Milliliters To Cups Converter
Convert liquid volume from milliliters to cups using your recipe's cup standard.
The Formula
The tricky part isn't the math — it's knowing which "milliliters per cup" figure applies. That number is different for a US recipe, a UK recipe, and an Australian recipe, even though all three are commonly just called "a cup."
Cup Sizes by Country (Exact Values)
| Cup Standard | Volume | Used In |
|---|---|---|
| US customary cup | 236.5882365 mL | United States (standard recipes) |
| US legal cup | 240 mL exactly | United States (nutrition labeling) |
| Metric cup | 250 mL exactly | Australia, New Zealand, modern UK recipes, modern Canada |
| UK imperial cup | 284.130625 mL | Older/traditional British recipes |
| Traditional Canadian cup | ~227.3 mL (8 imperial fl oz) | Older Canadian recipes; largely replaced by the metric cup today |
| Japanese cup | 200 mL | Japanese recipes (a distinct traditional standard) |
The US customary cup and the US legal cup are easy to confuse because both are "American" — the customary cup is what most recipes use, while the slightly rounder 240 mL legal cup is specifically the figure the FDA uses for nutrition facts labels. They're close enough that mixing them up rarely wrecks a recipe, but they aren't identical.
US Customary Cup: ML to Cups Chart
This is the standard reference for American recipes (1 cup = 236.588 mL, precisely 236.5882365 mL).
| Milliliters | Cups |
|---|---|
| 30 mL | ~0.127 cup |
| 50 mL | ~0.211 cup |
| 59 mL | ¼ cup |
| 79 mL | ⅓ cup |
| 100 mL | ~0.423 cup |
| 118 mL | ½ cup |
| 150 mL | ~0.634 cup |
| 177 mL | ¾ cup |
| 200 mL | ~0.845 cup |
| 236.6 mL | 1 cup |
| 250 mL | ~1.057 cups |
| 300 mL | ~1.268 cups |
| 355 mL | 1½ cups |
| 473 mL | 2 cups |
| 500 mL | ~2.113 cups |
| 750 mL | ~3.170 cups |
| 1,000 mL | ~4.227 cups |
Metric Cup: ML to Cups Chart
Used across Australia, New Zealand, and increasingly in the UK and Canada for modern recipes (1 cup = 250 mL exactly). This is the simplest standard to work with, since the numbers divide evenly.
| Milliliters | Cups |
|---|---|
| 50 mL | ⅕ cup |
| 62.5 mL | ¼ cup |
| 100 mL | ⅖ cup |
| 125 mL | ½ cup |
| 187.5 mL | ¾ cup |
| 200 mL | ⅘ cup |
| 250 mL | 1 cup |
| 375 mL | 1½ cups |
| 500 mL | 2 cups |
| 750 mL | 3 cups |
| 1,000 mL | 4 cups |
UK Imperial Cup: ML to Cups Chart
Modern UK recipes typically use grams and milliliters directly rather than cups, but older British cookbooks reference the imperial cup (1 cup = 284.130625 mL — notably larger than either the US or metric cup).
| Milliliters | Cups |
|---|---|
| 71 mL | ¼ cup |
| 100 mL | ~0.352 cup |
| 142 mL | ½ cup |
| 213 mL | ¾ cup |
| 284.1 mL | 1 cup |
| 500 mL | ~1.760 cups |
| 1,000 mL | ~3.520 cups |
If you're following an older British recipe and it isn't clear which cup size is meant, the imperial cup is the safer assumption — but checking the cookbook's publication era helps, since UK recipes have largely moved away from cup measurements since the 1960s in favor of weight.
US Legal Cup: ML to Cups Chart
This is the rounded 240 mL figure used specifically on US nutrition labels rather than in recipe writing.
| Milliliters | Cups |
|---|---|
| 60 mL | ¼ cup |
| 120 mL | ½ cup |
| 180 mL | ¾ cup |
| 240 mL | 1 cup |
| 480 mL | 2 cups |
Quick Cross-Reference: 1 Cup in Each Standard
| Standard | 1 Cup Equals |
|---|---|
| US customary | 236.6 mL |
| US legal (nutrition labels) | 240 mL |
| Metric (AU/NZ/modern UK) | 250 mL |
| UK imperial (traditional) | 284.1 mL |
| Japanese | 200 mL |
The spread between the smallest and largest common cup standard — Japanese (200 mL) versus UK imperial (284.1 mL) — is over 40%. For a recipe with several cups of liquid, that gap is large enough to noticeably change the outcome if the wrong standard is assumed.
How to Measure ML Without a Measuring Cup
If you don't have a cup marked in milliliters, a few household references get you close:
- 1 teaspoon ≈ 5 mL
- 1 tablespoon ≈ 15 mL
- A standard drinking glass, filled about ⅔, ≈ 250 mL
- A digital kitchen scale — for water and most watery liquids, 1 gram is essentially equal to 1 milliliter, so a scale set to grams can substitute for a milliliter measurement in a pinch.
Which Cup Size Should You Assume?
If a recipe doesn't specify:
- American recipe (blogs, US cookbooks) → assume the US customary cup (236.6 mL).
- Australian or New Zealand recipe → assume the metric cup (250 mL).
- Modern UK recipe → likely written in grams/mL already, but if cups appear, assume the 250 mL metric cup.
- Older or vintage UK recipe → assume the imperial cup (284.1 mL).
- Canadian recipe → modern sources typically use the metric 250 mL cup; only very old Canadian cookbooks use the traditional ~227.3 mL cup.
- Japanese recipe → assume 200 mL, which is a distinct standard from all of the above.
Quick Reference
- 59 mL = ¼ US cup
- 118 mL = ½ US cup
- 236.6 mL = 1 US cup
- 250 mL = 1 metric cup
- 284.1 mL = 1 UK imperial cup
The Bottom Line
"1 cup" is not a universal amount — it's shorthand that depends entirely on which country's kitchen the recipe was written in. The US customary cup (236.6 mL), the metric cup (250 mL), and the UK imperial cup (284.1 mL) are all genuinely different volumes, and mixing them up across a multi-cup recipe adds up to a meaningful error. When a recipe's origin is unclear, check for other clues — spelling conventions, oven temperatures in Celsius versus Fahrenheit, or ingredient names — to figure out which cup standard it's actually using, or convert everything to milliliters directly and skip the ambiguity altogether.
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