The short answer: 1 quart is 0.946 liter. The chart runs through every amount that comes up regularly, and each gets its own note underneath.
Quarts to liters: full chart
| Quarts | Liters |
|---|---|
| 1/4 qt | 0.237 L |
| 1/2 qt | 0.473 L |
| 1 qt | 0.946 L |
| 2 qt | 1.89 L |
For quantities beyond that:
| Quarts | Liters |
|---|---|
| 3 qt | 2.84 L |
| 4 qt | 3.79 L |
| 6 qt | 5.68 L |
| 8 qt | 7.57 L |
The same figures continue for bigger quantities:
| Quarts | Liters |
|---|---|
| 12 qt | 11.4 L |
| 16 qt | 15.1 L |
Working through the amounts you will actually use
1 quart is 0.946 liter. Take the 1 quart figure of 0.946 liter and multiply by 1 to get there. 2 quarts is 1.89 liters. Half this amount, 1 quart, comes to 0.946; double it and you are at 3.79. 4 quarts is 3.79 liters.
That is 0.946 multiplied by 4, since 1 quart is 0.946 liter.
How to work it out without a calculator
To go from quarts to liters, multiply by about 0.946. One quart is 0.946 liter. It behaves the same whether you are on a teaspoon or a gallon. Going back the other way, one liter returns 1.06 quarts.
No weighing is involved, so there is nothing to get wrong at the scale.
Following it through once
Say a recipe you are halving asks for 3 quarts, and your equipment is only marked in liters. Take the one-quart figure of 0.946 liter and apply it 3 times: 2.84 liters. That is the number you want on the jug. The ingredient plays no part here at all.
Which country wrote the recipe matters
A US cup is 236.6 ml. A metric cup, used in Australia and New Zealand, is 250 ml — 5.7 per cent more. An old UK imperial cup is 284 ml. Measured in the metric cup the 1 quart figure above would read 1 liter instead of 0.946 liter.
How to read the chart
Find your amount in the left column and read across. Amounts between two rows scale in a straight line, so half way between two rows is half way between the two answers.
What the answer depends on
Only the measuring system. Within US measures the relationship never moves; across systems it does, which is where recipes from other countries go wrong.
Anything that changes how the ingredient sits in the measure changes the answer with it.
Going the other way: liters to quarts
| Liters | Quarts |
|---|---|
| 1/4 L | 0.264 qt |
| 1/2 L | 0.528 qt |
| 0.946 L | 1 qt |
How to measure this accurately
Set the bowl on a scale, press tare, and add until the display reads the figure you want. That is the only method that gives the same result twice, and it removes the packing problem entirely.
Rounding: when it matters
Where a recipe gives an odd figure it usually got there by conversion rather than by choice. Rounding it back to the round number it started as is often closer to the intent than the decimal.
Rounding down is the safer direction for salt, acid and anything strong. The difference can be added later; it cannot be taken back out.
The error people make most often
Filling a large measure part way instead of reaching for the right size. The markings near the bottom of a big jug are the least accurate part of it.
Reading a liquid measure from above. Lift the jug to eye level and the surface curves; the figure read off is consistently more than the jug holds.
When you will need this
Shopping is where this bites first. Packets are labelled in one unit and the recipe calls for another, and 1 quart is 0.946 liter is the sum standing between the two.
Most recipes are written for one system and cooked in another. American recipes measure by cup, European ones by gram, and anything from a bakery measures by weight. Knowing that 1 quart is 0.946 liter is what lets you cook from any of them.
If you are scaling the recipe
Half of 1 quart is 0.473 liter. Double it and you have 1.89 liters; triple it and you are at 2.84 liters. A batch cut to a quarter needs 0.237 liter.
Nothing about the ratio changes with the size of the batch, which is what makes scaling safe here.
The exact number against the practical one
The exact figure for 1 quart is 0.946. Written the way most cooks would write it, 0.9 liter, it is out by 0.046 — about 4.9 per cent. On one batch that is invisible.
Scaled four times the gap is 0.185, which is where it starts to show in anything that has to set.
Working from a recipe
Recipes rarely ask for round numbers. 1/4 quart comes to 0.237 liter; 1/2 quart comes to 0.473 liter; 3/4 quart comes to 0.71 liter.
Larger batches follow the same line: 1 1/2 quarts comes to 1.42 liters; 2 1/2 quarts comes to 2.37 liters.
Do the whole conversion before you start cooking, not between steps. Arithmetic under time pressure is where the mistakes come from.
Other ways this gets asked
People look for this in a few different forms; all of them land on the same figures:
- Quarts to Liters Chart?
Related conversions
For every kitchen figure in one place, see the full conversion chart.
