Milliliters to Cups
Convert milliliters (mL) to cups (cup). Both measure capacity and volume, and the conversion comes up in cooking, chemistry, fuel work.
The Formula
``
cups = milliliters × 0.00422675283773
milliliters = cups × 236.5882365
`
One milliliter is 0.004227 cups, and one cup is 236.5882 milliliters.
Conversion Table
| Milliliters | Cups |
|---|---|
| 1 mL | 0.004227 cup |
| 2 mL | 0.008454 cup |
| 5 mL | 0.021134 cup |
| 10 mL | 0.042268 cup |
| 25 mL | 0.105669 cup |
| 50 mL | 0.211338 cup |
| 100 mL | 0.422675 cup |
| 500 mL | 2.1134 cup |
| 1,000 mL | 4.2268 cup |
The Other Direction
| Cups | Milliliters |
|---|---|
| 1 cup | 236.5882 mL |
| 2 cup | 473.1765 mL |
| 5 cup | 1,182.94 mL |
| 10 cup | 2,365.88 mL |
| 25 cup | 5,914.71 mL |
| 50 cup | 11,829.41 mL |
| 100 cup | 23,658.82 mL |
| 500 cup | 118,294.12 mL |
| 1,000 cup | 236,588.24 mL |
What Each Unit Is
Milliliters (mL) — one thousandth of a litre, equal to one cubic centimetre. The metric unit for small volumes; medicine and cooking both work in millilitres.
Cups (cup) — the US customary cup: exactly 240 millilitres in nutrition labelling, 236.588 mL legally. An American cooking measure standardised by Fannie Farmer in the 1890s.
A Sense of Scale
A teaspoon is 5 mL- An espresso is 30 mL
- A wine glass pour is 150 mL
- A coffee mug holds about 1.5 cups
- US recipes measure everything in cups
Precision
The factor 0.00422675283773 is rounded. For engineering work carry more digits than the table above, and round only at the end — rounding at each step compounds.
Watch Out For
- A US cup is 237 mL, a metric cup 250 mL and a Japanese cup 200 mL. Baking by volume is why the same recipe fails in another country.
In Code
`javascript
const milliliterToCup = (value) => value * 0.00422675283773;
``
Where This Conversion Comes Up
- Cooking
- Chemistry
- Fuel
- Beverages
- Medicine
How Many Decimals Do You Need?
Rounding the factor costs accuracy, and how much depends on the factor. Converting 137 mL with the factor truncated at each decimal place:
| Decimals kept | Factor | 137 mL becomes | Error |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 100.0000% |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 100.0000% |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 100.0000% |
| 3 | 0.004 | 0.548 | 5.3647% |
| 4 | 0.0042 | 0.5754 | 0.6329% |
The right number of significant figures is set by your input, not by the converter. If you measured milliliters to three significant figures, the answer in cups is only good to three — writing more digits claims precision the measurement never had.