How Many Gallons in A Pound of Water?

You probably read somewhere that you should drink between 12 and 15 cups of water per day. That’s pretty close to one whole gallon! But have you ever wondered how heavy that much water is? To be more precise, how heavy is a gallon of water?

1 pound of water is the same as 0.1198 gallons, which is roughly the same as 1.9168 cups.

In this guide, I’ll explain how you can convert pounds of water to gallons and vice versa, as well as why measuring the weight of water is much easier using the metric system.

How Many Gallons in a Pound of Water?

The only reliable way to measure the weight of water is to pour water into a container, get the total weight, and then subtract the weight of the container. For instance, if you were to pour an entire gallon of water into a 1-gallon Ziploc bag, which weighs 8.5 grams (0.29983 ounces), the weight of the water would be, well, the total weight minus 8.5 grams!

If you don’t have a digital scale or a Ziploc bag to help you with this little experiment, the answer is 1 pound of water is equal to 0.1198 gallons.

The following table will describe how many gallons of water it takes to reach a specific weight.

Gallons	Weight
0.25	0.0300 lbs.
0.33	0.3993 lbs.
0.5	0.0599 lbs.
0.67	0.0799 lbs.
0.75	0.0899 lbs.
1	0.1198 lbs.
1.5	0.1797 lbs.
2	0.2396 lbs.
3	0.3594 lbs.
4	0.4792 lbs.
5	0.5990 lbs.
10	1.1980 lbs.
20	2.3960 lbs.

Knowing the conversion rate of gallons of water to weight (0.1198), we can extrapolate how many teaspoons, tablespoons, fluid ounces, cups, pints, and quarts there are in a pound of water.

Volume	Gallon to Volume	Volume per Pound of Water
Teaspoons	768	92.0064
Tablespoons	256	30.6688
Fluid ounces	128	15.3344
Cups	16	1.9168
Pints	8	0.9584
Quarts	4	0.4792
Gallons	1	0.1198

How Many Pounds in a Gallon of Water?

But what if you wanted to calculate the volume of water based on weight? Luckily, the math for this isn’t that hard, either.

Since a pound of water is equal to 0.1198 gallons, we simply have to figure out how many times 0.1198 fits into 1. So, 1 divided by 0.1198 equals 8.3472.

Now, let’s see how many gallons of water we would get from different weights.

Weight	Gallons
0.25 lbs.	0.0299
0.33 lbs.	0.0398
0.5 lbs.	0.0597
0.67 lbs.	0.0796
0.75 lbs.	0.0896
1 lb.	0.1198
1.5 lbs.	0.1791
2 lbs.	0.2388
3 lbs.	0.3582
4 lbs.	0.4777
5 lbs.	0.5910
8.3472 lbs.	1
10 lbs.	1.1941
20 lbs.	2.3883

From the weight of a gallon of water, we can also figure out how many other teaspoons, tablespoons, etc., it takes to get 1 pound of water.

Volume	Gallon to Volume	Weight of Water by Volume
Teaspoons	768	0.0109
Tablespoons	256	0.0326
Fluid ounces	128	0.0652
Cups	16	0.5217
Pints	8	1.0434
Quarts	4	2.0868
Gallons	1	8.3472

How Many Grams of Water per Milliliter?

Earlier, I said I’d explain why it’s easier to measure the weight and volume of water with the metric system.

Basically, 1 milliliter (volume) of water is equal to 1 gram (weight). Unlike the standard imperial system above, the metric system uses a 1:1 ratio when measuring water by weight or by volume.

The following table will describe the weight of water by volume using the metric system.

Volume	Weight
1 ml	1 g
2 ml	2 g
5 ml	5 g
10 ml	10 g
100 ml	100 g
500 ml	500 g
1,000 ml	1,000 g
1,500 ml	1,500 g
2,000 ml	2,000 g
5,000 ml	5,000 g

In case you didn’t know, 1,000 milliliters is the same as 1 liter, and 1,000 grams is the same as 1 kilogram. Also, 1 cubic centimeter (cc) is the same as 1 milliliter. So, 1,000 cc would also equal 1 kilogram.

In reality, grams and kilograms are not units for measuring weight. Instead, they measure mass, which measures the amount of matter in a specific object. Pounds and ounces, on the other hand, are units for measuring weight—i.e., how much force is acting on mass caused by gravity.

How Many Pounds of Water per Liter?

Just to make things a bit more confusing for everyone, let’s try and see how many pounds of water it takes to fill a 1-liter container.

1 gallon of water is equal to 3.7854 liters. Earlier, we learned that 1 gallon of water is equal to 0.1198 pounds. To get 1 liter, we would need to divide 0.1198 by 3.7854, which is 0.0316.

The following table will show how many pounds and gallons of water you would need to reach different liter amounts.

Liters	Pounds of Water	Gallons of Water
0.25	0.0079	0.0009
0.33	0.0105	0.0013
0.5	0.0158	0.0019
0.67	0.0211	0.0025
0.75	0.0237	0.0028
1	0.0316	0.0038
1.5	0.0474	0.0057
2	0.0632	0.0076
3	0.0948	0.0114
4	0.1264	0.0151
5	0.1580	0.0189
10	0.3160	0.0379
20	0.6320	0.0757