How many cups in a quart? Four. How many quarts in a gallon? Four. How many ounces in a quart? 32. The US kitchen conversion chart (teaspoons to gallons), what 5 quarts is in cups, how much a quart is in litres, why a UK quart and a UK cup are different, and a printable chart with practice

"How many cups in a quart" is typed in American kitchens about 175,000 times a month, usually with a recipe open and a measuring cup in the other hand, and "how many quarts in a gallon" another 200,000 times. The answer is the same little ladder every time: a gallon is 4 quarts, a quart is 2 pints, a pint is 2 cups, a cup is 8 fluid ounces. This page sets out the whole chart from teaspoons to gallons, shows how to climb the ladder in your head, gives the metric values for families who cook from British, Indian or Australian recipes, and ends with a printable chart and a practice set, because the same conversions are a Grade 4 and 5 maths standard in the US and a Year 5 and 6 one in the UK.

Download the kitchen conversion chart with practice (PDF) (A4, the chart and the metric table on page 1, the practice set with answers on page 2, free).

The short answers

The US kitchen ladder

Every US liquid measure is built from the gallon, which is defined as exactly 231 cubic inches (3.785 litres). Each step down the ladder halves or quarters it:

The millilitre values are the US customary ones from the National Institute of Standards and Technology's conversion tables (NIST Special Publication 811, Appendix B): quart 0.9464 L, pint 0.4732 L, cup 0.2366 L, fluid ounce 29.57 mL. Food labels in the US round the cup to 240 mL and the tablespoon to 15 mL by regulation, which is why a nutrition panel and a measuring cup can disagree by a teaspoon.

The picture that makes it stick

Teachers draw a big G with four Qs inside it, two Ps inside each Q, and two Cs inside each P. Count the letters: 4 Qs in the G, 8 Ps, 16 Cs. A child who has drawn "Gallon Man" once can answer any of the cups-pints-quarts-gallons questions by counting.

How to convert in your head

Going down the ladder (big unit to small unit), multiply. Going up (small to big), divide.

• Quarts to cups: × 4. 5 quarts = 20 cups. 3 quarts = 12 cups. 1.5 quarts = 6 cups.
• Cups to quarts: ÷ 4. 10 cups = 2.5 quarts. 6 cups = 1.5 quarts.
• Quarts to gallons: ÷ 4. 10 quarts = 2.5 gallons. 6 quarts = 1.5 gallons.
• Gallons to quarts: × 4. 2.5 gallons = 10 quarts.
• Quarts to fluid ounces: × 32. 2 quarts = 64 fl oz (the big juice carton).
• Fluid ounces to cups: ÷ 8. 12 fl oz (a soda can) = 1.5 cups.
• Cups to tablespoons: × 16. ¼ cup = 4 tablespoons. ⅓ cup = 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon.

A worked example of the kind that appears on Grade 5 tests: a punch recipe needs 3 quarts of juice and you have a 64-ounce bottle. 3 quarts = 96 fl oz, the bottle is 64 fl oz, so you are 32 fl oz (one quart, or 4 cups) short.

Fluid ounces are not weight ounces

The "oz" on a measuring jug and the "oz" on a kitchen scale are different units. A fluid ounce is a volume (29.6 mL); an avoirdupois ounce is a mass (28.35 g). A cup of water weighs about 8.3 ounces, close enough that the two get muddled, but a cup of flour weighs about 4.25 ounces and a cup of honey about 12. When an American recipe says "8 oz of chocolate chips" it means the scale; when it says "8 oz of milk" it means the jug. Our mass conversion page has the weight ounces.

The UK quart, the UK pint and the UK cup are different

Britain and the US both use the words pint, quart and gallon, but since 1824 Britain's imperial system has defined them from a bigger gallon (4.546 litres, exact), so every British liquid measure is about 20 percent larger than the American one with the same name:

So a British pint of milk is 568 mL and an American one 473 mL, and a UK recipe's "quart of stock" is a fifth more than a US one. Australian and New Zealand recipes use the metric cup of 250 mL and a 20 mL tablespoon (Australia) or 15 mL (NZ); Indian recipes mostly use 200 mL or 250 mL cups and, more often, grams. When a family converts a grandmother's recipe, the safest route is to go through millilitres.

The dry quart

US recipes and markets sell berries, grain and bulk produce by the dry quart, which is 1.101 litres, about 16 percent more than the liquid quart, because it descends from the dry bushel rather than the wine gallon. A "quart of strawberries" is a dry quart; a "quart of milk" is a liquid quart. Dry pints (551 mL) are the same story.

Where the conversions sit in school

The US is the only one of the four where the customary ladder is examined, which is why the chart and the practice set are written for Grade 3 to 6 first.

Practice (answers in the PDF)

1. How many cups are in 3 quarts?
2. A 2-gallon drinks cooler holds how many quarts? How many cups?
3. A recipe needs 1 pint of cream. You have a 1-quart carton. What fraction is left after the recipe?
4. 48 fluid ounces of broth is how many cups? How many quarts?
5. Which is more, 5 quarts or 1 gallon plus 3 cups?
6. A fish tank holds 10 gallons. How many quarts of water is that, and roughly how many litres?

Download the chart and the practice set (PDF)

Where to get help

A 1-on-1 online maths class in US after-school hours with a tutor who holds a master's in mathematics and teaches Grade 3 to 8: measurement and conversion taught as a ladder to climb, not a list to memorise, with the metric system alongside for families who cook and shop in both. The Grade 5 maths page lists the units and the standards; the free 30-minute first class is a real lesson on this week's homework. The next pages in this set are the length units chart (mm, cm, m, inches) and the SI base units sheet.

Questions parents ask

See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →