Cups, Liters & Gallons
Last reviewed: May 2026
Convert between US customary (teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, pints, quarts, gallons, fluid ounces), metric (ml, liters), and Imperial units. Cooking, baking, chemistry, and everyday measurements all require volume conversions, and the difference between US and Imperial measurements catches many people off guard.1
| Unit | mL | fl oz | Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 teaspoon | 4.93 | 0.167 | 0.021 |
| 1 tablespoon | 14.79 | 0.5 | 0.063 |
| 1 cup | 236.6 | 8 | 1 |
| 1 pint | 473.2 | 16 | 2 |
| 1 quart | 946.4 | 32 | 4 |
| 1 gallon | 3,785 | 128 | 16 |
| 1 liter | 1,000 | 33.8 | 4.23 |
Volume has more competing measurement units than almost any other quantity. The metric system uses liters (L) and milliliters (mL) for fluids and cubic meters (m³) for large volumes. The U.S. customary system uses fluid ounces, cups, pints, quarts, and gallons for liquids, and cubic feet and cubic yards for bulk materials. Adding confusion: U.S. and Imperial (UK) gallons are different sizes — a U.S. gallon is 3.785 L while an Imperial gallon is 4.546 L (20% larger). This difference affects fuel economy comparisons: a car getting 30 mpg (U.S.) would rate as 36 mpg Imperial.
1 liter = 33.814 U.S. fl oz = 4.227 U.S. cups = 0.264 U.S. gallons. 1 U.S. gallon = 3.785 liters = 128 fl oz. 1 cubic foot = 7.481 gallons = 28.317 liters. 1 cubic yard = 27 cubic feet = 202 gallons = 764.6 liters. 1 cubic meter = 1,000 liters = 264.2 gallons = 35.31 cubic feet. For cooking: 1 cup = 8 fl oz = 237 mL; 1 tablespoon = 0.5 fl oz = 14.8 mL; 1 teaspoon = 4.9 mL.
Bulk materials (concrete, gravel, topsoil, mulch) are sold by the cubic yard. One cubic yard fills an area 3' × 3' × 3' — about the volume of a standard washing machine. A pickup truck bed holds 1.5-3 cubic yards depending on size and heap. Concrete: A 10'×10'×4" slab needs 10×10×(4/12) = 33.3 cubic feet ÷ 27 = 1.23 cubic yards. Always order 5-10% extra. Mulch: 3" depth over 100 sq ft needs 100×(3/12) = 25 cu ft ≈ 0.93 cubic yards. Topsoil: Same formula. A 40 lb bag of topsoil is about 0.75 cubic feet — you'd need 33 bags to equal 1 cubic yard, illustrating why bulk delivery is cost-effective for larger projects.
Gasoline is sold in gallons (U.S.) or liters (everywhere else). 1 gallon of gasoline contains approximately 33.7 kWh of energy. 1 barrel of oil = 42 gallons = 159 liters. Natural gas is measured in cubic feet or therms (1 therm = 100 cubic feet of natural gas = 100,000 BTU). LPG (propane) is sold in gallons but measured by weight for safety — a "full" 20 lb propane tank contains about 4.7 gallons. Understanding these volume-energy relationships helps compare fuel costs across types: $3.50/gallon gasoline provides 33.7 kWh for $0.104/kWh, while electricity at $0.12/kWh is comparable but EV motors are 3-4× more efficient than combustion engines.
The US customary system creates particular confusion in the kitchen because liquid and dry measures use the same names but different capacities at larger scales. A US fluid cup is 236.6 mL and a US dry cup is 240 mL — close enough that the difference rarely matters for cooking. But a US liquid pint is 473 mL while a dry pint is 551 mL. A US liquid gallon is 3,785 mL (128 fl oz) versus the Imperial gallon at 4,546 mL (160 Imperial fl oz) — a 20% difference that matters enormously when following British recipes with American measuring tools. An Australian tablespoon is 20 mL versus 15 mL in the US and UK, so Australian recipes calling for tablespoon measurements need adjustment. Converting between weight and volume for cooking requires ingredient-specific densities: 1 cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 125g, granulated sugar about 200g, butter about 227g, and honey about 340g. A recipe calling for "1 cup" of each ingredient is requesting wildly different weights.
Commercial shipping uses volume measurements that don't appear in everyday life. A TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) is the standard shipping container volume: 20 feet long × 8 feet wide × 8.5 feet tall = 1,360 cubic feet (38.5 cubic meters), though actual internal capacity is about 33 cubic meters due to wall thickness. Global shipping moves roughly 800 million TEUs per year. Petroleum is measured in barrels (42 US gallons, 159 liters per barrel) — a standard dating to Pennsylvania's oil boom in the 1860s when actual wooden barrels were used. Natural gas is measured in cubic feet at standard conditions (60°F, 14.73 psi), with commercial contracts trading in MCF (thousand cubic feet) or BCF (billion cubic feet). A typical US household uses about 50-100 MCF per year for heating and cooking. Concrete is ordered in cubic yards: a standard truck mixer holds 8-10 cubic yards, and a common house foundation slab (1,200 sq ft × 4" thick) requires about 15 cubic yards — two truckloads.
Regular shapes have straightforward volume formulas: rectangular prism (l × w × h), cylinder (πr²h), sphere (4/3πr³), cone (1/3πr²h). But real-world objects rarely conform to textbook geometry. Archimedes' displacement method — submerging an object in water and measuring the volume of water displaced — remains the gold standard for irregular objects. A rock placed in a graduated cylinder that raises the water level from 50 mL to 73 mL has a volume of 23 mL (23 cm³). For larger objects, fill a container to the brim, submerge the object, and catch the overflow. Professional applications use 3D scanning with laser or photogrammetric methods to compute volume digitally — medical imaging calculates organ volumes from CT or MRI slices, and surveying drones compute earthwork volumes (excavation, stockpiles) from aerial point clouds accurate to within 1-2% of manual measurement.
Liquids and gases change volume with temperature, and this affects real-world measurements more than most people realize. Gasoline expands approximately 0.069% per degree Fahrenheit — buying 20 gallons at 90°F versus 60°F means getting about 0.4% less energy per gallon, or roughly $0.12-0.16 less value at current prices. Canada's fuel standards compensate for this by adjusting volumes to a 15°C reference temperature; the US does not, meaning hot-climate consumers systematically receive slightly less energy per dollar. Water reaches maximum density at 3.98°C (39.2°F) and expands in both directions from there — this unusual property is why ice floats and lakes freeze from the top down, allowing aquatic life to survive winter beneath the ice. Industrial processes that measure chemical reagents by volume must specify the reference temperature, or a 1-liter measurement at 20°C versus 40°C could differ by 0.5-1% — enough to affect reaction yields in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
The US customary system creates particular confusion in the kitchen because liquid and dry measures use the same names but different capacities at larger scales. A US fluid cup is 236.6 mL and a US dry cup is 240 mL — close enough that the difference rarely matters for cooking. But a US liquid pint is 473 mL while a dry pint is 551 mL. A US liquid gallon is 3,785 mL (128 fl oz) versus the Imperial gallon at 4,546 mL (160 Imperial fl oz) — a 20% difference that matters enormously when following British recipes with American measuring tools. An Australian tablespoon is 20 mL versus 15 mL in the US and UK, so Australian recipes calling for tablespoon measurements need adjustment. Converting between weight and volume for cooking requires ingredient-specific densities: 1 cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 125g, granulated sugar about 200g, butter about 227g, and honey about 340g. A recipe calling for "1 cup" of each ingredient is requesting wildly different weights.
Commercial shipping uses volume measurements that don't appear in everyday life. A TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) is the standard shipping container volume: 20 feet long × 8 feet wide × 8.5 feet tall = 1,360 cubic feet (38.5 cubic meters), though actual internal capacity is about 33 cubic meters due to wall thickness. Global shipping moves roughly 800 million TEUs per year. Petroleum is measured in barrels (42 US gallons, 159 liters per barrel) — a standard dating to Pennsylvania's oil boom in the 1860s when actual wooden barrels were used. Natural gas is measured in cubic feet at standard conditions (60°F, 14.73 psi), with commercial contracts trading in MCF (thousand cubic feet) or BCF (billion cubic feet). A typical US household uses about 50-100 MCF per year for heating and cooking. Concrete is ordered in cubic yards: a standard truck mixer holds 8-10 cubic yards, and a common house foundation slab (1,200 sq ft × 4" thick) requires about 15 cubic yards — two truckloads.
Regular shapes have straightforward volume formulas: rectangular prism (l × w × h), cylinder (πr²h), sphere (4/3πr³), cone (1/3πr²h). But real-world objects rarely conform to textbook geometry. Archimedes' displacement method — submerging an object in water and measuring the volume of water displaced — remains the gold standard for irregular objects. A rock placed in a graduated cylinder that raises the water level from 50 mL to 73 mL has a volume of 23 mL (23 cm³). For larger objects, fill a container to the brim, submerge the object, and catch the overflow. Professional applications use 3D scanning with laser or photogrammetric methods to compute volume digitally — medical imaging calculates organ volumes from CT or MRI slices, and surveying drones compute earthwork volumes (excavation, stockpiles) from aerial point clouds accurate to within 1-2% of manual measurement.
Liquids and gases change volume with temperature, and this affects real-world measurements more than most people realize. Gasoline expands approximately 0.069% per degree Fahrenheit — buying 20 gallons at 90°F versus 60°F means getting about 0.4% less energy per gallon, or roughly $0.12-0.16 less value at current prices. Canada's fuel standards compensate for this by adjusting volumes to a 15°C reference temperature; the US does not, meaning hot-climate consumers systematically receive slightly less energy per dollar. Water reaches maximum density at 3.98°C (39.2°F) and expands in both directions from there — this unusual property is why ice floats and lakes freeze from the top down, allowing aquatic life to survive winter beneath the ice. Industrial processes that measure chemical reagents by volume must specify the reference temperature, or a 1-liter measurement at 20°C versus 40°C could differ by 0.5-1% — enough to affect reaction yields in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
The US customary system creates particular confusion in the kitchen because liquid and dry measures use the same names but different capacities at larger scales. A US fluid cup is 236.6 mL and a US dry cup is 240 mL — close enough that the difference rarely matters for cooking. But a US liquid pint is 473 mL while a dry pint is 551 mL. A US liquid gallon is 3,785 mL (128 fl oz) versus the Imperial gallon at 4,546 mL (160 Imperial fl oz) — a 20% difference that matters enormously when following British recipes with American measuring tools. An Australian tablespoon is 20 mL versus 15 mL in the US and UK, so Australian recipes calling for tablespoon measurements need adjustment. Converting between weight and volume for cooking requires ingredient-specific densities: 1 cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 125g, granulated sugar about 200g, butter about 227g, and honey about 340g. A recipe calling for "1 cup" of each ingredient is requesting wildly different weights.
Commercial shipping uses volume measurements that don't appear in everyday life. A TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) is the standard shipping container volume: 20 feet long × 8 feet wide × 8.5 feet tall = 1,360 cubic feet (38.5 cubic meters), though actual internal capacity is about 33 cubic meters due to wall thickness. Global shipping moves roughly 800 million TEUs per year. Petroleum is measured in barrels (42 US gallons, 159 liters per barrel) — a standard dating to Pennsylvania's oil boom in the 1860s when actual wooden barrels were used. Natural gas is measured in cubic feet at standard conditions (60°F, 14.73 psi), with commercial contracts trading in MCF (thousand cubic feet) or BCF (billion cubic feet). A typical US household uses about 50-100 MCF per year for heating and cooking. Concrete is ordered in cubic yards: a standard truck mixer holds 8-10 cubic yards, and a common house foundation slab (1,200 sq ft × 4" thick) requires about 15 cubic yards — two truckloads.
Regular shapes have straightforward volume formulas: rectangular prism (l × w × h), cylinder (πr²h), sphere (4/3πr³), cone (1/3πr²h). But real-world objects rarely conform to textbook geometry. Archimedes' displacement method — submerging an object in water and measuring the volume of water displaced — remains the gold standard for irregular objects. A rock placed in a graduated cylinder that raises the water level from 50 mL to 73 mL has a volume of 23 mL (23 cm³). For larger objects, fill a container to the brim, submerge the object, and catch the overflow. Professional applications use 3D scanning with laser or photogrammetric methods to compute volume digitally — medical imaging calculates organ volumes from CT or MRI slices, and surveying drones compute earthwork volumes (excavation, stockpiles) from aerial point clouds accurate to within 1-2% of manual measurement.
Liquids and gases change volume with temperature, and this affects real-world measurements more than most people realize. Gasoline expands approximately 0.069% per degree Fahrenheit — buying 20 gallons at 90°F versus 60°F means getting about 0.4% less energy per gallon, or roughly $0.12-0.16 less value at current prices. Canada's fuel standards compensate for this by adjusting volumes to a 15°C reference temperature; the US does not, meaning hot-climate consumers systematically receive slightly less energy per dollar. Water reaches maximum density at 3.98°C (39.2°F) and expands in both directions from there — this unusual property is why ice floats and lakes freeze from the top down, allowing aquatic life to survive winter beneath the ice. Industrial processes that measure chemical reagents by volume must specify the reference temperature, or a 1-liter measurement at 20°C versus 40°C could differ by 0.5-1% — enough to affect reaction yields in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
The US customary system creates particular confusion in the kitchen because liquid and dry measures use the same names but different capacities at larger scales. A US fluid cup is 236.6 mL and a US dry cup is 240 mL — close enough that the difference rarely matters for cooking. But a US liquid pint is 473 mL while a dry pint is 551 mL. A US liquid gallon is 3,785 mL (128 fl oz) versus the Imperial gallon at 4,546 mL (160 Imperial fl oz) — a 20% difference that matters enormously when following British recipes with American measuring tools. An Australian tablespoon is 20 mL versus 15 mL in the US and UK, so Australian recipes calling for tablespoon measurements need adjustment. Converting between weight and volume for cooking requires ingredient-specific densities: 1 cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 125g, granulated sugar about 200g, butter about 227g, and honey about 340g. A recipe calling for "1 cup" of each ingredient is requesting wildly different weights.
Commercial shipping uses volume measurements that don't appear in everyday life. A TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) is the standard shipping container volume: 20 feet long × 8 feet wide × 8.5 feet tall = 1,360 cubic feet (38.5 cubic meters), though actual internal capacity is about 33 cubic meters due to wall thickness. Global shipping moves roughly 800 million TEUs per year. Petroleum is measured in barrels (42 US gallons, 159 liters per barrel) — a standard dating to Pennsylvania's oil boom in the 1860s when actual wooden barrels were used. Natural gas is measured in cubic feet at standard conditions (60°F, 14.73 psi), with commercial contracts trading in MCF (thousand cubic feet) or BCF (billion cubic feet). A typical US household uses about 50-100 MCF per year for heating and cooking. Concrete is ordered in cubic yards: a standard truck mixer holds 8-10 cubic yards, and a common house foundation slab (1,200 sq ft × 4" thick) requires about 15 cubic yards — two truckloads.
Regular shapes have straightforward volume formulas: rectangular prism (l × w × h), cylinder (πr²h), sphere (4/3πr³), cone (1/3πr²h). But real-world objects rarely conform to textbook geometry. Archimedes' displacement method — submerging an object in water and measuring the volume of water displaced — remains the gold standard for irregular objects. A rock placed in a graduated cylinder that raises the water level from 50 mL to 73 mL has a volume of 23 mL (23 cm³). For larger objects, fill a container to the brim, submerge the object, and catch the overflow. Professional applications use 3D scanning with laser or photogrammetric methods to compute volume digitally — medical imaging calculates organ volumes from CT or MRI slices, and surveying drones compute earthwork volumes (excavation, stockpiles) from aerial point clouds accurate to within 1-2% of manual measurement.
Liquids and gases change volume with temperature, and this affects real-world measurements more than most people realize. Gasoline expands approximately 0.069% per degree Fahrenheit — buying 20 gallons at 90°F versus 60°F means getting about 0.4% less energy per gallon, or roughly $0.12-0.16 less value at current prices. Canada's fuel standards compensate for this by adjusting volumes to a 15°C reference temperature; the US does not, meaning hot-climate consumers systematically receive slightly less energy per dollar. Water reaches maximum density at 3.98°C (39.2°F) and expands in both directions from there — this unusual property is why ice floats and lakes freeze from the top down, allowing aquatic life to survive winter beneath the ice. Industrial processes that measure chemical reagents by volume must specify the reference temperature, or a 1-liter measurement at 20°C versus 40°C could differ by 0.5-1% — enough to affect reaction yields in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
The US customary system creates particular confusion in the kitchen because liquid and dry measures use the same names but different capacities at larger scales. A US fluid cup is 236.6 mL and a US dry cup is 240 mL — close enough that the difference rarely matters for cooking. But a US liquid pint is 473 mL while a dry pint is 551 mL. A US liquid gallon is 3,785 mL (128 fl oz) versus the Imperial gallon at 4,546 mL (160 Imperial fl oz) — a 20% difference that matters enormously when following British recipes with American measuring tools. An Australian tablespoon is 20 mL versus 15 mL in the US and UK, so Australian recipes calling for tablespoon measurements need adjustment. Converting between weight and volume for cooking requires ingredient-specific densities: 1 cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 125g, granulated sugar about 200g, butter about 227g, and honey about 340g. A recipe calling for "1 cup" of each ingredient is requesting wildly different weights.
Commercial shipping uses volume measurements that don't appear in everyday life. A TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) is the standard shipping container volume: 20 feet long × 8 feet wide × 8.5 feet tall = 1,360 cubic feet (38.5 cubic meters), though actual internal capacity is about 33 cubic meters due to wall thickness. Global shipping moves roughly 800 million TEUs per year. Petroleum is measured in barrels (42 US gallons, 159 liters per barrel) — a standard dating to Pennsylvania's oil boom in the 1860s when actual wooden barrels were used. Natural gas is measured in cubic feet at standard conditions (60°F, 14.73 psi), with commercial contracts trading in MCF (thousand cubic feet) or BCF (billion cubic feet). A typical US household uses about 50-100 MCF per year for heating and cooking. Concrete is ordered in cubic yards: a standard truck mixer holds 8-10 cubic yards, and a common house foundation slab (1,200 sq ft × 4" thick) requires about 15 cubic yards — two truckloads.
Regular shapes have straightforward volume formulas: rectangular prism (l × w × h), cylinder (πr²h), sphere (4/3πr³), cone (1/3πr²h). But real-world objects rarely conform to textbook geometry. Archimedes' displacement method — submerging an object in water and measuring the volume of water displaced — remains the gold standard for irregular objects. A rock placed in a graduated cylinder that raises the water level from 50 mL to 73 mL has a volume of 23 mL (23 cm³). For larger objects, fill a container to the brim, submerge the object, and catch the overflow. Professional applications use 3D scanning with laser or photogrammetric methods to compute volume digitally — medical imaging calculates organ volumes from CT or MRI slices, and surveying drones compute earthwork volumes (excavation, stockpiles) from aerial point clouds accurate to within 1-2% of manual measurement.
Liquids and gases change volume with temperature, and this affects real-world measurements more than most people realize. Gasoline expands approximately 0.069% per degree Fahrenheit — buying 20 gallons at 90°F versus 60°F means getting about 0.4% less energy per gallon, or roughly $0.12-0.16 less value at current prices. Canada's fuel standards compensate for this by adjusting volumes to a 15°C reference temperature; the US does not, meaning hot-climate consumers systematically receive slightly less energy per dollar. Water reaches maximum density at 3.98°C (39.2°F) and expands in both directions from there — this unusual property is why ice floats and lakes freeze from the top down, allowing aquatic life to survive winter beneath the ice. Industrial processes that measure chemical reagents by volume must specify the reference temperature, or a 1-liter measurement at 20°C versus 40°C could differ by 0.5-1% — enough to affect reaction yields in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
→ 16 tbsp = 1 cup. The most useful cooking conversion.
→ 1 liter ≈ 4 cups. Close enough for most recipes.
→ Check US vs Imperial. UK recipes use larger cups and gallons.
→ For baking: Weight (grams) is more accurate than volume for flour and sugar.
See also: Weight · Temperature · Length · Unit Price