How to Convert Cups to Milliliters (and Back)
Cups and milliliters are both common volume units in cooking and baking, but they come from different measurement traditions. American recipes use cups; European and Australian recipes use milliliters or grams. This guide gives you the exact conversion, a quick reference table, and practical tips for adapting recipes across systems.
What Is a Cup?
A cup is a volume unit used in US cooking and baking. 1 US cup equals exactly 236.588 milliliters (or approximately 236.6 ml). It equals 16 tablespoons, 48 teaspoons, or 8 fluid ounces.
Note: the "metric cup" used in Australia and Canada equals 250 ml — slightly larger than the US cup. Some recipes from these countries use the metric cup, so check the source before converting.
What Is a Milliliter?
A milliliter (mL) is one-thousandth of a liter, equal to exactly 1 cubic centimeter (cm³). It is the standard liquid volume unit in the metric system and is used for cooking, medicine, and laboratory measurements worldwide.
Most kitchen measuring jugs outside the US are marked in milliliters. A standard teaspoon holds about 5 ml; a tablespoon holds about 15 ml.
The Conversion Formula
1 US cup = 236.588 ml. To convert cups to ml, multiply by 236.588.
1 ml = 0.004227 US cups. To convert ml to cups, divide by 236.588.
Mental shortcut: 1 cup ≈ 240 ml. This rounds up by about 1.4% — close enough for most cooking, but use the exact value for precision baking.
Cooking Reference Table
Common cup fractions in milliliters:
- ⅛ cup = 30 ml
- ¼ cup = 59 ml
- ⅓ cup = 79 ml
- ½ cup = 118 ml
- ⅔ cup = 158 ml
- ¾ cup = 177 ml
- 1 cup = 237 ml
- 2 cups = 473 ml
Tips for Converting Recipes
Dry ingredients: cups measure volume, not weight. For dry ingredients like flour, ml-to-cup conversion is less reliable than weight (grams). A cup of flour is about 125 g, but it varies significantly depending on how the flour is scooped.
Liquids: for liquids, ml and cup conversions are accurate and reliable. 1 cup of water = 236.6 ml = 236.6 g.
Australian and Canadian recipes: if a recipe says "1 cup" and comes from Australia, use 250 ml instead of 237 ml to be accurate.
Conclusion
1 US cup = 236.588 ml. For quick cooking: use 240 ml as an approximation. For Australian/Canadian recipes, use 250 ml per cup. For precision baking with dry ingredients, convert to grams instead of milliliters for the most accurate results. Use our free cooking converter for instant results.