Convert liters to centiliters (cL) and centiliters to liters. Includes mL, dL, fl oz, cups, pints, and tablespoons with European drink size reference.
Liters and centiliters are metric volume units that differ by a factor of 100. Centiliters are common on European drink labels because they give clean numbers for familiar bottle and glass sizes, like 75 cL wine bottles and 33 cL cans. It is especially useful when the same amount needs to be restated in a different prefix for labeling, reporting, or bottle-size comparisons. That makes it easy to compare menu listings, package labels, and recipe notes without doing the mental shift by hand.
This converter handles both directions and also shows milliliters, deciliters, US fluid ounces, cups, pints, and tablespoons. The drink-size scale helps put the value in context if you are comparing a bottle, a pour, or a recipe quantity. It is useful whenever a bottle label or recipe note needs the smaller cL form but the rest of the workflow is in liters.
Use it when a metric beverage or recipe value needs to move between liters and the smaller centiliter format.
Centiliters are a practical retail and beverage unit in Europe, while liters are more common in broader metric use. This page keeps the 100:1 relationship visible and shows the related kitchen and drink units people usually want next. It is especially helpful when a label says 33 cL or 75 cL and you want to compare it with milliliters or liters at a glance.
1 liter = 100 centiliters (exact) 1 centiliter = 10 milliliters 1 centiliter ≈ 0.338 US fluid ounces
Result: 75 cL
0.75 L x 100 = 75 cL - the standard wine bottle size. That's 750 mL or about 25.4 US fluid ounces.
In France, Italy, Spain, and most of continental Europe, drink menus list volumes in centiliters. A beer might be listed as "25 cL" (petit) or "50 cL" (demi). Wine is poured "by the 15 cL." Understanding centiliters is essential for travelers comparing portion sizes and prices.
Standard: 75 cL. Half bottle: 37.5 cL. Magnum: 150 cL. Jeroboam: 300 cL. Nebuchadnezzar: 1,500 cL (15 L). Wine labels always state volume in cL or mL - knowing the conversion helps compare value across formats.
French recipes often specify liquids in centiliters: "20 cL de crème fraîche" (200 mL, about ⅞ US cup). American cooks need to convert to cups or tablespoons. Since 1 cL = 0.676 US tablespoons, 20 cL ≈ 13.5 tablespoons or about ⅞ cup.
100 cL = 1 liter exactly. That exact ratio is why the conversion is so simple to do in metric units.
10 mL = 1 cL. It is a useful way to keep small drink or recipe quantities readable.
Centiliters give convenient numbers for drink sizes (33, 50, 75) without the large mL numbers (330, 500, 750). It's a cultural convention.
About 11.2 US fl oz - close to a standard US 12-oz can but slightly smaller. That makes 33 cL a familiar reference size for comparing imported drinks.
A magnum is 150 cL (1.5 L) - exactly two standard bottles. It is a common label on wine lists, so this conversion shows up often in retail and hospitality work.
Rarely. Scientists prefer mL or L. Centiliters are mainly a commercial/kitchen unit.