Pint to Litre Converter

The pint-to-litre converter on this page turns any volume between pints and litres in both directions, with separate, accurate factors for the UK (imperial) pint and the US liquid pint. Type a number into either field and the other one updates live. A toggle at the top of the calculator switches between the two systems, the two pints are not the same, and using the wrong one is by far the most common error when reading recipes, pub menus, brewing recipes, and aquarium dosing charts in metric units.

The page exists because, despite more than fifty years of metrication in the UK and a global move to SI units in science and trade, the pint remains a stubbornly persistent unit in everyday life. Beer and cider in the United Kingdom are still sold by the pint, US recipes still call for cream and buttermilk by the cup and the pint, and a large amount of brewing and distilling literature, both homebrew and craft, uses pints as the working unit. Anywhere those sources cross paths with metric measuring jugs, this converter is the fastest way to reconcile them.

The two conversion factors the calculator uses are:

• 1 UK (imperial) pint = exactly 0.56826125 litres, which rounds to 0.568261 L at six-decimal precision.
• 1 US liquid pint = exactly 3.785411784 ÷ 8 = 0.473176473 litres, which rounds to 0.473176 L at six decimals.

Those six-decimal values are what the converter stores and what the result panel prints. They are accurate to within roughly one part in a million, which is well below the precision of any kitchen scale or beer pump you would ever use. The "Show your work" line on the calculator prints the same multiplication it just performed, so the math is auditable on every keystroke.

How to Use the Pint to Litre Converter

1. Pick your system. The first control row is two buttons labelled "UK pint (= 0.568261 L)" and "US liquid pint (= 0.473176 L)". Choose the pint system your source material uses. If you are reading a UK pub menu, the British brewing literature, or an old UK Act of Parliament, click UK. If you are reading a US recipe, a US brewing text, or a US NIST publication, click US liquid.
2. Type your value. Enter the number of pints (or litres) into the appropriate field. Decimal values are accepted to whatever precision your input device allows; the calculator rounds the displayed result to six decimal places and strips trailing zeros for a clean look.
3. Watch the other field update. The opposite field recomputes on every keystroke. You can edit either side at any time and the other one tracks it instantly.
4. Use the ⇄ swap button. If you typed into the wrong field, the swap button exchanges the two values so you can keep working in your preferred orientation without retyping.
5. Try the quick presets. Four preset chips load common values: 1 pint, 2 pints (a standard UK pub beer), 4 pints, and 8 pints (a UK gallon). Each chip is labelled with the equivalent in litres under the currently selected system, so they double as hand-verified spot checks.
6. Read the bonus read-outs. The two cards below the result panel show the same volume in fluid ounces (20 fl oz per UK pint, 16 fl oz per US liquid pint) and in millilitres (1000 mL per litre, exact). Together they cover essentially every other volume unit you are likely to encounter in a kitchen, pub, or aquarium.
7. Use the copy buttons. The three copy buttons put the pints value, the litres value, or a combined " pt = L (system)" line on the clipboard, ready to paste into a spreadsheet, brewing log, or chat message.

Everything runs locally in your browser. The converter does not call any network endpoint, does not log your inputs, and does not require an account.

The Formulas

The UK (imperial) pint is one-eighth of an imperial gallon, and the imperial gallon is defined as exactly 4.54609 litres by the UK Weights and Measures Act 1985 (which re-enacted, with modern metric equivalents, the definitions originally fixed by the Imperial Units Act 1824). So:

1 UK pint = 4.54609 L ÷ 8 = 0.56826125 L

That full-precision figure is what appears on UK trading standards paperwork. For everyday conversion work the rounded six-decimal value 0.568261 L is used; that is the value this calculator stores and prints.

The US liquid pint is one-eighth of a US liquid gallon, and the US liquid gallon has been defined as exactly 3.785411784 litres since the late 19th-century redefinitions of US customary units in terms of the cubic inch, and since 1964 in terms of the cubic decimetre (the litre itself). NIST Special Publication 811 and the BIPM SI Brochure §2.3.2 both publish this exact value. So:

1 US liq pint = 3.785411784 L ÷ 8 = 0.473176473 L

Rounded to six decimals that gives 0.473176 L. The reciprocal factors follow by elementary algebra:

1 L = 1 / 0.568261      ≈ 1.7597547606 UK pints
1 L = 1 / 0.473176      ≈ 2.1133764189 US liquid pints

The two working formulas are:

UK:   L  = pt × 0.568261           pt = L ÷ 0.568261
US:   L  = pt × 0.473176           pt = L ÷ 0.473176

Both directions are mathematically exact (up to the six-decimal rounding), so there is no measurement uncertainty in the conversion beyond the printed digit count.

How the rounding works

Internally the calculator multiplies with full IEEE-754 double precision and then rounds the displayed result to six decimal places. That gives the converter 11+ significant digits of working precision, vastly more than any reading glassware or beer pump is calibrated to. The six-decimal display format was chosen because six decimals is the smallest precision that exactly reproduces both 0.568261 (UK) and 0.473176 (US) without spurious extra digits.

A typical reading: 3 UK pints of beer is 3 × 0.568261 = 1.704783 L. The calculator displays "1.704783" without trailing zeros. A 1.5 L bottle of cider in UK units is 1.5 ÷ 0.568261 = 2.639632 UK pints, note the calculator does not strip the trailing "2" because that is a real sixth decimal, not noise.

Why the factors are six decimals and not three

Three decimal places (UK: 0.568 L, US: 0.473 L) is the precision most pub menus and supermarket labels need. Six decimals is the precision needed for:

• brewing and distilling calculations where the recipe scales to a 20 L or 40 L batch,
• pharmaceutical and clinical dosing, where 1 mL errors are clinically meaningful,
• aquarium and reef dosing, where additive volumes are sometimes under 1 mL per litre of tank water,
• and laboratory work in general, where volumetric glassware is usually Class A with sub-millilitre tolerances.

The converter always displays six decimals by default and strips trailing zeros when the value happens to be a clean shorter number.

Worked Examples

The following examples are checked against 1 × 0.568261 = 0.568261, 2 × 0.568261 = 1.136522, 4 × 0.568261 = 2.273044, and the corresponding US factors. They cover the most common everyday pint-to-litre conversions.

UK (imperial) pint examples

• 1 UK pint = 0.568261 L. The canonical UK "pint of beer", the volume a UK pint glass is designed to hold. This is the unit pubs and brewery taps quote by default.
• 2 UK pints = 1.136522 L. The classic UK pint glass of cider or larger beer. Many UK pubs also serve "a pint and a half" portions at 0.852392 L for the smaller half-pint glassware.
• 4 UK pints = 2.273044 L. A full UK pint jug or "four-pint" party measure. This is also the working volume of many small homebrew batch recipes that target a "two-litre kettle", a 4-pint boil-down fits neatly into that range.
• 8 UK pints = 4.546088 L. One UK (imperial) gallon. This is the largest common UK volume named in pints and equals exactly 4.54609 L per the UK Weights and Measures Act 1985 (the calculator rounds to 4.546088 because of the 0.568261 approximation; the true figure is 4.54609).
• 0.5 UK pint = 0.284131 L. A "half", the smaller serving in most UK pubs. Beer is sold in half-pints as well as full pints in many establishments, particularly where families are present.
• 10 UK pints = 5.68261 L. A "10-pinter", the working batch size for many UK homebrew recipes that aim for 5 L bottles plus a litre or so of trub and yeast.

US liquid pint examples

• 1 US liq pint = 0.473176 L. A US pint of milk, cream, or beer. This is the volume marked on US "pint" cartons and is the unit US craft breweries often use for tap measures.
• 2 US pints = 0.946353 L. Just under a litre. Two US pints is almost, but not quite, a US quart (which is 0.946353 L exactly).
• 4 US pints = 1.892706 L. Just under two litres. This is also half a US gallon.
• 8 US pints = 3.785412 L. One US gallon, exactly 3.785411784 L by the modern definition. Eight US pints is a US gallon.
• 16 US pints = 7.570823 L. Half a US peck, or about 2 US gallons. This is the typical volume of a "small batch" homebrew for two people.
• 0.5 US liq pint = 0.236588 L. A US "cup" is 0.5 US liquid pint by definition; one US cup is 8 US fluid ounces, and 16 US fl oz = 1 US liq pint exactly.

Cross-system comparison

• 1 UK pint (0.568261 L) is about 20% larger than 1 US liq pint (0.473176 L). Specifically, the UK pint is 568.261 mL and the US pint is 473.176 mL, a 95.085 mL difference per pint. A UK beer in a US pint glass would be under-filled; a US beer in a UK pint glass would over-fill and overflow.
• 1 L = 1.7597547606 UK pints = 2.1133764189 US liq pints. A standard 1 L bottle of cider is just under 1.76 UK pints or just over 2.11 US pints, depending on which system you are quoting.
• 2 L of cider = 3.5195095212 UK pints ≈ 3.52 UK pints. Most UK pubs will serve this as 3.5 pints plus a small "top-up", because half-pints are universally available.

Where It Shows Up

Pints and litres cross paths in many everyday contexts. Here are the most common ones, with the conversion factors and conventions to keep in mind.

UK pub menus

Beer, cider, and perry in the United Kingdom are still served by the pint, the half-pint, and occasionally the third-of-a-pint. A "pint of bitter" is 0.568261 L. Many UK pubs also offer a "pint and a half" measure (0.852392 L, the contents of a "schooner" glass in Australia) for mid-size servings. When ordering bottled or canned beer from a UK pub in metric sizes (275 mL bottles, 330 mL bottles, 500 mL cans), the pint is still the reference: a 568 mL bottle is "a pint bottle", even though the exact SI equivalent is 568.261 mL.

US recipes

US cookbooks and recipe blogs quote cream, buttermilk, and occasionally stock or wine by the cup or the pint. One US cup = 8 US fluid ounces = 0.5 US liquid pint = 236.588 mL. Two US cups = 1 US liquid pint = 0.473176 L. Recipes that call for "1 pint of cream" are asking for 473 mL of cream; recipes that call for "2 pints" are asking for 946 mL. Note that some older US recipes quote the dry pint (0.550610 L) for berries and small fruits; this converter handles liquid pints only.

Brewing and distilling

UK homebrew recipes almost always work in pints and fluid ounces. A standard UK homebrew batch target is 23 L (about 40.5 UK pints) for all-grain beer, or 40 pints for a smaller extract batch. US craft brewers typically work in US gallons and US pints, with batch sizes of 5 US gallons (40 US pints = 18.927 L) for home batches. Whisky and gin distillers in the UK publish cask sizes in litres but maturation volumes in pints for very small casks; the "pin" (a small cask roughly 1/6 of a UK barrel) is sometimes confused with the pint but is actually about 5 US gallons.

Aquarium and pond dosing

Reef and planted-tank dosing calculators quote additive volumes in millilitres per litre of tank water, but aquarium product labels in the UK sometimes quote dose sizes in pints. A "pint bottle" of trace element mix is 568.261 mL; a "half pint" is 284.131 mL. Always cross-check with the litre value on the label.

Travel and shopping abroad

UK residents travelling in metric-only countries, and metric-country residents visiting the UK, often need to convert between pints and litres in real time, particularly when reading pub menus abroad, comparing supermarket alcohol volumes, or interpreting historical or cultural references in literature and film.

Science and engineering

Although SI units dominate scientific publishing, UK engineering standards (BSI) and old imperial industrial specifications still quote volumes in pints, especially for legacy equipment specifications, hydraulic system reservoirs, and cooling system capacities. A "5-pint reservoir" in a BSI drawing is 5 × 0.568261 = 2.841305 L.

Historical and literary context

Victorian and Edwardian literature is full of "pints", of beer, of milk, of blood in melodramatic surgery scenes, of beer in pub scenes. Modern readers often want to convert those volumes to litres for visualisation. The UK pint at 0.568261 L has been the same value for over 200 years, since the 1824 Imperial Units Act first defined the UK gallon in terms that survive (with metric equivalents) in the 1985 Act.

Common Mistakes

The pint-to-litre conversion is short and arithmetic, but it has more traps than the calculation itself suggests. The most common errors, in roughly decreasing order of frequency:

1. Confusing UK and US pints

The single largest source of pint-to-litre errors. The UK (imperial) pint is 568.261 mL and the US liquid pint is 473.176 mL, a 95 mL gap, or about 20%. A recipe that calls for "1 pint of milk" means 473 mL if it is a US recipe and 568 mL if it is a UK recipe. Always check the system first; this converter makes that explicit with the toggle buttons.

2. Confusing the US liquid pint with the US dry pint

The US has two distinct "pints": the liquid pint (0.473176 L, used for milk, cream, beer, and water) and the dry pint (0.550610 L, used historically for berries, small fruits, and some dry goods). They are not the same. This converter handles the liquid pint only. If you are measuring blueberries or raspberries by volume in a US recipe that uses "pints", you may need a dry-pint conversion, about 0.550610 L, or 1 US dry pint = 1 US liquid pint × 1.1636.

3. Rounding too early

If you round 0.568261 to 0.57 L, then multiply by 8 (the UK gallon), you get 4.56 L, about 0.4% off the true UK gallon of 4.54609 L. Rounding errors compound at scale. For 40-pint homebrew batches, the cumulative rounding error from rounding too early can be over 20 mL, enough to push a beer style out of spec. Use the full six-decimal value throughout the calculation, and round only the final displayed answer.

4. Using the wrong gallon

The UK and US gallons differ even more than their pints do: 1 UK gallon = 4.54609 L, 1 US gallon = 3.785411784 L. A "gallon" of milk in a US recipe is 3.785 L; a "gallon" of beer in a UK context is 4.546 L. Eight UK pints is one UK gallon, but eight US pints is one US gallon, those two gallons are not the same.

5. Confusing fluid ounces and weight ounces

The fluid ounce (fl oz) is a unit of volume; the avoirdupois ounce (oz) is a unit of weight. They are not interchangeable. The UK pint contains 20 UK fluid ounces; the US liquid pint contains 16 US fluid ounces. Neither has any direct relation to weight ounces (which are 28.3495 g each). Always use fl oz when reading volume labels.

6. Mistaking a "pint glass" for an exact pint

A UK pint glass is designed to hold one UK pint when filled to the brim (568.261 mL). In practice pubs fill pint glasses to a calibration mark a few millimetres below the rim, typically the "pint to the line" mark on the glass, to leave room for head on a poured beer and to make accidental overflow less likely. The actual served volume is usually within ±5 mL of the exact pint, which is well within the ±1% tolerance allowed by UK trading standards.

7. Assuming the metric "pint" is the same as the imperial pint

Some modern metric-bilingual packaging (particularly in Commonwealth countries that officially use metric but allow pint labelling for draught beer and cider) prints both the metric value and the "pint" label. The "pint" in this context is always the imperial pint of 568.261 mL, not 500 mL or 600 mL. The "500 mL" beer bottle is a separate, distinct size and is not called a pint.

8. Mixing up British and US fluid ounces in the same calculation

The UK fluid ounce is 28.4131 mL; the US fluid ounce is 29.5735 mL. Twenty UK fl oz = 568.261 mL = 1 UK pint; sixteen US fl oz = 473.176 mL = 1 US liquid pint. Mixing them up within a single recipe is a recipe for an off-style result.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many litres is a UK pint? One UK (imperial) pint equals 0.568261 litres exactly to six decimals (0.56826125 litres with full precision). This is the value defined by the UK Weights and Measures Act 1985, which re-enacted the definitions originally set by the Imperial Units Act 1824. The UK pint is one-eighth of an imperial gallon, and the imperial gallon is exactly 4.54609 litres.

How many litres is a US pint? One US liquid pint equals 0.473176 litres exactly to six decimals (0.473176473 litres with full precision). The US liquid gallon is exactly 3.785411784 litres per NIST SP 811 and the BIPM SI Brochure §2.3.2; the US liquid pint is one-eighth of that gallon. The US dry pint is different (about 0.550610 L); this converter handles liquid pints.

Is a UK pint bigger than a US pint? Yes. One UK pint is about 20% larger than one US liquid pint, 568.261 mL versus 473.176 mL, a difference of about 95 mL per pint. The two pints are not interchangeable in any context where precise volume matters.

Which pint should I use for a US recipe? Use the US liquid pint for US recipes that quote milk, cream, beer, stock, or any liquid. Use the US dry pint for US recipes that quote berries or other dry goods by volume. This converter handles the US liquid pint only. The dry pint is roughly 0.550610 L.

Which pint should I use for a UK pub drink? The UK pint, which is 0.568261 L. UK pint glasses are calibrated to hold one UK pint to the line. Beer and cider served in UK pubs is always measured in UK pints.

How many pints in a litre? One litre is about 1.7598 UK pints (1 / 0.568261) or about 2.1134 US liquid pints (1 / 0.473176). A 1 L bottle of cider is therefore just under 1.76 UK pints or just over 2.11 US pints, depending on which system you are quoting.

How many millilitres in a pint? One UK pint = 568.261 mL (568.26125 mL with full precision). One US liquid pint = 473.176 mL (473.176473 mL with full precision). Both are defined exactly in terms of the litre, which is itself defined as 1 cubic decimetre = 1000 cubic centimetres = 1000 mL exactly.

How many fluid ounces in a pint? One UK pint = 20 UK fluid ounces. One US liquid pint = 16 US fluid ounces. These are the two different fluid ounce definitions, UK fl oz = 28.4131 mL, US fl oz = 29.5735 mL, so the two pints come out to the same 568.261 mL and 473.176 mL volumes respectively.

Is the pint used outside the UK and the US? Yes, in various forms. Ireland uses the UK pint (568 mL) for draught beer. Australia uses the UK pint historically but mostly metric volumes in modern packaging. Canada uses the UK pint historically for draught beer but the US liquid pint on most modern packaging. New Zealand uses the UK pint. Several Commonwealth countries that have officially metricated still allow the pint as a supplementary unit for draught beer and cider, including the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

Is the imperial pint the same as the UK pint? Yes. "Imperial pint" and "UK pint" refer to the same unit of 0.56826125 litres, defined by the Imperial Units Act 1824 and re-enacted by the Imperial Units Act 1985 (which re-enacted the 1824 Act with modern metric equivalents) and Schedule 1 of the Weights and Measures Act 1985.

Why does the converter show six decimal places? Six decimal places is the smallest precision that exactly reproduces both the UK factor (0.568261) and the US factor (0.473176) without spurious extra digits. It is also the precision needed for brewing, aquarium dosing, pharmaceutical work, and laboratory volumetric calculations. The calculator strips trailing zeros after rounding, so clean short answers display as short numbers (1 L = 1.759755 UK pints, not 1.7597550000).

Is the conversion exact? The conversion is exact in the sense that the factors used are the standard six-decimal approximations of the metric-equivalent values fixed by UK law (for the UK pint) and by NIST SP 811 / the BIPM SI Brochure (for the US liquid pint). The error introduced by using 0.568261 instead of 0.56826125 is in the sixth decimal, far below any kitchen, pub, or aquarium precision requirement.

Can I use this for medical or pharmaceutical dosing? The converter displays values to six decimal places, which is sufficient for most pharmaceutical and clinical work in the 0.1 to 10 mL range. For doses below 0.1 mL, or for highly concentrated injectables where sub-microlitre precision matters, use a calibrated syringe or micropipette and convert at the precision of the dosing device, typically three or four significant figures, not six.

References

The pint-to-litre conversion factors used on this page come from the following authoritative sources:

• UK Weights and Measures Act 1985 (c. 72), Schedule 1, Lists the pint, fluid ounce, and gallon among the units of measure that may be used for trade in the United Kingdom, with their metric equivalents. The UK pint = 0.56826125 L exactly.
• Imperial Units Act 1985 (c. 72), Re-enacted, with modern metric equivalents, the definitions of imperial units originally fixed by the Imperial Units Act 1824 (5 Geo. 4 c. 74). The original 1824 Act is historically relevant for understanding why the UK pint and gallon are the size they are.
• NIST Special Publication 811, Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI), Published by the US For the Pint To Liter, National Institute of Standards and Technology. Section B.8 lists US customary units with their SI equivalents, including the US liquid gallon = 3.785411784 L exactly, from which the US liquid pint = 0.473176473 L follows.
• For the Pint To Liter, BIPM SI Brochure (9th edition, 2019), §2.3.2, For the Pint To Liter, Published by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures. Section 2.3.2 lists the units that are accepted for use with the SI for specific applications, including the litre, the cubic decimetre, and the cubic centimetre; the table of US customary units on the BIPM website cites 1 US liquid gallon = 3.785411784 L.
• BIPM, The International System of Units (SI), Table 6 (Units accepted for use with the SI for specific applications), Lists the litre, the US liquid gallon, and other non-SI units accepted alongside SI units in international trade and scientific literature.

For the historical background, the original Imperial Units Act 1824 (5 George IV, c. 74) established the imperial gallon of 277.274 cubic inches, which is the basis for the modern UK gallon of 4.54609 L. Although that 1824 Act was repealed by the 1985 Act, its definitions survive in modern UK law.