Liters to Cups Converter

Convert litres to US cups and back — for large-batch cooking and bulk recipes. Everything runs instantly in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

Convert liters ⇄ US cups

4.2268 US cups
1 litres = 4.2268 US cups (US cup = 236.588 ml)

Formula: 1 litres × 1000 ÷ 236.588 = 4.2268 US cups

How the liters to cups conversion works

The conversion uses the US cup of 236.588 ml: cups = litres × 1,000 ÷ 236.588, so 1 litre is 4.22675 US cups. Going the other way, litres = cups × 236.588 ÷ 1,000, so 1 US cup is 0.236588 litres.

Worked example: a soup recipe calling for 2 litres of stock needs 2 × 1,000 ÷ 236.588 = 8.4535 US cups. And 6 US cups of water is 6 × 236.588 ÷ 1,000 = 1.4195 litres.

Handy benchmarks: 0.5 litres ≈ 2.11 cups, 1 litre ≈ 4.23 cups, 2 litres ≈ 8.45 cups and 4 litres ≈ 16.91 cups. Note the metric cup: a 250 ml metric cup gives exactly 4 cups per litre, so if your recipe book is Australian, divide litres by 0.25 instead. For smaller metric steps, see our ml to liters converter and cups to ml converter.

liters to cups questions

How many cups are in a liter?
4.22675 US cups — usually rounded to 4.23 cups. The figure comes from 1,000 ml per litre divided by 236.588 ml per US cup.
How many cups is 2 liters?
8.4535 US cups — about 8 and a half cups. A 2-litre bottle of soda is 8.45 US cups.
How do I convert liters to cups?
Multiply by 1,000 and divide by 236.588: cups = litres × 1,000 ÷ 236.588. So 1.5 litres is 6.34 cups and 3 litres is 12.68 cups. Type any figure above.
Is a liter 4 cups?
Only with a metric cup (250 ml), where 1 litre is exactly 4 cups. With the US cup (236.588 ml), 1 litre is 4.22675 cups — the extra quarter-cup is the difference between the two cup standards.
How do I convert cups back to liters?
Multiply by 236.588 and divide by 1,000: litres = cups × 0.236588. So 8 US cups is 1.8927 litres. Switch the direction above to do it.

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Sources & official guidance

US cup = 236.588 ml; metric cup (250 ml) gives exactly 4 cups per litre. See our disclaimer.