What is a Milliliter?

The milliliter equals one thousandth of a liter (0.001 L) and is the standard small-volume unit for cooking, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and laboratory work. One milliliter is exactly 1 cubic centimeter (1 cm³), a convenient relationship: 1 mL of pure water weighs 1 gram. The milliliter is the universal unit on medicine bottles (a typical cough syrup dose is 5 mL), cosmetics (a perfume bottle is 50–100 mL), and recipe measurements outside North America (a tablespoon is 15 mL, a teaspoon is 5 mL). Medical syringes are calibrated in mL, and IV drip rates are computed in mL per hour. The milliliter relates to the liter (1,000 mL = 1 L), the cubic centimeter (1 mL = 1 cm³ = 1 cc), the teaspoon (1 tsp = 5 mL), and the US fluid ounce (1 fl oz ≈ 29.57 mL).

Visual reference for how the milliliter relates to other volume units. Each row links to the full converter for that pair.

See all 15 volume units in matrix view →

• Liquid medication dosing in syringes
• Precise cooking and baking measurements
• Laboratory reagent measurement

• ✓1 ml = 1 cm³ exactly.
• ✓Medicine: teaspoon ≈ 5 ml, tablespoon ≈ 15 ml, shot glass ≈ 25 ml.
• ✓Measuring jugs marked in ml provide 2–5 ml accuracy; use a syringe below 10 ml.

• ✗Dosing liquid medication by kitchen spoon — spoons vary 3–8 ml. Use the supplied syringe.
• ✗Confusing ml (volume) with mg (mass) on medication labels — different units entirely.
• ✗Reading a "cc" measurement as cubic centimetre with different value — it is identical to ml.