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US Gallons to Litres Calculator

Convert US gallons to litres for paint, adhesive and tank capacities in metric units.

Computed in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded. Figures are presented for United States against IRC 2024, and every formula is cited under regulatory standards below.

Last verified 2026-08-26 · v1.0.0

Market
Imperial · sales tax

Volume

5 gal

High confidence

1 US liquid gallon = 231 cubic inches = 3.785411784 L exactly. Convert your area and use the product's own metric coverage rate rather than converting a coverage figure.

Conversion factor applied
1 gal per us gal

Paints, adhesives, sealers and tank capacities all appear in gallons on American products and litres almost everywhere else. The conversion is exact, and the trap is coverage. A rate expressed as square feet per gallon combines an area unit and a volume unit, so converting it correctly means dealing with both at once — an easy place to invert a factor without noticing. The practical route is to convert the area you have measured into square metres and then read the metric coverage figure the manufacturer prints on the tin, which sidesteps the compound conversion entirely. As always, confirm whether an older or British source means the US gallon or the twenty-percent-larger imperial one.

Estimated cost — your price

This site holds no price list for this material — local prices vary too much to publish honestly. Enter your supplier's price and the result is costed with it.

Preliminary estimate, not certified engineering. This tool produces an indicative quantity calculation for planning purposes only — it is not a certified structural analysis, a guaranteed material takeoff, or a substitute for building department approval. Always verify measurements on-site and have a licensed contractor or structural engineer review any load-bearing, code-sensitive, or safety-critical work before purchasing materials or starting construction. Spotted an arithmetic or standards error? Report it to contact@craftquantities.com with your inputs — confirmed fixes become pinned regression tests.

[Schema Verified] Computed in alignment with American Concrete Institute (ACI 318-19) formulas and International Residential Code (IRC 2024) spatial boundaries.

Regulatory standards & verification citations

  • 1 US liquid gallon is defined as 231 cubic inches = 3.785411784 L exactly

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Frequently asked questions

Does paint coverage convert directly?
Not in one step. Coverage in square feet per gallon involves both an area and a volume unit, so converting it means handling both. It is safer to convert your area to square metres and read the product's own metric coverage from the tin.
US or imperial gallon?
This uses the US liquid gallon of 3.785 litres. The imperial gallon is 4.546 litres, twenty percent larger, and appears in older UK material and in some fuel contexts. Getting the wrong one wrong-sizes a tank or a paint order by a fifth.
Is a five-gallon pail exactly five gallons?
Roughly, but pails are usually filled to a nominal content rather than to the brim, and the labelled volume is what you get. Use the label rather than the container size when calculating coverage.