How many cups in a quart? US, UK and metric cups
Four cups, exactly, for any US liquid quart. Here is the whole gallon-to-cup chart, what changes with UK and metric cups, and the dry quart berries are sold in.
By Akash Yadav Updated 19 October 2026
Short answer
A US quart is exactly 4 cups
There are 4 cups in a quart. That is exact, with nothing rounded, because the US liquid units are built by halving: a quart is 2 pints, and a pint is 2 cups. In fluid ounces, a quart is 32 fl oz and a cup is 8.
It holds for anything liquid: a quart of water, milk, stock or oil is the same 4 cups, because a cup measures space, not weight. The answer changes in only two cases, both covered below: a UK recipe, where the quart is bigger, and fruit sold by the quart, which uses the dry quart.
Chart
Gallons, quarts, pints and cups in one chart
Every US liquid unit from the gallon down, in each of the others. Read across a row to see one unit in all the rest.
| Unit | Quarts | Pints | Cups | Fl oz | mL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 gallon | 4 | 8 | 16 | 128 | 3785.4 |
| 1 quart | 1 | 2 | 4 | 32 | 946.4 |
| 1 pint | 0.5 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 473.2 |
| 1 cup | 0.25 | 0.5 | 1 | 8 | 236.6 |
The quick way to remember it: a gallon splits into 4 quarts, and every step after that halves. A quart is 2 pints, a pint is 2 cups. So a gallon is 16 cups. For any amount, the quarts to gallons, gallons to quarts and pints to cups converters do the arithmetic.
Amounts
Quarts to cups for common amounts
Quarts turn up in recipes as fractions, and in shops as the size of a carton or jar. Multiply by 4 to get cups.
| Quarts | Cups | mL |
|---|---|---|
| 0.25 qt | 1 | 237 |
| 0.5 qt | 2 | 473 |
| 0.75 qt | 3 | 710 |
| 1 qt | 4 | 946 |
| 1.5 qt | 6 | 1420 |
| 2 qt | 8 | 1893 |
| 3 qt | 12 | 2839 |
| 4 qt | 16 | 3785 |
A quart and a half is 6 cups. A quart canning jar is sold as a 32 fl oz jar, which is the same 4 cups.
UK and metric
Is a quart 4 cups in the UK?
No, because the UK quart is bigger. It is a quarter of the Imperial gallon, which is exactly 4.54609 liters (Weights and Measures Act 1985, Schedule 1), so a UK quart is 1136.5 mL against the US quart's 946.4 mL. That is about 4.8 US cups.
The UK has no customary cup to divide it by. Australian, New Zealand and most modern Canadian recipes use a 250 mL metric cup, and British recipes that give cups usually mean the same. Measured that way:
- A US quart is about 3.79 metric cups.
- A UK quart is about 4.55 metric cups.
- A liter is exactly 4 metric cups, which is why a liter is so often swapped in for a quart.
That swap works for a soup and not for a cake. A liter is about 6% more than a US quart. To go from cups to milliliters directly, use cups to milliliters.
Dry quarts
Why a quart of berries is not 4 cups
Strawberries, blueberries and cherry tomatoes sold "by the quart" come in a dry quart, a separate US unit defined as 67.200625 cubic inches (NIST Handbook 44, Appendix C). That is about 1101 mL, roughly 16% more space than a liquid quart, or about 4.7 US cups.
Berries do not fill a cup the way liquid does, either. Whole fruit leaves gaps, so a container's worth of berries comes to a different number of cups depending on how they are packed and whether they are sliced. If a recipe gives berries in cups, measure the cups rather than counting containers.
Common questions
Quart questions people actually ask
How many cups are in half a quart?
2 cups, which is one pint.
How many quarts is one cup?
A quarter of a quart: 1 cup is 0.25 qt.
Is a quart bigger than a liter?
No. A US quart is 946 mL, a little under a liter. A UK quart is 1137 mL, a little over.
How many cups are in a quart of milk?
The same 4 cups as any other liquid. Cups and quarts both measure volume, so what is in the carton does not change the count.
The definitions behind every number here are on the methodology page. For the other liquid measures, the volume converters are all in one place, and the guide to the ounce covers the US and UK fluid ounce.
Use it
Converters in this guide
- Quarts to Gallons qt → gal
- Gallons to Quarts gal → qt
- Pints to Cups pt → cup
- Cups to Milliliters cup → mL
Every figure in this guide is computed at build time from the same conversion engine as the converters it links to, and the factors behind it are the defining standards listed on the methodology page. Nothing here is typed by hand from a template.
Keep reading
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