Cubic Inches to Liters (in³ to L)
An inch is exactly 2.54 centimeters, so a cubic inch is exactly 16.387064 cubic centimeters and this conversion is one multiplication: liters = cubic inches × 0.016387064. Nothing in that factor is measured, so it is the same number in the United States, the United Kingdom and everywhere else, and the only rounding is in the decimal you read. That puts 1 in³ at 0.016387064 L, 100 in³ at 1.6387064 L and 350 in³, the engine size behind much of this search, at 5.7354724 L. This page opens the converter on the Volume category with the cubic inch in the From box and the liter in the To box, whatever pair you converted last, answers as you type to twelve significant digits with no button to press, and lists the same volume underneath in milliliters, liters, cubic meters, teaspoons, tablespoons, US fluid ounces, cups, pints, quarts and US gallons. The cubic inch is one of the five volume units this converter treats as uncommon, so it sits in both unit menus at all times, and ticking the switch marked Show 5 more adds the imperial fluid ounce, imperial pint, imperial gallon and cubic foot to the list under the answer. The menus and that list use British spellings, so Litre (L), Millilitre (mL) and Cubic metre (m³) are the liter, milliliter and cubic meter named here, and the From unit reads Cubic inch (in³).
1 in³ in every volume unit
Common questions
- How many liters is 1 cubic inch?
- 0.016387064 liters, exactly, because an inch is exactly 2.54 centimeters and 2.54 × 2.54 × 2.54 is 16.387064 cubic centimeters. Everything scales straight through, so 10 in³ is 0.16387064 L, 100 in³ is 1.6387064 L and 1,000 in³ is 16.387064 L: the same digits with the point moved, because the whole conversion is a single multiplication. The sizes asked about most often: 200 in³ is 3.2774128 L, 302 in³ is 4.948893328 L, 350 in³ is 5.7354724 L, 400 in³ is 6.5548256 L and 454 in³ is 7.439727056 L. Type the cubic inches into the From box and the answer appears without pressing anything, and Copy result copies the figure without the thousands separators so it pastes straight into a spreadsheet.
- What is the formula for cubic inches to liters?
- Liters = cubic inches × 0.016387064, or equivalently cubic inches / 61.0237440947, which is the same operation written the other way round. This page multiplies by the full exact factor rather than a shortened 0.0164, which is why 1,728 in³, a cubic foot, reads exactly 28.316846592 L and 231 in³, a US gallon, reads exactly 3.785411784 L. The short factor is off by about 0.08 percent, so it would turn 350 in³ into 5.74 L instead of 5.7354724 L.
- Why is the same engine quoted as 350 cubic inches and 5.7 liters?
- Because American engines were sized in cubic inches and later badged in liters, and the badge is rounded to one decimal. Run the arithmetic and the two numbers stop looking inconsistent: 350 in³ is 5.7354724 L, which the 5.7 badge rounds down from; 454 in³ is 7.439727056 L, which becomes 7.4; 427 in³ is 6.997276328 L, a hair under seven; and 302 in³ is 4.948893328 L, which is where a 5.0 badge comes from even though the exact figure reads 4.9. It runs the other way too, and a badge is not a displacement: 5.0 L is 305.118720474 in³ and 2.0 L is 122.047488189 in³, so a rounded liter figure can sit either side of the real cubic inches. Type the number you have and the page gives you the other one without the marketing rounding.
- Is 0.016387064 exact, or is it rounded?
- The factor is exact; the decimal in the reverse direction is not. The inch has been exactly 2.54 centimeters since the 1959 international agreement on the yard and the pound, and the liter has been exactly one cubic decimeter, a thousandth of a cubic meter, since 1964. A cubic inch is therefore exactly 2048383/125000000 of a liter, which is 0.016387064 with nothing left over. Reverse the fraction and a liter is 125000000/2048383 cubic inches, and the bottom of that is 127 × 127 × 127. A denominator carrying any prime other than 2 and 5 cannot produce a decimal that ends, so 61.0237440947 is a rounding of a figure that runs for ever. You can see it happen on the page: type 61.0237440947 in³ and the answer reads 0.999999999999 L, because the rounding is in the twelve digits you typed rather than in the conversion. The page shows twelve significant digits and stops there.
- Do US and imperial cubic inches or liters differ?
- No. The inch is the same 2.54 centimeters in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and the liter is the same cubic decimeter everywhere, so a cubic inch is 0.016387064 L in all of them and this conversion needs no country. The units that split are gallons and fluid ounces: a US gallon is 3.785411784 L and an imperial gallon is 4.54609 L, about 20 percent larger, so one cubic inch is 0.004329004329 US gallons against 0.00360465014991 imperial gallons. The converter carries both, and the imperial fluid ounce, pint and gallon join the list under the answer when you tick the switch marked Show 5 more. The one inch that ever differed was the US survey inch, used for land surveying and retired at the end of 2022, and it never applied to engines or containers.
- How do I convert liters back to cubic inches?
- Multiply by 61.0237440947. So 1.6 L is 97.6379905516 in³, 2 L is 122.047488189 in³, 4.6 L is 280.709222836 in³, 5.7 L is 347.83534134 in³ and 6.2 L is 378.347213387 in³. The Swap units button between the two boxes reverses the pair without a reload, and the number you typed stays where it is while the units change places.
- Are cubic inches and cc the same thing?
- They are the same kind of measurement in different units, and a cubic centimeter is exactly a milliliter, so an engine quoted in cc is already quoted in milliliters. One cubic inch is exactly 16.387064 cc, which makes 88 in³ 1,442.061632 cc and 1,200 cc 73.2284929137 in³. You do not have to change anything to see it: the milliliter row in the list under the answer is the cc figure for whatever cubic inches you typed, next to the liter figure in the headline.
- How do I work out the cubic inches in the first place?
- Multiply length by width by height with every measurement in inches: a box 12 by 6 by 4 inches is 288 in³, which this page converts to 4.719474432 L. For a cylinder, a cone, a tank filled part way or a pool, the volume calculator linked below takes the dimensions instead, and when you measure in inches it prints the cubic inches with liters beside them. Lumber is the other place this unit hides, since a board foot is 144 cubic inches, which is 2.359737216 L.
- Why does the page open on cubic inches and liters, and does it change my saved units?
- A page that names a pair should arrive on that pair, so this one sets the Volume category with the cubic inch in From and the liter in To ahead of whatever the converter remembered from your last visit. Your own saved pair survives it: go back to the main unit converter and it is still on the units you left it on. The amount you last typed does travel with you, since that is usually the number you are still working on, and Start over in the row above the heading clears what the converter has kept.
- Does anything I type here leave my browser?
- No. The conversion is one multiplication against a table of factors that ships with the page, so there is no upload, no account and no network request, and it keeps working with the connection off once the page has loaded. What you typed is kept in your own browser's storage so the figure is still there when you come back.
Conversion factors are the exact legal definitions where one exists. An inch is exactly 2.54 cm and a pound exactly 0.45359237 kg, so those conversions are exact rather than approximate. Temperature uses offsets rather than factors, and that is shown in the working.