🧪 cup to mL — US Cup to Milliliter Converter

Convert volume units — liters, gallons, cups, milliliters, cubic meters, pints, quarts.

1 unit =
From
To
Formula 1 cup = 236.588 mL
UnitNameValue
L Liter 0.236588
mL Milliliter 236.588
Cubic Meter 0.000236588
gal(US) US Gallon 0.062499967
gal(UK) UK Gallon 0.052042085
qt US Quart 0.24999974
pt US Pint 0.5
fl oz Fluid Ounce 8
Last updated: March 2026

US Cup to Milliliter Conversion Table

Common us cup values converted to milliliter — factor: 1 cup = 236.6 mL

US Cup (cup)Milliliter (mL)Context
0.0625 cup14.79 mLTablespoon
0.125 cup29.57 mLEighth cup
0.25 cup59.15 mLQuarter cup
0.333 cup78.78 mLThird cup
0.5 cup118.3 mLHalf cup
1 cup236.6 mLOne cup
2 cup473.2 mLOne pint
4 cup946.4 mLOne quart
8 cup1,893 mLHalf gallon
16 cup3,785 mLOne gallon
32 cup7,571 mL2 gallons
64 cup1.514e+04 mL4 gallons
128 cup3.028e+04 mL8 gallons
256 cup6.057e+04 mLLarge drum
512 cup1.211e+05 mLLarge drum

About US Cup to Milliliter Conversion

Converting us cup to milliliter comes up frequently in cooking, chemistry, medicine, and engineering. A recipe written in metric units may need to be adapted for a kitchen using milliliter, or a laboratory protocol may specify volumes in us cup that need to be measured with equipment calibrated in milliliter.

In everyday use, knowing that 5 cup = 1183 mL and 10 cup = 2366 mL covers most common situations. For bulk calculations, 100 cup = 2.366e+04 mL is a useful anchor. The reverse conversion — milliliter back to us cup — uses the factor 0.004227, so 1 mL = 0.004227 cup.

All conversions use the internationally recognized factor of exactly 1 cup = 236.6 mL. Calculations are performed in IEEE 754 double-precision floating point, giving accuracy to at least 8 significant figures — more than sufficient for any practical application.

Quick Answer

Formula: Milliliter = US Cup × 236.588

Multiply any us cup value by 236.588 to get milliliter. One us cup equals 236.588 mL.

Reverse: US Cup = Milliliter × 0.0042267571

Worked Examples

Quarter cup of butter
0.25 cup × 236.588 = 59.147 mL
A standard quarter-cup measure = 59.1 mL — precise for baking fats.
One cup of milk
1 cup × 236.588 = 236.588 mL
One US cup of milk = 236.6 mL — the backbone of American recipes.
Two cups of flour
2 cup × 236.588 = 473.176 mL
Two cups of flour = 473 mL — a standard single-cake flour quantity.
One US quart
4 cup × 236.588 = 946.352 mL
Four cups = one US quart = 946 mL.

Mental Math Tricks

× 237 exactly

Cups × 236.6 = mL. Use × 240 for quick estimates.

1 cup = 240 mL

Round to 240 mL per cup — only 0.6% error.

Halving

½ cup = 120 mL, ¼ cup = 60 mL.

Who Uses This Conversion?

Home Baker

Follows American recipes using cups for flour, sugar, milk, and butter.

Recipe Developer

Tests and standardizes recipes in cup measurements before international publication.

Registered Dietitian

Uses cup portions as standardized serving-size references for dietary counseling.

Culinary Teacher

Teaches beginner cooks using cups as intuitive, equipment-free measuring tools.

Food Manufacturer

Converts cup-based recipes to liter or kilogram quantities for industrial production.

Expat Cook

Converts US cup measurements to metric mL when cooking American recipes abroad.

Frequently Asked Questions

About US Cup and Milliliter

US Cup (cup)

The US customary cup is defined as exactly 8 US fluid ounces, or 236.588 mL. It was standardized by Fannie Farmer in her 1896 cookbook The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book.

The cup is the backbone of US baking: nearly every American recipe uses cup measurements for flour, sugar, butter, and liquids. Standard sets include 1 cup, ½ cup, ⅓ cup, and ¼ cup.

Interesting fact: Australia uses a metric cup of 250 mL, slightly larger than the US cup, which can cause recipe confusion in international cooking.

Milliliter (mL)

The milliliter is one-thousandth of a liter, in use since the metric system was codified in France in 1795. The milli- prefix (from Latin mille, thousand) was standardized as part of the original SI prefix system.

Milliliters are the workhorse of medicine and cooking: syringes, dropper bottles, and nutritional labels all rely on mL for precise small-volume measurement. A standard US teaspoon is approximately 4.929 mL.

Interesting fact: The milliliter is numerically identical to the cubic centimeter (cm³), so 1 mL = 1 cm³ exactly. This equivalence is widely used in medicine, where a 5 cc syringe holds exactly 5 mL.