Cups to Liters Converter

How to convert cups to liters

1 cup = 0.2365882365 liters. To convert cups to liters, divide by 4.226752838 (or multiply by 0.2365882365). A US customary cup is 8 US fluid ounces, about 236.6 ml (nutrition labels use a rounded 240 ml). A liter is one cubic decimeter (1,000 cm³).

Worked examples

• 2 cups = 0.473176 L (2 ÷ 4.2267528)
• 4 cups = 0.946353 L (4 ÷ 4.2267528)
• 8 cups = 1.89271 L (8 ÷ 4.2267528)

Where this conversion comes up

Cups are used for US recipes and nutrition labels; liters for bottled drinks, engine size and fuel outside the US. A US cup is 236.6 ml, so 4 cups (a quart) is 0.946 L and 8 cups is 1.89 L, just under two liters. Metric cups are 250 ml: 4 metric cups is exactly 1 L.

Quick estimate

Divide by 4 and subtract 5%: 8 cups ≈ 1.9 L.

Common mistakes

• Multiplying instead of dividing. A liter is larger than a cup, so the number of liters must come out smaller: 2 cups = 0.473176 L.
• Mixing fluid ounces with weight ounces. A fluid ounce is a volume (29.57 ml); an ounce on a kitchen scale is a weight (28.35 g). A cup of flour is 8 fl oz by volume but only about 4.25 oz by weight.
• Rounding too early. Keep the full factor until the last step; rounding 0.237 to 0.24 first puts large values noticeably off.

Going the other way? Use the liters to cups converter. Related volume converters: ml to oz, oz to ml, liters to gallons, gallons to liters, liters to quarts, quarts to liters.