Cubic Millimeters to Milliliters (mm³ to mL)

1 cubic millimeter equals 0.001 milliliters exactly.

1 cubic millimeter = 0.001 milliliters

How to convert cubic millimeters to milliliters

To convert cubic millimeters to milliliters, multiply the number of cubic millimeters by 0.001. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply milliliters by 1,000.

milliliters = cubic millimeters × 0.001

Example: 10 cubic millimeters = 0.01 milliliters.

Pints, quarts, gallons and fluid ounces differ between the US and the UK. Units are labeled 'US' or 'imperial' to avoid confusion.

About these units

Cubic Millimeter (mm³)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One thousandth of a milliliter. Used for tiny volumes.

Geometry supplies the name: a cubic millimeter is the volume of a cube whose edges are each one millimeter long, equal to 10 to the minus 9 cubic meters. Because 1,000 of them fill one cubic centimeter, it is one thousandth of a milliliter, and it is the smallest volume that is commonly written as a cube of length rather than with a liter prefix.

Its tidy equality with the microliter rests on a decision taken in 1964, when the 12th General Conference on Weights and Measures went back to the original definition of the liter as exactly one cubic decimeter. From 1901 until then the liter had been tied to the space taken by a kilogram of water, which made it about 1.000028 cubic decimeters, so volumes in cubic millimeters and microliters differed very slightly. Today 1 mm3 equals 1 microliter exactly, and the figure used here, 0.000001 liter, follows directly from that.

1 cubic millimeter = 0.000001 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Cubic metre; Wikipedia: Litre

Milliliter (mL)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One thousandth of a liter, or exactly 1 cubic centimeter. Used for medicine, cooking and small containers.

Milliliters inherit everything from the liter, since the prefix simply means one thousandth. Because the liter is a cubic decimeter, a milliliter works out to exactly one cubic centimeter, a coincidence the metric system built in on purpose so that volume, length and mass interlock. One milliliter of water has a mass of about one gram, so a dosing syringe, a kitchen scale and a measuring jug can all be checked against one another.

Today milliliters dominate wherever small amounts must be measured precisely: medicine, flavorings, perfume, shampoo and the fine print on drink labels. Spelling is a mild regional split, with uppercase mL preferred in the United States, Canada and Australia and lowercase ml common in the UK and Europe. For scale, a US teaspoon is just under 5 mL, a US tablespoon is about 14.8 mL, and the US nutrition-label cup is exactly 240 mL, so one such cup is 240 of these tiny units.

1 milliliter = 0.001 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Litre; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8: conversion factors for volume; 21 CFR 101.9: nutrition labeling household measures

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