A pint is 2 cups — in both systems
One pint always equals 2 cups, whether you are cooking in the US or the UK. The ratio is fixed, so 3 pints is 6 cups and a half-pint is a single cup. What changes between the two systems is how big that pint actually is.
Quick reference — pints to cups
| Pints | Cups | US mL | In the kitchen |
|---|---|---|---|
| ½ pt | 1 cup | 237 mL | a cup of milk |
| 1 pt | 2 cups | 473 mL | a carton of cream |
| 1½ pt | 3 cups | 710 mL | — |
| 2 pt | 4 cups | 946 mL | 1 quart |
| 4 pt | 8 cups | 1,893 mL | half a gallon |
| 8 pt | 16 cups | 3,785 mL | 1 gallon |
The full ladder: 1 gallon = 4 quarts = 8 pints = 16 cups = 128 fluid ounces.
Where US and UK pints part ways
The cup count is identical, but a UK pint holds about 20 percent more liquid than a US pint. If a recipe or a beer measure comes from Britain, it is the larger 568 mL pint.
Same 2 cups either way, but the UK pint is roughly 95 mL bigger — the gap between 16 and 20 fluid ounces.
Worth knowing
- Fluid, not weight. A pint measures volume. "A pint's a pound the world around" is only a rough saying: a US pint of water actually weighs about 1.04 lb.
- Dry pints are bigger. A US dry pint (used for berries) is 551 mL, about 16 percent larger than the liquid pint.
- A pub pint is protected. In the UK a pint of beer is legally 568 mL, poured into a stamped glass. The US has no such rule.
Common questions
How many cups are in a pint?
One pint is 2 cups, in both the US and the UK systems. So 2 pints is 4 cups, and half a pint is 1 cup. The 2-to-1 ratio never changes; only the physical size of the pint does.
Are a US pint and a UK pint the same size?
No. A US pint is 473 mL (16 US fluid ounces); a UK (Imperial) pint is 568 mL (20 Imperial fluid ounces), about 20 percent larger. Both still split into 2 cups, but each system uses its own cup, so a British recipe calling for a pint of milk means 568 mL.
How many pints are in a cup?
A cup is half a pint. To go from cups to pints, divide the number of cups by 2.
