US Pints to US Cups (pt to cup)
1 US pint equals 2 US cups exactly.
How to convert US pints to US cups
To convert US pints to US cups, multiply the number of US pints by 2. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply US cups by 0.5.
US cups = US pints × 2
Example: 10 US pints = 20 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
US Pint (pt)
One eighth of a US gallon, 473.176 mL (16 US fluid ounces). The US pint is about 17% smaller than the imperial pint.
Pint seems to come from Old French pinte, possibly from a Latin word meaning painted, perhaps because capacity marks were painted on containers. British North America inherited the 231-cubic-inch wine gallon around 1707, and the US liquid pint was derived from it as one eighth. After Britain adopted the imperial gallon in 1824, American and British pints parted ways for good.
Today the US liquid pint is exactly 28.875 cubic inches, or 473.176473 milliliters. The imperial pint, at 568.26125 mL, is about 20 percent larger. That is why a pint of beer in an American bar is a lesser drink than a pint in an English pub, and why recipes from different countries cannot swap pints blindly. In the US a pint is a common size for ice cream, cream and craft beer, and a separate US dry pint of about 550.6 milliliters measures blueberries and cherry tomatoes.
1 US pint = 0.473176473 liters (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Pint; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8: conversion factors for volume
US Cup (cup)
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
Related conversions
- US cups to US pints (reverse)
- US pints to liters
- US pints to milliliters
- US pints to US gallons
- US pints to US fluid ounces
- US pints to cubic meters
- US pints to cubic centimeters
- US pints to US quarts
- US pints to US tablespoons
- US pints to US teaspoons
- US pints to metric cups
- US pints to metric tablespoons
- US pints to metric teaspoons
- Liters to US cups
- Milliliters to US cups
- US gallons to US cups
- US fluid ounces to US cups
- Cubic meters to US cups
- Cubic centimeters to US cups
- US quarts to US cups
- US tablespoons to US cups
- US teaspoons to US cups
- Metric cups to US cups
- Metric tablespoons to US cups
- Metric teaspoons to US cups
See all volume units.