Litres to Gallons and Gallons to Litres

litres to US gallons formula

gallons = litres ÷ 3.785411784

1 litre = 0.2641720524 US gallons, so multiply litres by 0.2641720524. Going the other way, 1 US gallon = 3.785411783 litres.

litres to US gallons table

How many US gallons in litres?

1 L = 0.264172 gal. There are 0.264172 US gallons in 1 litres.

5 L = 1.32086 gal. There are 1.32086 US gallons in 5 litres.

10 L = 2.64172 gal. There are 2.64172 US gallons in 10 litres.

50 L = 13.2086 gal. There are 13.2086 US gallons in 50 litres.

100 L = 26.4172 gal. There are 26.4172 US gallons in 100 litres.

US gallons to litres formula

litres = gallons × 3.785411784

1 US gallon = 3.785411783 litres, so multiply US gallons by 3.785411783, or divide by 0.2641720524.

US gallons to litres table

How many litres in US gallons?

1 gal = 3.78541 L. There are 3.78541 litres in 1 US gallons.

2 gal = 7.57082 L. There are 7.57082 litres in 2 US gallons.

5 gal = 18.9271 L. There are 18.9271 litres in 5 US gallons.

10 gal = 37.8541 L. There are 37.8541 litres in 10 US gallons.

55 gal = 208.198 L. There are 208.198 litres in 55 US gallons.

How the Litres To Gallons works

Litres to gallons: the factor and where it comes from

The US gallon is defined as 231 cubic inches, and an inch is exactly 2.54 cm, so a gallon is 231 × 16.387064 = 3,785.411784 mL. One litre is therefore 1 ÷ 3.785411784 = 0.26417205 US gallons. The decimal does not terminate; this page shows it to ten significant figures. For a quick estimate, divide by four and add 5%.

The imperial gallon is bigger

The UK, Ireland and a few Commonwealth countries use the imperial gallon of exactly 4.54609 litres, about 20% larger than the US gallon. A litre is 0.219969 imperial gallons. Fuel economy figures are the usual place this bites: a car doing 40 mpg on a British test is doing 33 mpg US. This page converts to US gallons because that is what "gallon" means in the United States and in most online fuel and tank calculations; multiply the result by 0.83267 for imperial gallons.

Worked example: a 60-litre fuel tank

60 × 0.264172 = 15.85 US gallons. A hire car with a 60 L tank in Europe holds just under 16 US gallons, or 13.2 imperial gallons. Filling from empty at $3.50 a gallon would cost about $55; the same fuel at €1.70 a litre is €102, which is the comparison most travellers are actually making.

Worked example: 200 litres of rainwater

A standard water butt holds about 200 L, which is 52.83 US gallons. American rain barrels are sold as 50 or 55 gallons, so a 55-gallon drum is 208 L — the two markets have settled on the same size from opposite directions. For irrigation, 1,000 L is 264 gallons, and a cubic metre is 1,000 litres exactly.

Litres and cubic measures

A litre is a cubic decimetre: a cube 10 cm on each side. So 1,000 L is 1 m³ and 1 mL is 1 cm³. Gallons have no such tidy relation to feet — a cubic foot is 7.48 US gallons — which is why metric volume calculations are so much easier once the figures are in litres.

Fuel economy needs its own conversion

Litres per 100 km cannot be converted to mpg with this factor alone because the distance unit changes too and the ratio is inverted. 235.215 ÷ (L/100 km) gives mpg US; 282.481 ÷ (L/100 km) gives mpg imperial. This page is for plain volume.

Worked example: a 16-gallon tank

16 × 3.785411784 = 60.57 litres. American car tanks are typically 12 to 20 gallons, so 45 to 76 litres; a pickup at 26 gallons is 98 L. Filling 16 gallons at a European pump costs 60.57 × the litre price, which at €1.70 is €103 — the comparison a visitor makes at the first fill-up.

Worked example: a gallon of milk

One US gallon of milk is 3.79 litres. The half-gallon carton is 1.89 L, and the quart is 0.946 L — noticeably less than the litre carton sold elsewhere. A US pint is 473 mL, against 568 mL for an imperial pint, which is why a "pint" of beer is a different pour on each side of the Atlantic.

Litre to US gallons formula and table

The formula on this page is gallons = litres ÷ 3.785411784, applied exactly before rounding for display.

How many US gallons in 1 litre? 1 L is 0.2642 gal. Likewise 5 L is 1.3209 gal, 10 L is 2.6417 gal, 50 L is 13.21 gal.

Litre to US gallon conversion table

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