Volume Converter: Liters, Gallons, mL, Cups
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1 L = 0.2641721 gal1 L would fill a cube 10 cm on each side (the blue cube).
A cube twice as wide holds eight times as much: a liter is a cube 10 cm on each side, and 8 liters fill a cube 20 cm on each side.
All Results
Quick Reference Table: Liter → US Gallon
| Value (L) | Result (gal) |
|---|---|
| 0.1 L | 0.026417 gal |
| 0.25 L | 0.066043 gal |
| 0.33 L | 0.087177 gal |
| 0.5 L | 0.132086 gal |
| 1 L | 0.264172 gal |
| 1.5 L | 0.396258 gal |
| 2 L | 0.528344 gal |
| 5 L | 1.3209 gal |
| 10 L | 2.6417 gal |
About Volume Conversions
Volume conversions come up most in cooking, baking and chemistry, but also in everyday life. The liter (L) is the most common unit for measuring liquids. One US gallon equals exactly 3.785411784 liters. One Imperial (UK) gallon equals about 4.546 liters. One US cup equals exactly 236.5882365 milliliters. US and UK measurements differ, so always check which system a recipe uses.
Everyday Volumes
Kitchen and household volumes. A US gallon (3.785 L) is smaller than an Imperial gallon (4.546 L).
| Container | L | gal | fl oz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teaspoon | 0.004929 | 0.001302 | 0.1667 |
| Tablespoon | 0.01479 | 0.003906 | 0.5 |
| Shot glass | 0.044 | 0.01162 | 1.488 |
| US cup | 0.2366 | 0.0625 | 8 |
| Can of soda | 0.33 | 0.08718 | 11.16 |
| Wine bottle | 0.75 | 0.1981 | 25.36 |
| One liter | 1 | 0.2642 | 33.81 |
| US gallon | 3.785 | 1 | 128 |
| Bucket | 10 | 2.642 | 338.1 |
| Car fuel tank | 50 | 13.21 | 1,691 |
| Bathtub | 150 | 39.63 | 5,072 |
History of the liter and the gallon
The liter began as the volume of a kilogram of water and ended as a plain cubic decimeter, while the gallons of the United States and the United Kingdom have stayed different sizes.
- The General Conference on Weights and Measures defined the liter as the volume of 1 kilogram of pure water at its maximum density and at standard atmospheric pressure.
- The 1901 definition was dropped: the word liter became a special name for the cubic decimeter.
- Both l and L were allowed as symbols for the liter, because the letter l is easily confused with the digit 1.
- The UK Weights and Measures Act 1985, still in force, defines the imperial gallon as exactly 4.54609 liters.
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