🧪 mL to cup — Milliliter to US Cup Converter

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

1 unit =
From
To
Formula 1 mL = 0.0042267571 cup
UnitNameValue
L Liter 0.001
Cubic Meter 0.000001
gal(US) US Gallon 0.00026417218
gal(UK) UK Gallon 0.00021996925
qt US Quart 0.0010566881
pt US Pint 0.0021133785
cup US Cup 0.0042267571
fl oz Fluid Ounce 0.033814057
Last updated: March 2026

Milliliter to US Cup Conversion Table

Common milliliter values converted to us cup — factor: 1 mL = 0.004227 cup

Milliliter (mL)US Cup (cup)Context
1 mL0.004227 cupEyedrop
5 mL0.02113 cupTeaspoon
10 mL0.04227 cupTablespoon
15 mL0.0634 cupTablespoon
30 mL0.1268 cupShot glass
60 mL0.2536 cupDouble shot
100 mL0.4227 cupHalf cup
150 mL0.634 cupHalf cup
240 mL1.014 cupOne cup
355 mL1.5 cupSoda can
500 mL2.113 cupWater bottle
750 mL3.17 cupWine bottle
1,000 mL4.227 cupOne liter
1,500 mL6.34 cupLarge bottle
3,785 mL16 cupOne gallon

About Milliliter to US Cup Conversion

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

In everyday use, knowing that 5 mL = 0.02113 cup and 10 mL = 0.04227 cup covers most common situations. For bulk calculations, 100 mL = 0.4227 cup is a useful anchor. The reverse conversion — us cup back to milliliter — uses the factor 236.6, so 1 cup = 236.6 mL.

All conversions use the internationally recognized factor of exactly 1 mL = 0.004227 cup. 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: US Cup = Milliliter × 0.0042267571

Multiply any milliliter value by 0.0042267571 to get us cup. One milliliter equals 0.0042267571 cup.

Reverse: Milliliter = US Cup × 236.588

Worked Examples

Espresso shot
30 mL × 0.0042267571 = 0.12680271 cup
A 30 mL double espresso = 0.127 US cups — just over one-eighth of a measuring cup.
One cup of water
240 mL × 0.0042267571 = 1.0144217 cup
240 mL = 1.014 US cups — essentially one cup, used in most metric recipe conversions.
Soda can
355 mL × 0.0042267571 = 1.5004988 cup
A 355 mL standard can = 1.5 US cups — a useful anchor for beverage scaling.
One liter
1000 mL × 0.0042267571 = 4.2267571 cup
One liter (1000 mL) = 4.23 US cups — about 4 measuring cups of liquid.

Mental Math Tricks

÷ 237 shortcut

mL ÷ 237 = cups. Round to ÷ 240 for easier mental math (1.3% high).

240 mL ≈ 1 cup

Use 240 mL per cup in your head — only 1.4% off.

Halving

120 mL = ½ cup, 60 mL = ¼ cup, 30 mL = ⅛ cup.

Who Uses This Conversion?

Pharmacist

Measures liquid medication doses, compound quantities, and vial volumes in milliliters for precise dispensing.

Pastry Chef

Scales extracts, food colorings, and liquid flavorings in mL for consistent batch replication.

Lab Technician

Pipettes reagents, prepares serial dilutions, and calibrates instruments using mL graduations.

Pediatric Nurse

Calculates weight-based medication doses converted to mL for syringe administration.

Perfumer

Blends fragrance accords in small mL batches with high precision and high ingredient costs.

Cosmetic Formulator

Develops skincare products in 50-500 mL batches before scaling to full production.

Frequently Asked Questions

About Milliliter and US Cup

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.

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.