Ever tried baking a recipe that uses a measurement system you don’t understand? Lots of recipes call for “cups” while others use “liters,” and that’s where things get confusing! To get the recipe right, you’ll need to convert. This guide dives into converting 1 cup in litres and how to do it easily.
Cup and liter: What’s the difference?
Both cups and liters are units of volume, but they come from different measurement systems.
What is a cup?
The cup is a unit of volume mostly used in cooking, especially in the United States. A U.S. cup is 1/16 of a U.S. gallon, or 8 U.S. fluid ounces.
There are different kinds of cups used around the world, but for the purposes of this article, we’re talking about the U.S. customary cup.
What is a liter?
The liter is a metric unit of volume. Its symbol is L or l.
One liter is equal to 1 cubic decimeter (dm³), 1,000 cubic centimeters (cm³), or 1/1,000 of a cubic meter (m³). The liter is part of the International System of Units (SI).
How to convert cups to liters
The conversion factor you need to know is:
1 U.S. cup = 0.236588 liters.
Or, more simply:
1 cup = 0.236588 liters
To convert cups to liters, multiply the number of cups by 0.236588. So, if you have two cups, you’d multiply 2 x 0.236588, which equals 0.473176 liters.
If you want to do the reverse conversion (liters to cups), the conversion factor is:
1 liter = 4.2267528377 cups
Examples: Converting cups to liters
Here’s a simple conversion: If you want to convert 2 cups to liters, you’ll multiply 2 cups by 0.236588. So, 2 cups equals 0.473176 liters.
Here’s a more complex conversion: If you want to convert 15 cups to liters, you’ll multiply 15 cups by 0.236588. So, 15 cups equals 3.5488235475 liters.
No matter what you’re converting, make sure you use the right conversion factor to get accurate results.
Final Thoughts
So, how many liters are in a cup? There are 0.236588 liters in one U.S. cup.
Whether you’re following a recipe, conducting a science experiment, or doing anything else that requires you to convert cups to liters, knowing how the units of measurement work helps you get accurate results.