Volume Converter
Convert between litres, millilitres, cubic metres, US and UK gallons, fluid ounces, cups, pints, quarts, cubic feet, cubic inches, and more — 25 units, instant results.
All Unit Converters🍳 Cooking equivalents for your value
All conversions from 1 litre
| Unit | Symbol | System | Value |
|---|
How this volume converter reconciles metric, US, UK, and cooking units, and why a US gallon is not a UK gallon
Volume conversion looks straightforward until two countries both use the word gallon for two different quantities. This tool holds twenty four units across five categories, metric, US customary, UK imperial, cooking, and a scientific catch all, and routes every one of them through the litre so a millilitre and a UK pint can be compared directly without a chain of manual lookups.
All conversion runs client side in JavaScript. No value you type is sent to a server.
The litre as the shared reference
| Unit | Symbol | Litres per unit |
|---|---|---|
| Millilitre | mL | 0.001 |
| Centilitre | cL | 0.01 |
| Decilitre | dL | 0.1 |
| Litre | L | 1 |
| Kilolitre / Cubic metre | kL / m³ | 1,000 |
| Cubic centimetre / cc | cm³ / cc | 0.001 |
| Cubic millimetre | mm³ | 0.000001 |
| Teaspoon (US) | tsp | 0.00492892159 |
| Tablespoon (US) | tbsp | 0.0147867648 |
| Fluid ounce (US) | fl oz | 0.0295735296 |
| Cup (US) | cup | 0.2365882365 |
| Pint (US liquid) | pt | 0.473176473 |
| Quart (US liquid) | qt | 0.946352946 |
| Gallon (US) | gal | 3.785411784 |
| Cubic foot | ft³ | 28.316846592 |
| Cubic inch | in³ | 0.016387064 |
| Cubic yard | yd³ | 764.554857984 |
| Fluid ounce (UK) | fl oz(UK) | 0.0284130625 |
| Pint (UK) | pt(UK) | 0.56826125 |
| Quart (UK) | qt(UK) | 1.1365225 |
| Gallon (UK imperial) | gal(UK) | 4.54609 |
| Barrel (oil, US) | bbl | 158.987295 |
| Barrel (US beer) | bbl(beer) | 117.347765 |
The three extra features beyond raw conversion
Cooking panel
Auto appears for kitchen scale quantities, converting the current value across nine common cooking measures simultaneously so you do not have to run separate conversions for each.
Category badges
Each unit in the full comparison table is tagged Metric, US, UK, Cooking, or Other, making it easy to scan for the regional variant you actually need.
Category filters
Narrow the dropdown lists to just one region or unit family, useful when you only ever work in, say, US customary units and want to skip scrolling past UK and scientific entries.
Volume unit references
- BIPM SI Brochure defines the litre as a special name for the cubic decimetre, accepted for use alongside SI units.
- NIST Handbook 44 documents US customary volume unit definitions used in commercial measurement.
- UK Weights and Measures Act establishes the imperial gallon and its derived pint and quart definitions still used in the UK.
Volume in cooking, fuel and freight
Scaling a US recipe written in cups and tablespoons into millilitres for a metric kitchen, checking a car’s fuel tank capacity between US and UK gallons before an international road trip, converting a shipping container’s cubic metre volume into cubic feet for a US customs form, working out oil barrel quantities against litres for energy reporting, and reconciling a UK pint pub measure against a US pint when reading an imported recipe.
Common Questions
FAQ: Volume Converter
One US gallon equals exactly 3.785411784 litres. The UK (imperial) gallon is larger at exactly 4.54609 litres. This difference matters a lot for fuel economy comparisons between the US and UK — a car rated at 40 MPG in the UK would only be about 33 MPG in the US.
One US fluid ounce equals 29.5735 mL. One UK fluid ounce equals 28.4131 mL. They are close but not identical. Nutrition labels and medicine doses in the US always use the US fluid ounce. When a UK recipe lists fluid ounces, it means the slightly smaller UK value.
One US cup equals exactly 236.588 mL (commonly rounded to 240 mL on nutrition labels). A US cup is 16 US tablespoons, 48 US teaspoons, or 8 US fluid ounces. The metric cup (used in Australia and Canada) is 250 mL, which is about 5.5% larger than the US cup.
One cubic metre (m³) equals exactly 1000 litres. This follows directly from the definition: 1 litre = 1 cubic decimetre (dm³), and there are 1000 cubic decimetres in one cubic metre. Water density is approximately 1 kg per litre, so 1 m³ of water weighs 1000 kg (1 tonne).
In the US: exactly 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon = 14.787 mL. This ratio is consistent across UK and Australian measurements too, but the absolute size differs. A US tablespoon is 14.787 mL; a UK tablespoon is 15 mL; an Australian tablespoon is 20 mL. For international recipes, weigh dry ingredients instead.
One US oil barrel (bbl) equals exactly 42 US gallons = 158.987 litres. This is the standard unit for global crude oil trading. It was standardised in 1866 by Pennsylvania oil producers. When you see oil priced at “$80 per barrel”, that is 158.987 litres of crude.
From the blog
Reading around units
Where measurement systems came from and why two of them still argue.
