US pints to litres:
multiply by 0.4732

How many litres are in a US pint?

One US pint is 0.473176473 litres, which is about 473 millilitres. It is defined as one eighth of a US gallon and as 16 US fluid ounces, and the US gallon is exactly 3.785411784 litres. For most cooking, 0.473 L or 473 ml is accurate enough.

A litre contains about 2.113 US pints, so a one-litre carton is a little more than two pints. The converter on this page works in US pints specifically.

The US pint to litre formula

A second worked example goes the other way: a 2-litre bottle holds 2 × 2.113376419 = 4.2268 US pints, which is a little over four pints.

1. 1Write the volume in US pints.
2. 2Multiply by 0.473176473.
3. 3Round to the precision you need, often two decimals for litres.
4. 4Check the answer: it should be slightly less than half the number of pints.

Chart: US pints to litres

The table lists exact conversions for common amounts.

Two pints make a US quart, and 2 pints is 0.946 L, which is just under a litre.

When you convert pints to litres

American recipes, milk cartons, ice cream tubs and craft beer are often sold by the pint. Anyone cooking from a US recipe in a country that uses litres needs the conversion: a soup recipe calling for 4 pints of stock needs about 1.89 litres. In the same way, a US craft brewer exporting beer may need to label a 16 fl oz can as 473 ml.

The sanity check is simple: half a litre is slightly more than a US pint. If your answer for 4 pints is far from 2 litres, you have probably used the wrong factor.

Do not mix this up with the UK imperial pint, which is 0.56826125 litres, about 20 percent larger. A pint of beer in a British pub is bigger than a US pint, and recipes written in Britain use the larger one.

Another everyday check: a standard US pint of ice cream is sold at about 473 ml, and four of them are roughly 1.89 litres, just under two litres. Shoppers converting frozen dessert tubs or milk cartons across borders can use that anchor to see at once whether a pack is really a better deal per litre.

Common mistakes when converting pints to litres

• Using the UK pint value for a US pint. The two differ by about 95 ml per pint, which adds up in a large batch.
• Treating a pint as half a litre exactly. It is 0.473 L, so a 10-pint order is 4.73 litres, not 5.
• Multiplying by 2.113 instead of 0.4732. That factor converts litres to pints, so the answer comes out far too large.
• Confusing liquid pints with dry pints, which are a different volume used for produce in the United States.