Cubic Yards to US Gallons (yd³ to gal)

1 cubic yard equals 201.974026 US gallons (rounded).

1 cubic yard = 201.974026 US gallons

How to convert cubic yards to US gallons

To convert cubic yards to US gallons, multiply the number of cubic yards by 201.974026. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply US gallons by 0.004951131687 (rounded).

US gallons = cubic yards × 201.974026

Example: 10 cubic yards = 2,019.74026 US gallons.

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 Yard (yd³)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

27 cubic feet or 764.555 liters. Used for soil, gravel and concrete in the US.

Cubic yard is a cube three feet on each side, which makes it exactly 27 cubic feet or 46,656 cubic inches. In metric terms it is about 0.7646 cubic meters, or 764.55 liters. The unit follows the yard in the United States and Canada, and British railways once rated ballast wagons by it, with one Great Western Railway wagon holding 8 cubic yards.

A cubic yard is easier to picture than the number suggests. It holds about 202 US gallons, or nearly five oil barrels. That is a scale where bulk materials such as soil, gravel, mulch and concrete are naturally counted, so a patio slab or garden bed needs a handful of them. A handy rule of thumb follows from the arithmetic: one cubic yard spread one inch deep covers 324 square feet.

1 cubic yard = 764.554858 liters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Cubic yard; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8: conversion factors for volume

US Gallon (gal)

US customaryCurrent unit

Exactly 231 cubic inches or 3.785411784 liters (128 US fluid ounces). About 17% smaller than the imperial gallon.

The US gallon is a survivor of English wine trade. Around 1706, a statute in Queen Anne's reign fixed the wine gallon at exactly 231 cubic inches, settling confusion among the competing gallons for wine, ale and corn. British colonies in North America used that wine gallon, and in 1824 Britain replaced all its gallons with a new imperial one while the United States kept the old measure. It was adopted as the legal US standard in 1836 and is still defined as exactly 231 cubic inches, or 3.785411784 liters.

That makes the US gallon about 17 percent smaller than the imperial gallon, a difference that explains why American and British fuel-economy figures cannot be compared directly. Everyday uses are milk jugs, paint cans and gasoline pumps. One gallon divides evenly into four quarts, eight pints, sixteen cups and 128 fluid ounces. A gallon of water weighs a little over 8 pounds, an easy figure to remember when loading a car with water jugs.

1 US gallon = 3.785411784 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Gallon; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8: conversion factors for volume

Related conversions

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