mL to L
There are 1000 milliliters (mL) in 1 liter (L). Both units are part of the metric system and are accepted for use in the International System of Units (SI), but are not SI units.
The SI unit of volume is the cubic meter (m3), which is related to the liter through the following relationship:
1000 mL = 1 L = 0.001 m3
mL to L conversion
The following converter can be used to convert from milliliters to liters. Just enter a value in either milliliters or liters to convert between the two.
How to convert mL to L
To convert milliliters to liters, divide by 1000. Similarly, to convert from liters to milliliters, multiply by 1000, as shown in the examples below:
Examples
1. Convert 500 mL to L:
500 mL ÷ 1000 = 0.5 L
2. Convert 3.27 L to mL:
3.27 L × 1000 = 3270 mL
To understand why this is the case, we need to understand the SI system and SI prefixes. In SI, base units generally have no prefix. For example, the meter is the base unit of length in SI. It is related to units such as the centimeter and millimeter based on the prefixes "centi-" and "milli-". These prefixes indicate the magnitude of the unit relative to the base unit of measurement. Although liters and milliliters are not SI units, they are compatible with SI, and the same prefixes can be used to denote varying magnitudes of liters.
Specifically, the prefix milli indicates 10-3, meaning that a milliliter is related to a liter by a factor of 10-3. In other words, we multiply a value in liters by 10-3, which is the same as dividing it by 103, or 1000.
To put it even more simply, we can write this in terms of a formula.
mL to L formula
Given a value in mL, the formula to convert to L is as follows:
Given a value in L, the formula to convert to mL is as follows:
