UK Cups to Millilitres Converter
A British cup is 284.13 mL, twenty percent more than a US cup. Here is the conversion, and what the difference does to a recipe.
Conversions completed
Three different cups, same word
A British recipe cup is not an American cup. The UK cup is half an imperial pint, which is 284.13 mL; the US cup is half a US pint, 236.59 mL. A metric cup of 250 mL is a third definition used in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The gap between the UK and US cup is 20 percent, which is enough to ruin a cake.
| Definition | Volume | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| US customary cup | 236.588 mL | United States recipes |
| Metric cup | 250 mL | Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa |
| UK imperial cup | 284.131 mL | Older British recipes, some UK cookbooks |
| Japanese cup | 200 mL | Japan, and rice cookers worldwide |
UK cups to millilitres
| UK cups | UK (mL) | US equivalent (mL) | Extra vs US |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.25 UK cup | 71 mL | 59.1 mL | 11.9 mL |
| 0.5 UK cup | 142.1 mL | 118.3 mL | 23.8 mL |
| 0.75 UK cup | 213.1 mL | 177.4 mL | 35.7 mL |
| 1 UK cup | 284.1 mL | 236.6 mL | 47.5 mL |
| 1.5 UK cup | 426.2 mL | 354.9 mL | 71.3 mL |
| 2 UK cup | 568.3 mL | 473.2 mL | 95.1 mL |
| 2.5 UK cup | 710.3 mL | 591.5 mL | 118.9 mL |
| 3 UK cup | 852.4 mL | 709.8 mL | 142.6 mL |
| 4 UK cup | 1136.5 mL | 946.4 mL | 190.2 mL |
| 5 UK cup | 1420.7 mL | 1182.9 mL | 237.7 mL |
| 6 UK cup | 1704.8 mL | 1419.5 mL | 285.3 mL |
| 8 UK cup | 2273 mL | 1892.7 mL | 380.3 mL |
What the difference does to a recipe
Four UK cups of flour is 1,136 mL against 946 mL for four US cups, a difference of 190 mL or roughly 110 g of plain flour. That is more than half a cup of extra flour, which is why a British sponge recipe followed with a US measuring cup comes out dry.
The safer route: weigh it
- UK recipes published after about 1980 usually list grams as well, and professional British baking is weight-based.
- One UK cup of plain flour is about 125 g; one US cup is about 120 g. Weighing removes the cup question entirely.
- For liquids, the 20 percent gap still matters - use millilitres when a British recipe gives cups.
- Do not convert a UK cup to US cups and then to tablespoons; each step adds rounding. Go straight to millilitres.
Related pages
Frequently Asked Questions
How many mL is a UK cup?
284.131 mL. Half an imperial pint. The US cup is 236.588 mL and the metric cup is 250 mL.
Why is a UK cup bigger than a US cup?
Both are half a pint, but the imperial pint is 568.26 mL against the US pint of 473.18 mL.
Do modern British recipes still use cups?
Rarely. UK recipes published after about 1980 use grams and millilitres; cups survive in older books and in US imports.
