Imperial Quarts to US Cups (qt (UK) to cup)

1 imperial quart equals 4.803799702 US cups (rounded).

1 imperial quart = 4.803799702 US cups

How to convert imperial quarts to US cups

To convert imperial quarts to US cups, multiply the number of imperial quarts by 4.803799702. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply US cups by 0.2081685462 (rounded).

US cups = imperial quarts × 4.803799702

Example: 10 imperial quarts = 48.03799702 US cups.

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

Imperial Quart (qt (UK))

Imperial (British)Current unit

One quarter of an imperial gallon, 1.1365 L (40 imperial fluid ounces).

Quart comes from the Latin quartus, through French quart, and simply means a quarter: one quarter of a gallon. Because gallons of different sizes were in use over the centuries, quarts varied with them. The imperial version descends from the gallon fixed by the Weights and Measures Act 1824, defined by the weight of ten pounds of distilled water, which gave about 4.54 liters.

The modern figure is exact. The imperial gallon is now 4.54609 liters, so the imperial quart is 1.1365225 liters, equal to two imperial pints, eight gills or 40 imperial fluid ounces. British law still lists the quart as a quarter of a gallon among supplementary units. It is about 1.2 US liquid quarts, so recipes and cans from Britain, Canada and the United States can differ by a fifth. Canada's federal law even calls the imperial quart a pinte in French.

1 imperial quart = 1.1365225 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Quart; Wikipedia: Imperial units; UK Weights and Measures Act 1985, Schedule 1

US Cup (cup)

US customaryCurrent unit

One sixteenth of a US gallon, 236.588 mL (8 US fluid ounces). The standard US recipe cup.

Cups began as household drinking vessels, not scientific units, which is why they remain the messiest measures in the kitchen. The US customary cup was defined by slicing up the gallon: half a pint, or eight US fluid ounces, about 236.6 milliliters. Unlike the larger units, nobody ever fixed it to a physical vessel, so it exists only as a fraction of the gallon.

The customary cup is not the only American cup. For nutrition labels, US regulation defines a cup as exactly 240 milliliters, a rounder figure that sits slightly above the customary size. Packaged foods therefore list a serving in the legal cup while a measuring cup from the hardware store follows the customary definition. The gap is 3.4 milliliters, which hardly matters for soup but can matter in baking. Cup measures also hide the weight of dry ingredients, since a cup of sifted flour and a cup of packed flour differ substantially, which is why much of the world prefers grams.

1 US cup = 0.2365882365 liters (exactly).

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

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