mL to Cups Converter

There are at least five cups in use worldwide. This one converts with the US customary cup of 236.59 mL.

Conversion table

Volume	In US cups
10	0.042268 cups
25	0.10567 cups
50	0.21134 cups
75	0.31701 cups
100	0.42268 cups
150	0.63401 cups
200	0.84535 cups
250	1.0567 cups
300	1.268 cups
400	1.6907 cups
500	2.1134 cups
600	2.5361 cups
750	3.1701 cups
1,000	4.2268 cups
1,500	6.3401 cups

🌍 The five cups

US customary cup236.59 mL
US labeling cup (FDA)240 mL
Metric cup (AU, NZ, CA)250 mL
Japanese cup200 mL

Getting a recipe right

Check where the recipe comes from. An American cup is 236.59 mL and an Australian one is 250 — a 5.7% gap that compounds across several ingredients.
For flour, sugar and cocoa, weigh instead. A cup of flour can hold anywhere from 120 to 150 grams depending on how it was filled.
For liquids, the cup is reliable: 250 mL of milk is 250 mL however you pour it.
American nutrition labels use a 240 mL cup by regulation, which is why a label and a cookbook can disagree slightly about the same cup.

Five cups, all in use

The cup was never standardised internationally, so several survive at once. The US customary cup is half a US pint, 236.588 mL, and it is what American cookbooks mean. The FDA defines a separate labeling cup of exactly 240 mL for nutrition panels, because round numbers make serving sizes readable. Australia, New Zealand, Canada and modern British recipes use a metric cup of 250 mL. Japan uses 200 mL, and the old British breakfast cup was half an imperial pint, 284 mL. The word is the same everywhere; the volume is not.

Why bakers weigh instead

A cup measures volume, but flour, sugar and cocoa are compressible, so the same cup can hold very different amounts. Scooping flour straight from the bag packs it and gives around 150 grams; spooning it in loosely and levelling gives about 120. That is a 25% swing on the single most important ingredient in most recipes, and it is why professional baking works in weight and in baker's percentages. Liquids do not have this problem, so cups remain perfectly sensible for milk, water and stock — the trouble is only with anything that can be pressed down.

Which cup is which

United States, cooking: 236.588 mL, half a US pint. This is what a US recipe means.
United States, nutrition labels: 240 mL exactly, set by FDA regulation.
Australia, New Zealand, Canada and modern UK recipes: 250 mL metric cup.
Japan: 200 mL, though rice is measured in gō of 180 mL.
Historic British breakfast cup: 284 mL, half an imperial pint.
A rice cooker's supplied cup is usually 180 mL, not any of the above.

Handy kitchen equivalents

1 US cup = 236.59 mL = 16 tablespoons = 8 fl oz.
¾ cup = 177 mL, ½ cup = 118 mL, ¼ cup = 59 mL.
⅓ cup = 79 mL, which is 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon.
250 mL, a metric cup, is 1.06 US cups — close enough for soup, not for cake.
A 240 mL labeling cup is 1.014 US cups.
4 US cups make a US quart, and 16 make a US gallon.

Worked examples

Recipes crossing borders

250 mL from an Australian recipe

250 ÷ 236.588 = 1.057 US cups
So an Australian cup is about 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon in US terms
Across four cups of flour that is an extra quarter cup

250 mL = 1.06 US cups

An American recipe calling for 2 cups of milk

2 × 236.588 = 473 mL
In a metric jug, just under 475 mL
Measuring with a 250 mL cup would add 27 mL

2 US cups = 473 mL

Frequently Asked Questions

How many mL in a cup?

236.588 mL for the US customary cup used in American cookbooks. The metric cup used in Australia, New Zealand and Canada is 250 mL, the FDA labeling cup is 240 mL and the Japanese cup is 200 mL. The answer genuinely depends on the recipe's origin.

Is 250 mL one cup?

It is one metric cup, but 1.06 US cups. For soup or a marinade the 6% difference is irrelevant; in a cake, spread across flour, sugar and liquid, it changes the texture. Check which country the recipe comes from before assuming.

Why does the FDA use a 240 mL cup?

Because nutrition labels need round serving sizes that people can picture. Rather than printing 236.588 mL, the regulation defines the labeling cup as exactly 240 mL, which is why a carton and a cookbook can quote slightly different figures for the same word.

Should I measure flour in cups or grams?

Grams, whenever you can. A cup of flour holds 120 to 150 grams depending on whether it was scooped or spooned, a swing of up to a quarter. Liquids are fine in cups because they cannot be compressed; it is the dry ingredients that make volume unreliable.

What is ⅓ of a cup in millilitres?

78.9 mL, which most recipes round to 80. If you have no third-cup measure, use 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon — that is the exact equivalent, since a cup is 16 tablespoons and 16 ÷ 3 is 5⅓.

Is the cup in my rice cooker a real cup?

No. Rice cooker cups are almost always 180 mL, the traditional Japanese gō, and the water lines inside the bowl are calibrated to that measure. Using a 240 mL kitchen cup instead overfills the pot and gives wetter rice.