Enter a volume in cups and choose your cup type (US, Metric, or Imperial) to get the equivalent in milliliters. The converter also works in reverse — enter milliliters to see how many cups that equals. A handy conversion table is included so you can reference common measurements at a glance.
Milliliters
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Cups (from mL input)
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mL per Cup (selected type)
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One US cup equals 236.588 milliliters (commonly rounded to 236.6 mL or 237 mL). This is the standard cup measurement used in American recipes and on US nutrition labels.
A metric cup equals exactly 250 milliliters. This is the standard cup size used in Australia, Canada, and many other countries that follow the metric system.
An imperial cup, historically used in the UK, equals approximately 284.131 milliliters. This measurement is largely obsolete in modern British cooking, but may appear in older UK recipes from before the 1970s.
Multiply the number of cups by the mL value for your cup type: US cups × 236.588, metric cups × 250, or imperial cups × 284.131. For example, 2 US cups = 2 × 236.588 = 473.18 mL.
Divide the milliliter value by the mL-per-cup factor for your cup type. For US cups: mL ÷ 236.588. For metric cups: mL ÷ 250. For imperial cups: mL ÷ 284.131.
A US cup holds 236.588 mL while a metric cup holds exactly 250 mL — a difference of about 13.4 mL. For most everyday cooking this difference is small, but it can matter in precise baking recipes. Always check which cup standard your recipe uses.
500 mL equals approximately 2.113 US cups, 2.000 metric cups, or 1.760 imperial cups. The exact answer depends on which cup type you are using.
Cups are a widely-used unit in cooking but are not part of the International System of Units (SI). The cup size also varies by country — US, metric, and imperial cups all differ slightly. For scientific or pharmaceutical measurements, milliliters are the preferred unit.