Convert Cups to Milliliters
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About Cups to Milliliters Conversions
One US Cup = 236.59 mL
A US customary cup is exactly 236.5882365 mL: one half-pint, or 8 US fluid ounces. Multiply cups by 236.588 to get milliliters. Most metric kitchens round to 240 mL or 250 mL, and that is where recipe trouble starts, because those are different cups, not roundings of the same one.
Recipe Fractions in Milliliters
US recipes use halves, thirds, and quarters. These are the values to mark on a metric jug:
| US cups | Milliliters | Typical recipe use |
|---|---|---|
| 1/4 | 59.15 mL | Oil for a vinaigrette, maple syrup |
| 1/3 | 78.86 mL | Milk in muffin batter |
| 1/2 | 118.29 mL | Melted butter, stock for a pan sauce |
| 2/3 | 157.73 mL | Buttermilk in quick breads |
| 3/4 | 177.44 mL | Vegetable oil in a cake |
| 1 | 236.59 mL | Milk, water, or cream |
| 1 1/2 | 354.88 mL | Milk for a batch of pancakes |
| 2 | 473.18 mL | One US pint |
| 4 | 946.35 mL | One US quart |
Worked Examples
Pancakes in a metric kitchen. A US recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of milk. 1.5 ร 236.588 = 354.9 mL, which happens to be the volume of a standard 12 fl oz US soda can. A 355 mL mark on your jug is exact enough.
Oil for a chocolate cake. 3/4 cup of vegetable oil is 0.75 ร 236.588 = 177.4 mL. Rounding up to a metric 3/4 cup (187.5 mL) would add about 10 mL of oil, enough to make some cakes greasy.
An Australian recipe with US cups. Australia and New Zealand use a 250 mL metric cup. Each one is 250 โ 236.59 = 13.4 mL more than a US cup, so a recipe with 3 cups of liquid comes out about 40 mL short if you measure with US cups. That matters for bread doughs and custards more than for soups.
Which Cup Is Your Recipe Using?
- US customary cup: 236.59 mL, used in American cookbooks and measuring sets.
- US nutrition-label cup: 240 mL, a rounded legal value used on US food labels.
- Metric cup: 250 mL, used in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa.
- UK imperial cup: 284.13 mL, found in older British recipes.
Liquids measured by the cup are also often labeled in fluid ounces on US cartons and bottles: 1 cup is 8 US fl oz. For drinks, baby bottles, and anything with a fluid-ounce label, use milliliters to US fluid ounces. For flour, sugar, and other dry ingredients, volume is unreliable; weigh them with cups to grams instead.
Who Converts Cups to Milliliters
- Home cooks outside the US following American recipes, blogs, and recipe videos.
- Bakers checking whether a recipe was written for a US cup or a 250 mL metric cup.
- Parents and caregivers turning cup-based feeding or hydration guidance into the mL marks on bottles.
Quick Conversions
| Unit Name | Symbol | Per 1 Cup |
|---|---|---|
| Cup | cup | 1 |
| Fluid Ounce | fl oz | 8 |
| Gram | g | 236.588 |
| Kilogram | kg | 0.236588 |
| Milliliter | mL | 236.588 |
| Ounce | oz | 8.3454 |
| Pound | lb | 0.521588 |
| Tablespoon | tbsp | 16 |
| Teaspoon | tsp | 48 |
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I convert Cups to Milliliters?
To convert Cups to Milliliters, use the conversion where 1 Cup (cup) = 236.588 Milliliters (mL). For example, 1 Cup = 236.588 Milliliters.
What are common Cup to Milliliter conversions?
Here are common conversions: 1 Cups = 236.588 Milliliters, 5 Cups = 1182.94 Milliliters, 10 Cups = 2365.88 Milliliters, 25 Cups = 5914.71 Milliliters, 50 Cups = 11829.4 Milliliters, 100 Cups = 23658.8 Milliliters.
When would I need to convert Cups to Milliliters?
Cooking conversions between volume and weight come up when following recipes from different countries, scaling batch sizes for baking, and working in pastry, where a few grams off can ruin the result.
How precise are the conversions?
All conversions use exact factors verified against NIST and ISO standards with up to 10 significant figures of precision. Results are calculated using IEEE 754 double-precision arithmetic, which provides approximately 15-17 significant digits. For temperature and other non-linear conversions, exact formulas are used rather than approximations.
Calculation record
How this result is maintained
Calcflux publishes the formula, assumptions, limits, and primary references behind its tools. Automated tests guard the implemented calculation paths and known-answer cases.
Conversions keep full numeric precision through the calculation and round only the displayed result.
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- Calcflux
- Verification
- Formula tests and boundary checks