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Convert litres to US gallons

1 L = 0.264172 gal

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Questions

How many US gallons are in a litre?

One litre is 0.264172052 US gallons. To convert any amount, multiply by 0.264172052. Going the other way, one US gallon is 3.78541178 litres.

What is the formula to convert L to gal?

Multiply the litre figure by 0.264172052. So gal = L × 0.264172052. For a quick mental estimate, dividing by about 3.79 gets you close enough for most everyday purposes.

What does a litre actually look like?

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.

And what is a US gallon?

One US gallon is a large jug of milk. The US gallon is exactly 231 cubic inches, or 3.785 litres. The imperial gallon still used in some UK contexts is about 20% larger, which makes fuel-economy comparisons misleading.

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 L before converting introduces an error the conversion then multiplies.

About l to gal

How to convert litres to US gallons

Multiply by 0.264172052. One litre is 0.264172052 US gallons, and one US gallon is 3.78541178 litres.

gal = L × 0.264172052

Worked example

10 L = 2.641721 gal. For a sense of scale, one litre is a large bottle of soft drink, and one US gallon is a large jug of milk.

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.

About the US gallon

The US gallon is exactly 231 cubic inches, or 3.785 litres. The imperial gallon still used in some UK contexts is about 20% larger, which makes fuel-economy comparisons misleading.

Quick reference

litresUS gallons
1 L0.264172 gal
2 L0.528344 gal
5 L1.32086 gal
10 L2.64172 gal
25 L6.6043 gal
50 L13.2086 gal
100 L26.4172 gal
1000 L264.172 gal

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