Milliliters

The milliliter is a metric unit of volume, one thousandth of a liter, used in recipes outside the United States and for small liquid amounts.

Milliliters: A small clear glass metric measuring jug holding milk
  • Measurement, dietary and professional terminology

A milliliter (mL) is the metric unit most recipes use for small volumes of liquid. NIST's Metric Kitchen guide lists a teaspoon as about 5 milliliters, a tablespoon as about 15 milliliters, a fluid ounce as about 30 milliliters and a cup as about 240 milliliters. An Ohio State University Extension table gives a cup as 237 milliliters and a liter as 1,000 milliliters, which is about 1.057 quarts.

In many countries bakers weigh dry ingredients in grams and measure liquids in milliliters, which makes scaling a recipe a matter of simple multiplication. American recipes written in cups and spoons can be converted with the equivalents above, though the results are approximate.

For water and thin liquids such as milk, a milliliter weighs about a gram, so a liquid can be measured either by volume in a measuring jug or by weight on a scale.

Related entries

Sources

Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.

  1. Metric Kitchen: Cooking Measurement Equivalencies, NIST (U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology)
  2. Kitchen Measurement Conversion Tables, Ohio State University Extension (4-H)