Liters to Gallons Converter
Convert liters to US gallons by multiplying by 0.2641720. Includes both the US and the imperial gallon, a fuel-tank conversion table, and how to convert miles per gallon.
Liters to gallons
Formula
Multiply by 0.2641720 for US gallons.
The reverse factor is exact: the US liquid gallon is defined as 231 cubic inches, which is exactly 3.785411784 litres. Roughly, four litres is a little over one US gallon.
Worked example
Convert a 50 L fuel tank:
And a 15 US gal tank the other way:
Conversion table
| Liters (L) | US gallons |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.2641721 |
| 2 | 0.5283441 |
| 5 | 1.32086 |
| 10 | 2.641721 |
| 20 | 5.283441 |
| 40 | 10.56688 |
| 50 | 13.2086 |
| 60 | 15.85032 |
| 100 | 26.41721 |
| 200 | 52.83441 |
| 1,000 | 264.1721 |
US gallon or imperial gallon?
They are not the same, and the difference is large enough to matter:
- US liquid gallon — 3.785412 L. Used in the United States.
- Imperial gallon — 4.546090 L. Used in the UK for fuel economy figures, and in Canada and some Caribbean states.
An imperial gallon is about 20% larger than a US gallon. So "30 miles per gallon" means 12.75 km/L in the US and 10.62 km/L in the UK — quoting the figure without saying which gallon is meaningless.
There is also a US dry gallon of 4.405 L, used only for grain and produce. It rarely appears outside US agricultural statistics.
Converting fuel economy
Fuel economy is where this conversion bites, and the units are reciprocal — miles per gallon counts distance per fuel, litres per 100 km counts fuel per distance — so you divide rather than multiply:
A 30 US mpg car uses 7.84 L/100 km. For imperial mpg the constant is 282.481 instead, so 30 imperial mpg is 9.42 L/100 km.
Because the relationship is reciprocal, improvements are not linear: going from 20 to 25 mpg saves far more fuel than going from 40 to 45 mpg.
Reference volumes
- Wine bottle — 0.75 L = 0.198 US gal
- Milk jug (US) — 3.785 L = 1 US gal
- Bucket — 10 L = 2.64 US gal
- Small car fuel tank — 45 L = 11.89 US gal
- Large car fuel tank — 70 L = 18.49 US gal
- Bathtub — 150 L = 39.63 US gal
- Oil barrel — 158.99 L = 42 US gal exactly
FAQ
How many US gallons is 1 liter? 0.2641720 US gal.
How many liters is 1 US gallon? Exactly 3.785411784 L.
How many liters is 1 imperial gallon? Exactly 4.54609 L.
Why are the two gallons different? The US kept an older English wine gallon of 231 cubic inches; Britain redefined its gallon in 1824 as the volume of ten pounds of water. Neither side changed back.
How many liters in a barrel of oil? 158.99 L, which is 42 US gallons.