Conversion factor
1 cup = 240 ml
and 1 ml = 0.004167 cup
The formula
millilitres = cups × 240
Worked example. To convert 1.5 cup, multiply by 240: 1.5 × 240 = 360 ml.
Cups to Millilitres conversion table
| cups (cup) | millilitres (ml) |
|---|---|
| 0.25 | 60 |
| 0.33 | 79.2 |
| 0.5 | 120 |
| 0.75 | 180 |
| 1 | 240 |
| 1.5 | 360 |
| 2 | 480 |
| 3 | 720 |
| 4 | 960 |
About cups and millilitres
There is no single cups-to-grams number, and any site that gives you one is being careless. A cup measures volume; a gram measures mass. How many grams fit in a cup depends entirely on the density of what you are measuring. A cup of flour and a cup of honey differ by nearly a factor of three.
This converter uses the 240 ml metric cup, the figure most modern recipes assume. Be aware that the US customary cup is 236.6 ml and an Australian cup is 250 ml. The difference is small enough to ignore for soups and large enough to matter for baking.
Approximate weights for one 240 ml cup: plain flour 120 g, granulated sugar 200 g, brown sugar packed 220 g, butter 227 g, milk 240 g, water 240 g, rolled oats 90 g, rice uncooked 185 g, cocoa powder 100 g, honey 340 g. Flour is the least reliable of these, since scooping rather than spooning can change the figure by 20%. For baking, weighing is genuinely more accurate than measuring by volume.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- How many grams are in a cup?
- It depends on the ingredient, because a cup is a measure of volume rather than weight. One cup holds about 120 g of plain flour, 200 g of granulated sugar, 227 g of butter or 240 g of water.
- How many grams of flour are in a cup?
- About 120 g for plain or all-purpose flour. This is the least consistent common ingredient: scooping the cup directly from the bag compacts the flour and can push it to 145 g or more. Spoon it in loosely and level off.
- How many millilitres are in a cup?
- 240 ml for the metric cup used here and by most modern recipes. A US customary cup is 236.6 ml and an Australian cup is 250 ml.
- Why do recipes use cups at all?
- Speed and familiarity, particularly in American cooking, where volume measures need no scales. Professional and European baking prefers weight because it is reproducible regardless of how the ingredient is packed.
- Should I weigh ingredients instead?
- For baking, yes. Bread and cake recipes depend on ratios between flour, liquid and fat, and volume measurement introduces enough variation to change the result. For soups, stews and general cooking, cups are perfectly adequate.
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