🧪 Liters to Gallons Converter
Convert litres to US gallons and back. The exact factor, a table of the values people look up most, and what each unit is actually used for.
Converting litres to US gallons
One litre is 0.2641720524 US gallons, and one US gallon is 3.785411784 litres.
US gallons = litres × 0.2641720524
Getting the precision right
A US gallon is 3.785411784 litres; an imperial gallon is 4.54609 litres, about 20% larger. This is the single most dangerous unit confusion in everyday life, because both are called a gallon: 30 miles per US gallon is 36 miles per imperial gallon for exactly the same car, and comparing the two directly makes an American car look thirstier than it is.
Where each unit is used
Litres are standard almost everywhere for fuel, drinks and engine capacity. Gallons persist in the United States, and the United Kingdom retains a different and larger gallon that appears mainly in fuel economy figures rather than at the pump.
Values worth knowing
| L | gal |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.264172 |
| 2 | 0.528344 |
| 5 | 1.32086 |
| 10 | 2.64172 |
| 20 | 5.28344 |
| 38 | 10.0385 |
| 50 | 13.2086 |
| 60 | 15.8503 |
| 100 | 26.4172 |
| 200 | 52.8344 |
A 60 litre car tank is 15.9 US gallons or 13.2 imperial gallons. A US gallon of milk is 3.79 L. A 2 litre bottle is 0.53 US gallons.
Where the two units came from
The gallon split in two because of a British reform the Americans never adopted. England had several gallons for different goods; in 1824 Parliament abolished them and defined one imperial gallon as the volume of ten pounds of water. The United States, independent for nearly fifty years by then, kept the older Queen Anne wine gallon of 231 cubic inches. That is the whole reason a US gallon is 3.785 litres and an imperial one is 4.546 — not a conversion error, but a reform that happened on one side of the Atlantic only.
Round the result to the precision your own work needs. These converters carry the full factor, which is useful for checking but rarely what you want to write down.
If this is one step in a larger decision, the ml to oz is usually the next question, and the cups to ml is worth a look while you are here.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How many litres are in a gallon?
3.785411784 litres for a US gallon, and 4.54609 for an imperial gallon. The imperial one is about 20% larger, so always check which is meant.
Why are US and UK gallons different?
The US kept an older English wine gallon while Britain redefined its gallon in 1824 as the volume of ten pounds of water. Neither side changed afterwards, so two different units kept the same name.
Does this affect miles per gallon figures?
Substantially. The same car rated at 30 mpg in the US is 36 mpg in imperial figures, purely because the gallon is bigger. Comparing American and British economy numbers without converting makes US cars look about 20% worse than they are.