How many quarts is a 13-gallon trash can?

A 13-gallon trash can is 52 US quarts. There are four quarts in a US gallon, so 13 x 4 = 52. In other units the same can is 49.2 liters, about 1.74 cubic feet, 104 pints, or 208 cups. If you are converting the other way, a 35-quart cabinet bin is 8.75 gallons and a 50-quart one is 12.5 gallons.

Because two halves of the same category use different units. Freestanding trash cans are sold in gallons. Cabinet pull-out bins and under-sink waste containers are sold in quarts — Rev-A-Shelf's standard units are 35-quart and 50-quart, and almost nobody converts that for you on the product page.

So the practical translation is this: a single 35-quart pull-out bucket is 8.75 gallons, which is noticeably smaller than the 13-gallon can it is replacing. A double 35-quart unit gives you 70 quarts, or 17.5 gallons, but split across two buckets — so the trash half is still 8.75 gallons unless you give both buckets to trash.

That is the single most useful thing on this page, because it is the mistake people make when they move a kitchen can into a cabinet. How to measure a cabinet for a pull-out can.

What each unit looks like in a real product: a 13-gallon (52-quart) freestanding can, a double 35-quart cabinet pull-out, and the 13-gallon bag that fits the first one.

Best value stainless

Kohler 13-Gallon Stainless Steel Step Trash Can (K-20940)

The premium-feeling stainless can that does not lock you into proprietary liners — it is built around the standard 13-gallon bag.

$160.99 · View on Amazon

Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money

Best steel-frame double

Rev-A-Shelf 53WC-1835SCDM-213 Double Pull-Out, 35 Quart

Two 35-quart buckets on a steel frame with soft-close slides, and a door-mount kit so the cabinet door pulls it out.

$241.99 · View on Amazon

Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money

Best overall bag

Glad ForceFlexPlus Tall Kitchen Drawstring Trash Bags, 13 Gallon

The 13-gallon bag to buy if yours keep splitting: two layers of stretch film, double side seams and a reinforced bottom.

$35.99 · View on Amazon

Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money

The conversion above is exact arithmetic. What it is not is a promise about how much your can holds. Nominal capacity in this category describes the class of can rather than a measured internal volume, which is why two cans both sold as 13 gallons can differ by a liter or more, and why a 13-gallon bag does not fit a 13-gallon can neatly.

Three things eat into the figure in practice:

• The liner takes up room. A bag folded over the rim loses you the top inch or two of the can's height.
• An inner bucket is smaller than the body. Cans with a removable bucket quote the body, and the bucket is what you actually fill.
• You cannot fill to the brim. Anything above the rim stops the lid closing, which is the whole point of having a lid.

Treat 52 quarts as the label, not the measurement. If you need the real internal size — to check a cabinet, a gap or a cart — use dimensions rather than capacity. 13-gallon trash can dimensions.

A US gallon and an imperial gallon are not the same thing, and neither are their quarts. Thirteen US gallons is 49.2 liters, which is about 10.8 imperial gallons or 43.3 imperial quarts. An imperial quart is 1.1365 liters against the US quart's 0.9464.

In practice this matters mostly if you are comparing an American can against a British or European one, where capacity is almost always printed in liters. Fifty liters is the European equivalent of the American 13-gallon kitchen can, which is why so many cans are sold as 50 L here too.

1. Gallons to quarts: multiply by 4. A 13-gallon can is 52 quarts.
2. Quarts to gallons: divide by 4. A 35-quart pull-out is 8.75 gallons.
3. Gallons to liters: multiply by 3.785. A 13-gallon can is 49.2 liters.
4. Liters to gallons: divide by 3.785. A 50-liter can is 13.2 gallons.
5. Gallons to cubic feet: divide by 7.481. A 13-gallon can is 1.74 cubic feet.

And if what you are really trying to work out is which bag to buy, the conversion will not tell you — bag sizing is nominal too, and the overhang is the thing that matters. What size trash bag fits a 13-gallon can.