5.91471 L
50 cup11.8294 L
100 cup23.6588 L
1000 cup236.588 L

Getting it right

Check whether your source means US or imperial measures. An imperial gallon is about 20% larger than a US gallon, and an imperial fluid ounce is slightly smaller than a US one. Recipes and fuel-economy figures are where this bites hardest, because the numbers look plausible either way.

Other volume conversions

Convert litres back to US cups, or pick any other pair with the full unit converter. Related: cup to mL, cup to gal, cup to fl oz.