They say that you can never have too much ice cream, but you’ll realize that there’s a finite amount of the cold, sweet dessert you can eat when you grow older. Anyway, for the young’uns out there who can’t get enough ice cream, do you know how big a pint of it is?
A pint of ice cream is the same as 16 fluid ounces or 2 cups. You can usually divide a pint of ice cream into 2 cups and 4 scoops. However, the portion size per scoop depends on the size of the scoop you use.
In this guide, I’ll explain what a pint of ice cream is and how many servings you can squeeze from it. That way, you’ll have a rough idea of how much ice cream to pack in your fridge during the summer.
How Big Is a Pint of Ice Cream?
If you’re a fan of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, then you’re probably familiar with pint-sized tubs of ice cream. If you’re not, then you’re probably disappointed by just how little ice cream there is in a pint container.
While a pint might not seem like much, especially if you think about it in beer terms, a pint of ice cream really does go a long way. 1 pint is equal to 16 fluid ounces, or about 1.5 times the amount of soda you’d find in a standard soda can. If we break a pint down into cups, you can get 2 cups for every pint of ice cream.
But when you purchase ice cream at an ice cream parlor, they don’t just sell their products in pints and cups. If you’re filling a cone with your favorite flavor, you’ll have to think about how much ice cream you get in scoops.
So, just how many scoops are there in a pint of ice cream?
Converting Pints to Scoops
To know how many scoops of ice cream you can get from a pint, you first have to understand what the numbers on an ice cream scoop mean.
The numbers stamped onto the inside portion of an ice cream scoop’s bowl refer to how many scoops you can get from a quart of ice cream. For instance, a #20 scoop, which is one of the smallest scoops you can get, will produce 20 small-size scoops of ice cream from a quart.
Next, you should know that a quart is equal to 2 pints, so the number of scoops you can get from a pint of ice cream is half its size number.
The following table will describe how many scoops you can get from a pint of ice cream based on the scoop’s size.
| Scoop Size | Scoops per Pint | Fl. Oz. per Scoop |
| #100 | 50 | ¼ |
| #70 | 35 | 3/8 |
| #60 | 30 | ½ |
| #50 | 25 | 5/8 |
| #40 | 20 | ¾ |
| #46 | 23 | 7/8 |
| #30 | 15 | 1-1/8 |
| #24 | 12 | 1-1/2 |
| #20 | 10 | 1-7/8 |
| #16 | 8 | 2 |
| #14 | 7 | 2-3/8 |
| #12 | 6 | 2-7/8 |
| #10 | 5 | 3-1/4 |
| #8 | 4 | 3-3/4 |
| #6 | 3 | 4-3/4 |
| #5 | 2.5 | 6 |
| #4 | 2 | 8 |
| #2 | 1 | 16 |
To learn more about the container size, check out our post on ice cream container sizes.
How Many Scoops per Serving of Ice Cream?
The table above shows how many scoops of ice cream you can get out of a pint based on scoop size, but it doesn’t tell us much about how many scoops we can eat per serving. Unfortunately, there is no objectively correct answer unless you want to say zero since ice cream can be pretty bad for your health.
The number of scoops per serving will vary from ice cream parlor to ice cream parlor. For instance, a place down my street sells 3-scoop portions using a #12 scoop, which equals about half a pint.
So, if we were to follow my local ice cream parlor’s portion standards, that means a pint will yield enough ice cream to serve 2 people.
Nutrition Facts About Ice Cream
Don’t get me wrong; ice cream is one of the best anytime desserts and snacks there is, even in the winter. However, eating ice cream too often, even as little as 1 pint, can be pretty unhealthy. To give you an idea of what I mean, let’s take a look at the nutrition facts of ice cream based on a 1-pint serving.
| Nutrition Facts | Values |
| Calories | 546 |
| Total Fat | 30 g |
| Saturated Fat | 18 g |
| Polyunsaturated Fat | 1.2 g |
| Monounsaturated Fat | 7.8 g |
| Cholesterol | 116 mg |
| Sodium | 212 mg |
| Potassium | 526 mg |
| Total Carbohydrates | 62 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1.8 g |
| Sugars | 56 g |
| Protein | 9.2 g |
| Vitamin A | 22% DV |
| Vitamin C | 2.6% DV |
| Calcium | 26% DV |
| Iron | 1.3% DV |
Source: Nutritionix.com
To burn the 550 Kcals you get from a pint of ice cream, you would have to walk for 147 minutes at 3 miles per hour, run for 53 minutes at 6 miles per hour, or ride a bike for 76 minutes at 10 miles per hour. And I know for a fact that if you eat a pint of ice cream regularly, sort of like me, then you’re not doing any of those things! Kudos to those that are, though.
Why Is Ice Cream Sold in Pint Containers?
Donna Berry from Food Business News has an excellent article that describes the innovation of the pint-size ice cream container. Essentially, manufacturers sell ice cream by the pint for two reasons: to preserve the ice cream’s structure and to give people a chance to waste less if they don’t like a flavor.
Ben & Jerry’s discovered that fillings in their ice cream could cause it to lose air whenever the customer removed it from their freezer. But with a smaller container, there was less of a chance that the customer would put the ice cream back in the fridge and enjoy the entire container.
So, do ice cream pints cost more per ounce? Yes, they do, especially at specialty ice cream parlors, where a pint can run you upwards of $15! But if you’ve never tried strange but true ice cream flavors before, you should—just for the giggles.
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