Cups to ML Converter
Type cups to get milliliters. A US cup is 236.6 mL; recipes from Australia or Canada may mean a 250 mL metric cup.
1 cup =
236.588mL
1 US cup is 236.588 milliliters.
- 1 cup
- 236.588 mL
- 1 mL
- 0.004227 cups
How to convert cups to mL
Multiply US cups by 236.588. A US cup is half a US pint, or 8 US fluid ounces, and with the fluid ounce at 29.5735 mL that makes the customary cup 236.5882365 mL exactly.
Three quarters of a cup is 0.75 × 236.588 = 177.4 mL; two cups are 473.2 mL, one pint. Most measuring jugs sold in the US carry both scales, and the 1 cup line sits just below the 240 mL mark.
Two other cups turn up in recipes. US nutrition labels use a rounded 240 mL cup, and recipes written in metric cups use 250 mL. The gap is small for one cup (about 6%) but adds up in a large batch, so the table shows all three.
milliliters = US cups × 236.5882365
- For nutrition labelling the FDA defines a cup as 240 mL; the US customary cup is 236.5882365 mL (8 fluid ounces). Source: 21 CFR 101.9(b)(5), FDA nutrition labelling.
- A US cup is half a US pint, and a US pint is 16 fluid ounces, or 473.176473 mL. Source: NIST Handbook 44, Appendix C: General Tables of Units of Measurement.
How to estimate cups to mL in your head
Think “a quarter of a liter, minus a little”. One cup is just under 250 mL, so multiply by 250 and take off 5%: 3 cups × 250 = 750, less 37 gives 713 mL, against an exact 709.8.
For baking, using 240 mL per cup is usually close enough; it is within 1.5% of the US customary cup, less than the error of scooping flour.
Cups to mL chart (US, label and metric cups)
Measuring-cup amounts in milliliters for the three cups you might meet in a recipe.
| Cups | US cup (236.6 mL) | Label cup (240 mL) | Metric cup (250 mL) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1/8 | 29.5735 | 30 | 31.25 |
| 1/4 | 59.1471 | 60 | 62.5 |
| 1/3 | 78.8627 | 80 | 83.3333 |
| 1/2 | 118.294 | 120 | 125 |
| 2/3 | 157.725 | 160 | 166.667 |
| 3/4 | 177.441 | 180 | 187.5 |
| 1 | 236.588 | 240 | 250 |
| 1 1/4 | 295.735 | 300 | 312.5 |
| 1 1/2 | 354.882 | 360 | 375 |
| 2 | 473.176 | 480 | 500 |
Show all 15 rowsShow fewer
| 2 1/2 | 591.471 | 600 | 625 |
| 3 | 709.765 | 720 | 750 |
| 4 | 946.353 | 960 | 1,000 |
| 6 | 1,419.53 | 1,440 | 1,500 |
| 8 | 1,892.71 | 1,920 | 2,000 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a cup 240 mL or 250 mL?
It depends on where the recipe is from. A US customary cup is 236.6 mL, US food labels round it to 240 mL, and the metric cup used in many other countries is 250 mL. For most cooking the difference doesn’t matter; for baking, follow the recipe’s own country.
How many mL is half a cup?
Half a US cup is 118.3 mL, half a label cup is 120 mL and half a metric cup is 125 mL.
Do cups to mL work for flour and sugar?
Yes for volume, but a cup of flour and a cup of sugar weigh very different amounts. To weigh dry ingredients, use the cups to grams converter, which uses USDA weights per cup for each ingredient.