Cups to liters converter

Multiply cups by 0.2366 to get liters, or remember that 1 cup is 8 US fluid oz, and oz convert at 0.0295735 liters each. Four cups (one US quart) come to 0.946 liters, which is the single most useful anchor: a quart is about 95% of a liter.

Going metric-to-cups, multiply liters by 4.2268. A 1.5-liter pot of stock is 6.3 cups; a 3-liter batch of chili is 12.7 cups.

Liquid volumes convert perfectly, 2 cups of milk are 0.473 liters whether measured in Ohio or Oslo. Dry ingredients are trickier: a "cup of flour" is a volume, but European recipes weigh flour in grams. When converting a full recipe, convert the liquids by volume and look up weights for the dry goods; a US cup of all-purpose flour is roughly 120–125 g, of sugar about 200 g.

Watch for non-US cups in older or regional cookbooks: the metric cup used in Australia and New Zealand is 250 ml, the old imperial cup 284 ml, and the Japanese rice cup just 180 ml. Oz To Liter's converter uses the US customary cup of 236.588 ml, the one implied by any American recipe.

Cups excel at single-recipe scale and fail at batch scale, nobody measures 25 cups of water for a stockpot. The crossover point is around 2 quarts: past 8 cups, think in liters. A 6-quart slow cooker is 5.7 liters (24 cups); a 12-cup coffee carafe is actually 1.44 liters because "coffee cups" are 5 oz, not 8, one more reason to check units before doubling anything.