Metric Cup

A unit of volume equal to exactly 250 milliliters, used in Australia, Canada, and South Africa.

Why it matters

The metric cup (250 ml) differs from the US cup (236.588 ml) by about 5.5%. This difference is small enough to ignore in most savory cooking but can affect baking precision, especially in pastry and bread recipes.

Examples

• An Australian recipe calling for 1 cup of flour means 250 ml — about 13.4 ml more than a US cup.
• 4 metric cups = exactly 1 liter; 4 US cups ≈ 946 ml.