How Many Cups Are In A Liter? (+ Conversion Guide!)

Need to know how many cups are in a liter? Here’s everything you need to know about converting cups to liters (and other helpful measurements)!

How many cups are in a liter?

There are 4.227 cups in a liter. A cup is 8 fluid ounces and a liter is 33.8 fluid ounces.

Cups and liters both measure the volume of liquids, so whether you need to know how many cups are in a liter or water, oil or a bottle of soda, there will always be about 4.3 cups in a liter!

The liter is a metric measurement closest to the quart in imperial measurements. If you don’t need perfectly exact measurements, simply round to 4 cups and add ¼ cup to make a liter. If you need ½ a liter measure out 2 cups and 2 Tablespoons.

What Is a Cup?

The “cup” is an Imperial measurement. The standardized measure of a cup is relatively new. It was initiated by Fannie Farmer the Director of the Boston Cooking School in 1896, and first appeared in her book “The Boston Cooking School Cook Book”. Prior to this it was common for recipes to use terms like a handful of rice or a generous portion of sugar. Now I know people who can cook that way. They just pour in ingredients and their cooking always seems perfect. For the rest of us mere mortals, Fannie Farmer’s standardization was a great service.

What Is a Liter?

The “liter” is a metric measurement. The liter was introduced in France in 1795 by the Republican government after overthrowing the monarchy and all trappings associated with that government, and so began the metric system. In 1901 international agreement was reached to redefined the liter as the space occupied by 1 kg of pure water.

Quick Conversions

While the rest of the world has moved on to the metric system, we still use our pints, quarts, and gallons, so here is a quick conversion chart to assist in metric conversions.

1 cup = 0.236 liters
1 pint = 0.47 liters
1 quart = 1.06 liters
1 gallon = 3.78 liters

Liters	Cups	Pints	Quarts	Gallons
0.5 liter	2.12 cups	1.06 pints	0.53 quarts	0.13 gallons
1 liter	4.23 cups	2.11 pints	1.06 quarts	0.26 gallons
2 liters	8.46 cups	4.22 pints	2.12 quarts	0.53 gallons
5 liters	21.15 cups	10.55 pints	5.30 quarts	1.32 gallons
10 liters	42.30 cups	21.10 pints	10.60 quarts	2.64 gallons