Liquids and batteries
UK airport liquid rules: 100 ml or 2 litres, airport by airport
Choose the airport you fly from and the size of your bottle: the checker applies that airport’s own published limit, with the date its page was read.
Can I take this liquid through security?
100 ml per container
Allowed in hand luggage
| Limit per container | 2,000 ml |
| Bag | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag |
| Rule read on | Heathrow, October 26, 2026 |
This airport’s own page states the larger limit. Your return airport may still apply 100 ml.
There is no longer one liquids rule for hand luggage in the UK. Of the 17 airports checked for this page, 6 state on their own security pages that you can take containers of up to 2 litres through screening and leave them in your bag: Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Bristol, Belfast International. The other 11, among them London Stansted, Manchester and London City, keep the 100 ml limit per container, but nearly all of them have dropped the clear plastic bag because their scanners see the liquids inside the cabin bag. GOV.UK still describes the older baseline that applies unless the airport says otherwise: containers of 100 ml or less, all in one resealable bag of about 1 litre, roughly 20 by 20 cm. Medicines, special-diet food and baby milk are allowed in larger amounts everywhere. The catch is the flight home: the airport abroad sets the rule on the return leg, and most still apply 100 ml.
Is this container under the TSA 3.4 ounce limit?
In the carry-on quart bag?
Yes
| In milliliters | 101 ml |
| Limit | 3.4 oz (100 ml) |
The size printed on the container counts, not how full it is.
Sizes, fees and rules read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we check
Seventeen airports, seventeen pages
The table lists each airport with the rule written on its own security page, the bag rule and the day that page was read. 5 of them could only be read on an archived copy of the page (Birmingham, August 25, 2026; Bristol, October 8, 2026; Newcastle, June 28, 2026; Belfast International, April 22, 2026; London City, July 29, 2026); for those, the airport may have changed its wording since. Each airport name opens the page that was read.
| Airport | Limit per container | Plastic bag | Page read on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | 2 litres | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | October 26, 2026 |
| Gatwick | 2 litres | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | October 26, 2026 |
| London Stansted | 100 ml | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | October 26, 2026 |
| London Luton | 100 ml | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | October 26, 2026 |
| Manchester | 100 ml | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | October 26, 2026 |
| Birmingham | 2 litres | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | August 25, 2026 (archived copy) |
| Edinburgh | 2 litres | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | October 26, 2026 |
| Bristol | 2 litres | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | October 8, 2026 (archived copy) |
| Newcastle | 100 ml | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | June 28, 2026 (archived copy) |
| Aberdeen | 100 ml | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | October 26, 2026 |
| Belfast International | 2 litres | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | April 22, 2026 (archived copy) |
| London City | 100 ml | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | July 29, 2026 (archived copy) |
| Leeds Bradford | 100 ml | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | October 26, 2026 |
| Liverpool John Lennon | 100 ml | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | October 26, 2026 |
| East Midlands | 100 ml | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | October 26, 2026 |
| Southampton | 100 ml | check the airport page for the bag rule | October 26, 2026 |
| Teesside | 100 ml | no plastic bag needed, liquids stay in your bag | October 26, 2026 |
Two details from the airport pages are worth knowing. Gatwick allows the larger containers except metal or double-walled ones, such as insulated flasks, which still have to be emptied before screening. Aberdeen, Southampton and Teesside state that there is no limit on the number of 100 ml containers, as long as each one stays within the size.
The GOV.UK baseline, and why airports differ from it
The government guidance, published on GOV.UK under the Open Government Licence, sets out the rule every airport starts from. Liquids in hand luggage go in containers of no more than 100 ml. All of them fit in a single transparent resealable bag of around 1 litre, about 20 cm by 20 cm, which you can close and which is shown separately at screening. Larger quantities are allowed for medicines, for food needed on a special diet and for baby food and milk. The guidance adds that the airport may apply different rules, and that is where the split comes from: airports that have installed the newer CT scanners, which see liquids inside a cabin bag, can let liquids stay in the bag, and some of them have raised the container size.
A container is judged by its capacity, not by what is left in it. A 150 ml tube half used is still a 150 ml tube at a 100 ml airport. Liquids include gels, pastes, creams, lotions and aerosols, so lip gloss, toothpaste and hair wax count.
The return-flight trap
The new limits apply to departures from the airport that announced them, not to the trip. A bottle of 1 litre that leaves Edinburgh in the cabin bag meets a different checkpoint on the flight home from a holiday airport, and also at a UK airport that keeps 100 ml if you fly out of one and back into another. Three habits avoid losing it. Check the rule of the return airport before packing. Put anything above 100 ml that you want to bring back in the hold bag on the return leg; the hold luggage page gives the weight each UK airline allows. And buy large toiletries at the destination instead of carrying them both ways.
Travelers connecting to the United States face the strictest version: TSA rules allow 3.4 ounces, or 100 ml, per container in a quart-sized bag at every US checkpoint, so any repeat screening on arrival or during a connection undoes the UK allowance. The TSA liquid rule page covers it.
Medicines, baby milk and special diets
These are allowed at every UK airport in larger amounts, up to 2 litres according to the rule recorded for this site. They do not need to go in the plastic bag at airports that still use one, but they should be easy to take out. Staff may ask you to open a container or test it. Keeping a few days of any regular medicine in the cabin bag also protects you if the hold bag arrives late.