Skip to content

Volume Converter

Quick picks

Result

1 Litres (L) = 0.264172 US gallons (liquid)

Estimates for educational purposes — not financial, medical, or legal advice. See terms.

Convert any volume between ten units: millilitres, litres, cubic metres, US gallons, UK (imperial) gallons, US cups, US pints, US fluid ounces, UK fluid ounces, and metric teaspoons. Both sides are editable; swap flips the direction; five quick-pick buttons handle the most common pairs.

US vs UK: the gallon split

The single biggest landmine in volume conversion is the US / UK gallon distinction. They’re not equal:

  • US (liquid) gallon: 3.785411784 L exactly (defined as 231 cubic inches)
  • UK (imperial) gallon: 4.54609 L exactly (redefined 1985)

The UK gallon is about 20% larger. Every downstream imperial unit — pints, fluid ounces — is proportionally different too. Because silently merging them would corrupt recipe and fuel-economy values, the tool keeps them distinct. Pick the one that matches your source.

Example: recipe conversion

A US recipe calls for “1 cup of milk”. That’s 1 × 236.59 ≈ 237 mL. A UK recipe calling for “1 cup” probably means the UK imperial cup (284 mL), though less common — most UK recipes today use grams and mL directly.

US recipe: 1 cup, 2 tbsp butter, 1 tsp salt. Converting for a metric kitchen:

  • 1 cup ≈ 237 mL
  • 2 tbsp ≈ 30 mL
  • 1 tsp = 5 mL

Example: fuel economy

30 US mpg → L/100km: 1 US gal / 30 mi × 1.609 km/mi = 0.0536 gal/km = 0.203 L/km = 20.3 L/100km. Wait, that’s too high — let me recompute: 1 gal = 3.785 L, 30 mi = 48.28 km, so 3.785 / 48.28 = 0.0784 L/km = 7.84 L/100km. OK. For 30 UK mpg: 4.546 L / 48.28 km × 100 = 9.42 L/100km. A UK 30 mpg uses more fuel per km than a US 30 mpg, because a UK gallon holds more fuel.

Example: bulk liquid

A 1 cubic metre IBC tank holds 1000 L ≈ 264.2 US gal ≈ 220 UK gal. A full 55-gallon US oil drum is 208 L. A 5-gallon US jug is 18.9 L.

What this tool does not do

It doesn’t handle dry measures. “1 cup of flour” is mass, not volume, and the density varies. For baking by weight (more accurate than by cup), use the weight converter.

It doesn’t support non-customary cups. Only the US customary cup (236.59 mL) is included. Metric (250 mL), US legal (240 mL), and UK imperial (284 mL) cups aren’t in the table.

It doesn’t include US dry gallons or US dry pints. Those exist for historical reasons but are almost never used in practice.

It doesn’t convert to bottle/can/serving sizes. “How many 355-mL soda cans fit in a US gallon?” is arithmetic beyond the converter’s scope. For area × depth calculations, combine the area converter with a depth figure.

It doesn’t support natural-language parsing. Enter a single numeric value — “1.5” not “one and a half”.

Frequently asked questions

Why are US and UK gallons different sizes?

Historical accident. The US gallon (3.7854 L) is the older 'Queen Anne' wine gallon, defined as 231 cubic inches. The UK (Imperial) gallon (4.5461 L) was redefined in 1824 as the volume of 10 pounds of water at 62°F — about 20% larger. The UK updated its own system but the US didn't follow, and now we have two 'gallons' that differ by one-fifth. The tool treats them as distinct units on purpose: silently picking one would mis-convert recipe, fuel-economy, and industrial values. US recipes: use US units. UK recipes: use UK units.

Which gallon do I want for fuel economy?

Match the country. US miles-per-gallon uses US gallons (so 30 mpg in the US = 12.75 km/L). UK mpg uses UK (imperial) gallons, so 30 mpg in the UK = 10.61 km/L — about 17% different. When a Canadian or UK publication says a car gets 30 mpg, that's imperial mpg. The EU uses L/100km, which avoids the gallon ambiguity entirely. If you're comparing US and UK mpg figures, always convert to L/100km first.

Which cups / pints / fl oz are here?

US only, to match the gallon. A 'cup' can mean several different things in different countries — US legal cup is 240 mL, US customary cup is 236.59 mL, metric cup is 250 mL, UK imperial cup is 284.13 mL. The tool uses the US customary cup (236.59 mL = US gal / 16) because that's what US recipes use, and because it's internally consistent with the US gal / US pint / US fl oz chain. For imperial-UK recipes, convert through litres or UK fl oz.

What size is a teaspoon here?

5 mL exactly — the metric / international cooking teaspoon. This matches the Australian and UK standard and is close to (but not exactly) the US customary teaspoon (4.929 mL). The difference is less than 2% — invisible in cooking. A tablespoon is 3 teaspoons = 15 mL in this system. If you need strict US customary, multiply by 0.9858 to get the US value; for any actual cooking task, 5 mL is what you want.

Is 1 litre exactly 1000 mL?

Yes, by definition since 1964. Before 1964 the litre was defined as the volume of 1 kg of water at 4°C, which turned out to be 1.000028 cubic decimetres — so the pre-1964 litre was very slightly larger than 1000 mL. The 1964 redefinition made the litre exactly 1 dm³ = 1000 cm³ = 1000 mL, which is what every modern tool and textbook uses. Historical sources describing 'litre' pre-1964 are measuring a slightly different unit, but the difference is irrelevant for anything practical.