Milliliters to Cups Converter
Convert milliliters to US cups — and see how far the 250 mL metric cup is from the US one.
Updated
US cups
1.057cup
250 mL = 1.057 cup
In short
How many cups is 250 mL?
250 millilitres is 1.057 US cups, so it is a cup plus about a tablespoon. It is not a US cup: 250 mL is the metric cup used in Australia and New Zealand, and it is 5.67 percent larger than the US cup of 236.59 millilitres. A recipe written in metric cups will overfill an American one every time.
The cup on US nutrition labels is a third figure again, 240 mL, which is 1.44 percent larger than the customary cup.
milliliters to US cups — quick reference
| milliliters (mL) | US cups (cup) |
|---|---|
| 50 mL | 0.211 cup |
| 100 mL | 0.423 cup |
| 150 mL | 0.634 cup |
| 200 mL | 0.845 cup |
| 250 mL | 1.057 cup |
| 500 mL | 2.113 cup |
| 750 mL | 3.170 cup |
| 1,000 mL | 4.227 cup |
The formula, worked line by line
The conversion divides by a constant that was defined rather than measured. A US cup is eight US fluid ounces, the fluid ounce is one hundred and twenty-eighth of the US liquid gallon, and the gallon is exactly 231 cubic inches. Fixing the inch at 2.54 centimetres in 1959 made the whole chain exact.
“The US gallon is exactly 231 cubic inches, and the inch is exactly 2.54 centimetres.”
The arithmetic therefore adds nothing to the error. Everything that goes wrong between the bottle and the bowl happens at the graduation mark and the pour, which is the argument for measuring the remainder in spoons rather than eyeballing a part-cup.
cups = mL / 236.5882365
236.5882365 = 29.5735295625 x 8 (eight fluid ounces)
250 mL -> 250 / 236.5882365 = 1.057 cups
1,000 mL -> 1,000 / 236.5882365 = 4.227 cups
US cup = 8 fl oz = 16 tbsp = 48 tsp- Millilitres entered
- 250
- Exact divisor
- 236.5882365 mL per US cup
- Division
- 250 / 236.5882365 = 1.0567
- US cups
- 1.057 cups
The extra 0.057 is a little under a tablespoon. It is the entire difference between the Australasian metric cup and the American one, and it is why a recipe written in metric cups produces a slightly wetter result when followed with US measures.
Turning the remainder into something measurable
A cup is exactly 16 tablespoons, so any leftover fraction converts to spoons without rounding trouble. A quarter cup is 4 tablespoons, an eighth is 2, and a sixteenth is 1. Where the fraction is not a sixteenth, teaspoons finish the job, since a cup is 48 of those.
- 0.0625 cups
- 1 tablespoon
- 0.125 cups
- 2 tablespoons, one fluid ounce
- 0.25 cups
- 4 tablespoons
- 0.33 cups
- 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon
- 0.5 cups
- 8 tablespoons
Thirds are the awkward case for cups and the easy case for spoons, because 48 divides by three where 8 and 16 do not.
Fluid ounces are volume, ounces are weight
This page converts a volume into a volume. If a metric quantity was given in grams rather than millilitres, no volume conversion applies to it, because grams and millilitres only coincide for water. A cup of flour is about 120 grams and a cup of honey about 340, from the same 236.59 millilitres of space.
How to use the milliliters to cups converter
A US cup is 236.5882365 millilitres, so dividing by it turns any metric quantity into American cups. The figure is eight fluid ounces, and the fluid ounce is a US gallon of 231 cubic inches split into 128 parts. That chain is exact, which is why the decimal terminates instead of repeating.
The number that surprises people is that a round metric quantity almost never gives a round cup figure. Five hundred millilitres is 2.113 cups. A litre is 4.227. Neither is a quantity a recipe would ask for, which is why cooking from a metric bottle into an American recipe always leaves an awkward remainder.
1.057 cups
A metric 250 mL cup
5.67 percent over a US cup
2.113 cups
A 500 mL bottle
never a round number
4.227 cups
One litre
a US quart is only 3.999
Some metric figures do land on round cups, and those are the interesting ones. A 473 millilitre carton is 1.999 cups and a 946 millilitre one is 3.999. Those are not coincidences: they are a US pint and a US quart converted to metric for a metric market, then printed to the nearest millilitre.
The practical use of this page is scaling rather than precision. Converting a metric quantity to cups gives a number you can measure with the equipment in an American kitchen, and the leftover fraction is best handled with tablespoons, since a cup is exactly sixteen of them and quarters land clean.
- 355 mL
- 1.501 cups, a 12 fl oz can
- 473 mL
- 1.999 cups, a US pint
- 946 mL
- 3.999 cups, a US quart
- 3,785 mL
- 16 cups, a US gallon
- 500 mL
- 2.113 cups, a genuinely metric size
- 1,000 mL
- 4.227 cups, a genuinely metric size
The first four were designed in ounces and translated. The last two were designed in litres, which is why they refuse to line up with anything an American recipe asks for.
When the label is in fluid ounces instead
Eight fluid ounces make a US cup. If the bottle gives ounces rather than millilitres, that page divides by the exact eight-ounce cup and separates fluid ounces from weight.
Open the ounces to cups converter →Millilitres converted to US cups, with what the quantity usually is alongside. The near-misses on whole cups mark sizes that were designed in US measures and relabelled in metric.
| Millilitres | US cups | What it usually is |
|---|---|---|
| 50 mL | 0.211 cups | about 3.5 tablespoons |
| 100 mL | 0.423 cups | a scant half cup |
| 120 mL | 0.507 cups | the FDA half cup |
| 150 mL | 0.634 cups | about two thirds of a cup |
| 200 mL | 0.845 cups | a scant cup |
| 240 mL | 1.014 cups | the US nutrition-label cup |
| 250 mL | 1.057 cups | the metric cup |
| 300 mL | 1.268 cups | a common European carton |
| 473 mL | 1.999 cups | a US pint, relabelled |
| 500 mL | 2.113 cups | a metric bottle |
| 750 mL | 3.170 cups | a wine bottle |
| 946 mL | 3.999 cups | a US quart, relabelled |
| 1,000 mL | 4.227 cups | one litre |
Three cups, and which one is in your cupboard
There is no single cup. The US customary cup is 236.5882365 millilitres, eight fluid ounces exactly. The metric cup used in Australia and New Zealand is a round 250. The cup the FDA defines for nutrition labelling is 240, set out in the Code of Federal Regulations alongside a 15 millilitre tablespoon and a 5 millilitre teaspoon.
Only the first is a customary unit derived from anything. The other two were chosen because they are round numbers, one for cooking and one for packaging. The spread between the smallest and largest is 5.67 percent, which is invisible in a soup and decisive in a dough.
- US customary cup
- 236.59 mL, 8 US fl oz
- FDA nutrition-label cup
- 240 mL, 1.44 percent larger
- Metric cup, Australia and New Zealand
- 250 mL, 5.67 percent larger
- Imperial system
- has no cup at all
A recipe measuring in cups is American or Australasian. British and Irish cooking measures dry ingredients by weight, which is why the imperial system never needed a cup.
The rule that keeps a recipe intact is to use one cup definition for every ingredient in it. Baking depends on the ratio between liquid and flour rather than on absolute quantities, so a 5.67 percent error applied to one and not the other changes the hydration. Applied to both, it just makes a slightly larger cake.
Why a litre is not four cups
A litre comes to 4.227 US cups, which feels like it should be four and is not. The reason is that a US quart is 946.35 millilitres rather than a thousand, so a litre is 5.67 percent larger than the quart it resembles. Four cups make a quart exactly, and the extra 53 millilitres is the whole difference.
That same 5.67 percent turns up again between the US cup and the metric cup, and it is not a coincidence. Both comparisons are a round metric number against a US one derived from the gallon, so the ratio between them is the same at every rung of the ladder.
- One litre in US cups
- 4.227 cups
- After four cups are measured out
- 53.65 mL left over
- That remainder in tablespoons
- about 3.6 tbsp
- A US quart, for comparison
- 946.35 mL, exactly 4 cups
- Practical reading
- 4 cups plus 3.5 tbsp
A recipe asking for a quart of stock and a shopper holding a litre carton are about 5.67 percent apart. In a braise that is nothing. In a custard set by ratio it is the difference between setting and not, which is why the remainder is worth measuring rather than tipping in.
The mirror of this is that a US gallon is 3.785 litres rather than four, and a US pint is 473 millilitres rather than 500. Every US liquid measure sits about 5.67 percent below the round metric number nearest it, all the way up the ladder, because they all descend from the same 231 cubic inch gallon.
Every milliliters value, worked out
31 common milliliters figures each get their own page, with the answer at full precision, the arithmetic, what rounding costs, and the nearest real-world reference point on the scale.
Questions people ask
Sources
Where the constants and formulas on this page come from. Each line names the figure it backs.
The US cup is eight US fluid ounces of exactly 29.5735295625 millilitres each, giving 236.5882365 mL.
NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8 — Factors for units listed alphabetically — NIST
For nutrition labelling the FDA defines a cup as 240 mL, a tablespoon as 15 mL and a teaspoon as 5 mL — rounded surrogates rather than exact conversions.
21 CFR 101.9(b)(5)(viii) — Nutrition labeling of food — US Food and Drug Administration, via the eCFR
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