Cups to mL Converter

This converter uses the US customary cup (236.5882365 mL = 8 US fluid ounces) by default, because that's the cup unit used by most online English-language recipes — American cookbooks, food blogs, Pinterest pins, US baking websites. To identify your recipe's cup: if the source is a US-based food blog, cookbook, or YouTube channel → US customary 236.59 mL. If the source is Australia, New Zealand, Canada (modern), or a UK recipe published since the 1990s → metric 250 mL. If the source is the FDA Nutrition Facts panel on a packaged food → US legal 240 mL (per 21 CFR 101.9, set by the 1993 final rule under the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act 1990). If the source is a vintage British cookbook (Mrs. Beeton, pre-metric Bero) → UK Imperial 284.131 mL (10 imperial fl oz). If the source is a Japanese rice cooker manual → gō 180 mL.

Two different traditions. The cookbook cup descends from the 19th-century US fluid-ounce family: 1 US gallon = 128 US fl oz, and 1 cup = 8 US fl oz = 236.5882365 mL exactly. The FDA legal cup of 240 mL was set by the 1993 Nutrition Labeling and Education Act final rule (21 CFR 101.9) as a round, easier value for packaging compliance — it is NOT the cookbook cup. The 3.4 mL difference (~1.4%) is irrelevant for cooking outcomes but matters for nutrition-label arithmetic: a "1 cup serving" on a cereal box references 240 mL, not 236.59 mL. When converting recipes you should use 236.59 mL; when computing serving counts from a Nutrition Facts panel you should use 240 mL.

Cup measurements work well for fluid-like ingredients (water, milk, oil, syrup) where the density is essentially constant. They work poorly for dry ingredients where density depends on packing, sifting, humidity, and brand. Common density-driven variances: 1 cup all-purpose flour can be 115-135 g (a 17% range) depending on whether you scoop, spoon-and-level, or sift; 1 cup brown sugar packed = 220 g but unpacked = 145 g (a 52% range); 1 cup chopped vs whole nuts varies ~30%. Fluid ingredients are stable: 1 cup water = 236.59 g (1 g/mL); 1 cup whole milk ≈ 245 g (1.03 g/mL); 1 cup honey ≈ 340 g (1.42 g/mL); 1 cup oil ≈ 213 g (0.92 g/mL). Serious baking texts (Rose Levy Beranbaum, ChefSteps, J. Kenji López-Alt) recommend kitchen-scale weighing in grams over volume cups for any recipe where rise, crumb, or hydration ratio matters.

The gō (合) is the traditional Japanese unit for measuring rice. The Meiji-era Japanese Weights and Measures Act of 1891 codified it as 2401/13310 L ≈ 180.39 mL; modern usage rounds to 180 mL exact. The unit pre-dates 1891 by centuries — it was originally the standard daily rice ration for one person in Edo-period Japan (1603-1868). It remains in everyday culinary use because most Japanese rice cookers ship with a 180 mL "gō cup" (often labelled "180 cc" or "1合"), and Japanese rice recipes specify quantities in gō. Conversions: 1 gō = 180 mL ≈ 0.76 US customary cup ≈ 0.72 metric cup; 1 shō (升) = 10 gō ≈ 1.804 L; 1 koku (石) = 100 shō ≈ 180.39 L (historically the rice-output measure of feudal domains, e.g. "Kaga 1 million koku" describing the Maeda clan's territory). Western recipes can substitute 0.75 US cup or 175 mL for 1 gō with negligible cooking impact.

Spoon volumes vary by region just like cups do, and the same regional logic applies. Tablespoon: US = 14.7867648 mL (½ US fl oz = 1/16 cup); UK Imperial = 14.20653125 mL (½ imperial fl oz, historical pre-metric British recipes; modern UK recipes use a 15 mL metric tablespoon); Australia / New Zealand = 20 mL exactly (4 metric teaspoons of 5 mL — distinct from the 3-teaspoon-per-tablespoon ratio elsewhere). Teaspoon: most countries = 5 mL exactly (metric teaspoon used in Australian, NZ, Canadian, modern UK, and packaged-food labelling); US = 4.92892159 mL (1/3 US tablespoon, derived from 1/6 US fl oz). The 5 mL metric teaspoon is also the standard for over-the-counter medicines and prescription dosing across most of the world. Recipe pitfall: an Australian "1 tablespoon of yeast" (20 mL) is ~35% more than a US "1 tablespoon" (14.79 mL); over a sourdough starter feed schedule the difference compounds.