What is mL to fluid ounces?
Millilitres and fluid ounces are both units of volume — how much space a liquid takes up. Millilitres are the metric standard: one thousandth of a litre, used pretty much everywhere except the United States. Fluid ounces are the customary unit in American recipes, on US drink containers, and on most US pharmaceutical bottles. Confusingly, the UK also has a fluid ounce, and it's a different size than the American one.
The mL to fl oz Converter handles all of this in two live fields. Type a millilitre value, the fluid ounce value updates. Type a fluid ounce value, the millilitre updates. Below the inputs sits a reference table of the volumes most people actually look up — one cup, one tablespoon, one teaspoon, one pint, one quart — so you don't have to convert each measurement in a recipe separately.
How to use the converter
Two text fields, one for millilitres and one for fluid ounces. They're linked: editing either updates the other in real time.
- Type a millilitre value into the mL field — fluid ounces updates as you type.
- Or type a fluid ounce value into the fl oz field — millilitres updates instead.
- Tap the copy icon next to either field to copy the converted number.
- Skim the cooking-measurements table below for common kitchen quantities (1 cup = 240 mL, 1 tablespoon = 15 mL, etc.) when you're translating a whole recipe rather than a single value.
The converter uses US fluid ounces by default, because the vast majority of "ml to oz" queries come from people translating American recipes. The body of this article covers the UK fluid ounce too, with conversion factors for both systems.
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The formula, with the US/UK gotcha
The arithmetic is one multiplication. The catch is which definition you're using.
US fluid ounce: 1 fl oz = 29.5735 mL
UK (Imperial) fluid ounce: 1 fl oz = 28.4131 mL
The two values come from different historical traditions. The US fluid ounce was defined in 1707 based on the volume of one ounce of wine. The UK fluid ounce was defined in 1824 based on the volume of one ounce of water at 62 °F. The two were close enough that nobody fixed the discrepancy, and centuries later we still have two slightly different ounces.
The relative size difference is 4.1%. For a single tablespoon, that's a few drops — usually too small to matter. For a quart of stock or a half-litre of cream, the gap is large enough to make a difference in a fussy bake.
Worked example: convert 250 mL into both flavours of fluid ounce.
- US: 250 ÷ 29.5735 = 8.45 US fl oz
- UK: 250 ÷ 28.4131 = 8.80 UK fl oz
A 250-mL metric cup is therefore "about 8 1/2 ounces" in American terms or "just under 9 ounces" in British terms. The numbers describe the same physical amount of liquid — only the label on the measuring jug changes.
Common cooking volumes, in both systems
This is the table most people open the page for. Recipes use ten or twelve standard volumes; if you know those, you can translate everything else.
| Measure | Millilitres | US fluid ounces | UK fluid ounces |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 US teaspoon | 4.93 | 0.17 | 0.17 |
| 1 UK teaspoon | 5.92 | 0.20 | 0.21 |
| 1 metric teaspoon | 5.00 | 0.17 | 0.18 |
| 1 US tablespoon | 14.79 | 0.50 | 0.52 |
| 1 UK tablespoon | 17.76 | 0.60 | 0.63 |
| 1 metric tablespoon | 15.00 | 0.51 | 0.53 |
| 1 fluid ounce (US) | 29.57 | 1.00 | 1.04 |
| 1 fluid ounce (UK) | 28.41 | 0.96 | 1.00 |
| 1/4 US cup | 59.15 | 2.00 | 2.08 |
| 1/3 US cup | 78.86 | 2.67 | 2.78 |
| 1/2 US cup | 118.29 | 4.00 | 4.16 |
| 1 US cup | 236.59 | 8.00 | 8.33 |
| 1 metric cup | 250.00 | 8.45 | 8.80 |
| 1 UK cup | 284.13 | 9.61 | 10.00 |
| 1 US pint | 473.18 | 16.00 | 16.65 |
| 1 UK pint | 568.26 | 19.22 | 20.00 |
| 1 US quart | 946.35 | 32.00 | 33.31 |
| 1 litre | 1,000.00 | 33.81 | 35.20 |
| 1 US gallon | 3,785.41 | 128.00 | 133.23 |
| 1 UK gallon | 4,546.09 | 153.72 | 160.00 |
The row people land on most often is "1 US cup = 236.59 mL = 8.00 US fl oz." Most American recipes round this to 240 mL for cleaner math; the rounding adds about 1.4% error, which is fine for almost everything except patisserie. The metric cup (250 mL exactly) is what Australian and New Zealand recipes use, and it differs from the US cup by about 5.7%.
When to care which ounce you're using
Most of the time, the 1.04× difference between US and UK fluid ounces gets lost in the noise. A few situations where it matters:
- Following a UK baking recipe with a US measuring cup. Pints, cups, and quarts differ enough between the two systems to ruin a finicky bake. A "pint" of cream in a UK recipe is 568 mL — almost 100 mL more than a US pint. For dense baked goods (a sponge, a custard, anything ratio-driven), use the recipe's native units and convert through millilitres rather than assuming a pint is a pint.
- Cocktail recipes. A "1.5 oz pour" in an American cocktail book is 44.4 mL. The same recipe rewritten by a UK author often becomes "1.5 oz" still, but now means 42.6 mL. Difference is small per drink; it compounds across a batch.
- Pharmaceutical dosing. US drug labels use the US fluid ounce; UK labels use the UK fluid ounce. The two are close enough that a single dose isn't dangerous, but a multi-dose pediatric prescription can drift. When in doubt, dose in millilitres — both pharmacies are using the same metric numbers underneath.
- Beer in a pint glass. A US pint is 16 US fl oz / 473 mL. A UK pint is 20 UK fl oz / 568 mL. A UK pint is about 20% larger than an American one. Crossing the Atlantic, the same word means slightly different amounts of beer.
If you're not sure which ounce a recipe means, look at where it was published. American food blogs, American cookbooks, and US packaging use the US fluid ounce. BBC Good Food, Delia, Jamie Oliver, and most UK publications use the UK fluid ounce. Australian recipes use metric cups (250 mL) and avoid fluid ounces entirely. Most US measuring cups stamped with "oz" markings are US ounces unless the cup is sold for the export market.
Why volume conversion isn't weight conversion
"Ounces" gets used for two different things, which causes endless confusion. A fluid ounce is a volume — how much space the liquid takes up. An ounce (no "fluid") is a weight — how heavy something is. They happen to share a name because the original Roman ounce was both a weight and a volume that worked out to roughly the same for water.
For water, 1 mL weighs about 1 gram, and 1 US fl oz of water weighs about 1.04 weight ounces. They're close enough that recipes sometimes interchange the two without saying so. For everything else, the numbers diverge.
- 1 mL of water weighs about 1.00 grams
- 1 mL of milk weighs about 1.03 grams
- 1 mL of olive oil weighs about 0.92 grams
- 1 mL of honey weighs about 1.42 grams
- 1 mL of flour weighs about 0.53 grams (loose), 0.59 grams (sifted)
For volume to weight in cooking — when a recipe says "8 oz of flour" and you only have a measuring jug — use a dedicated ingredient-by-ingredient weight chart. The mL to fl oz Converter handles volume to volume only. Volume to weight needs the density of the specific ingredient, which the converter doesn't track because it varies by brand, by humidity, and by how packed the ingredient is.
Related conversions
Cooking and shopping rarely need just one conversion. A few useful neighbors:
- Length Converter — inches, centimetres, feet, metres. For baking pan sizes and oven shelf heights.
- Weight Converter — grams, kilograms, ounces, pounds. The companion piece for solid ingredients.
- Temperature Converter — Celsius and Fahrenheit for ovens, plus Kelvin for the chemistry homework.
- Density Calculator — converts between volume and mass for a known ingredient. Useful when a recipe gives flour in grams and your scale is broken.
Frequently asked questions
How many mL is 1 fluid ounce?
1 US fluid ounce equals 29.5735 millilitres exactly. So 8 fl oz (one US cup) is about 236.6 mL, and 16 fl oz (one US pint) is about 473.2 mL. 1 UK fluid ounce is slightly smaller at 28.4131 mL — UK pints, cups, and quarts therefore come out a bit larger when measured in fluid ounces. The converter defaults to the US definition; multiply mL by 0.0352 instead of 0.0338 to get UK fluid ounces.
How many fluid ounces is 250 mL?
250 mL is 8.45 US fluid ounces or 8.80 UK fluid ounces. The number is a useful one to memorise because 250 mL is exactly one metric cup, the standard measure in Australia, New Zealand, and most of continental Europe. It's about 4.4% bigger than a US cup (240 mL) and about 12% smaller than a UK cup (284 mL).
Does this use US or UK fluid ounces?
The converter uses US fluid ounces (1 fl oz = 29.5735 mL). UK / Imperial fluid ounces are slightly larger (1 fl oz = 28.4131 mL) and used in some British recipes. If you're following a UK recipe, multiply the mL output by 0.0352 to get the UK fluid ounce equivalent, or divide by 28.4131. The difference between the two systems is about 4%, which adds up across a multi-cup recipe.
What's 1 cup in mL?
It depends on which cup the recipe uses. A US cup is 240 mL (rounded from 236.59 mL). A metric cup is 250 mL exactly. A UK cup is 284 mL (10 UK fluid ounces). Australian recipes use the 250-mL metric cup. American recipes almost always mean the 240-mL US cup. British recipes that mention cups (rare — most use grams) usually mean the 284-mL UK cup. When in doubt, check the country the recipe came from.
Can I convert mL to grams with this tool?
No — mL measures volume and grams measure weight. They're only equal for water (1 mL of water weighs 1 gram at room temperature). For other liquids the density differs: 1 mL of olive oil weighs about 0.92 grams; 1 mL of honey weighs about 1.42 grams; 1 mL of milk weighs about 1.03 grams. For ingredient-specific weight conversions, you need a density table for that specific ingredient or a dedicated cooking weight calculator.
What's a "shot" in mL?
A US shot is officially 1.5 US fl oz (44.4 mL), though many bars pour 1 oz (29.6 mL) or 2 oz (59.1 mL) depending on the drink. A UK pub shot is typically 25 mL or 35 mL (set by law for spirits — small for affordability, larger for "doubles"). An Australian shot is 30 mL. The "shot" isn't a standardised unit; if a cocktail recipe lists shots, check whether the author is American (1.5 oz) or somewhere else.
Is the converter accurate to enough decimals for pharmacy or laboratory work?
The arithmetic is exact to about 10 digits — far more than the inputs realistically warrant. Display rounds to two decimal places because more would be misleading: a kitchen measuring jug is accurate to maybe ±2 mL, and a household measuring spoon is closer to ±0.5 mL. For pharmacy and lab work, you'd typically use a graduated cylinder or a calibrated pipette and rely on metric units directly rather than converting from fluid ounces.
Is my input saved or sent anywhere?
No. The conversion runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript — nothing is sent to a server, logged, or stored. Once you close the tab, your inputs are gone. This page also works offline once it has loaded.