Education
GPA Calculator
Add each course, pick its letter grade, and enter the credit hours to calculate your grade point average on the standard US 4.0 scale. The tool also shows your total credits and total quality points — the two numbers a registrar divides to get your GPA. Use the weighted toggle to give AP, Honors and dual-enrollment classes the extra point that many high schools award, or leave it unweighted for a straight 4.0-scale figure that most colleges use. Everything runs in your browser, updates as you type, and never leaves your device, so you can model "what-if" scenarios for next semester without creating an account or sharing your grades with anyone.
Your courses
on the 4.0 scale
GPA = total quality points ÷ total credit hours.
How the GPA calculator works
Each letter grade maps to a number of grade points on the 4.0 scale. For every course, the calculator multiplies that grade-point value by the course's credit hours to get its quality points. Your GPA is the sum of all quality points divided by the sum of all credit hours, so heavier courses pull your average more than lighter ones.
Grade point average
GPA = Σ(grade points × credit hours) ÷ Σ(credit hours)quality points for one course = grade-point value × credit hours
The standard US mapping is A = 4.0, A− = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0, B− = 2.7, C+ = 2.3, C = 2.0, C− = 1.7, D+ = 1.3, D = 1.0, F = 0.0. An A+ is also treated as 4.0 (most schools cap at 4.0). With the weighted toggle on, AP and Honors courses get an extra +1.0, so an A in an AP class counts as 5.0.
Notes & assumptions
- Courses with 0 or blank credit hours are ignored in the average.
- Weighted mode adds +1.0 only to courses you mark as AP/Honors; an A there becomes 5.0.
- Pass/Fail and audit courses usually don't affect GPA — leave them out.
- Your school may use a slightly different scale; check your transcript for the exact mapping.
Letter grade to grade point table
This is the exact mapping the calculator uses, next to the percentage band each letter most commonly represents in US classrooms. Percentage cutoffs vary by school and even by teacher, so treat that column as typical rather than universal; the grade-point values are the standard registrar mapping.
| Letter | Grade points | Weighted (+1.0) | Typical percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| A+ | 4.0 | 5.0 | 97 to 100 |
| A | 4.0 | 5.0 | 93 to 96 |
| A− | 3.7 | 4.7 | 90 to 92 |
| B+ | 3.3 | 4.3 | 87 to 89 |
| B | 3.0 | 4.0 | 83 to 86 |
| B− | 2.7 | 3.7 | 80 to 82 |
| C+ | 2.3 | 3.3 | 77 to 79 |
| C | 2.0 | 3.0 | 73 to 76 |
| C− | 1.7 | 2.7 | 70 to 72 |
| D+ | 1.3 | 2.3 | 67 to 69 |
| D | 1.0 | 2.0 | 63 to 66 |
| D− | 0.7 | 1.7 | 60 to 62 |
| F | 0.0 | 0.0 | below 60 |
Two details worth flagging. An A+ is capped at 4.0 on the standard scale, though a minority of colleges award 4.3 for it. And an F earns 0.0 even in a weighted AP class: the +1.0 bonus applies only to passing grades, in this tool and at most schools, so failing a hard course never scores better than failing an easy one.
Worked example
Imagine a semester with two classes: an A in a 3-credit English course and a B in a 4-credit Chemistry course. On the unweighted scale, the A is worth 4.0 grade points and the B is worth 3.0. Multiply by credit hours to get quality points: English gives 4.0 × 3 = 12.0 and Chemistry gives 3.0 × 4 = 12.0, for 24.0 quality points across 7 credit hours. Divide 24.0 by 7 and your GPA is about 3.43. Notice it's pulled below a flat 3.5 because the lower B grade carried more credits. If that Chemistry course were an AP class and you flipped on weighted mode, the B would count as 4.0 instead of 3.0, lifting the semester GPA — a quick way to see how honors weighting rewards harder coursework.
Weighted vs. unweighted: one semester, two GPAs
Take a five-course high school semester, one credit each: an A in AP Calculus, a B+ in Honors English, an A− in Chemistry, a B in US History, and an A in Spanish.
Unweighted, the grade points are 4.0 + 3.3 + 3.7 + 3.0 + 4.0 = 18.0 quality points over 5 credits, so 18.0 ÷ 5 = a 3.60 GPA. Turn on weighting and the two advanced courses each gain a point: AP Calculus counts 5.0 and Honors English counts 4.3, making the total 5.0 + 4.3 + 3.7 + 3.0 + 4.0 = 20.0, and 20.0 ÷ 5 = a 4.00 weighted GPA. Same report card, a 0.40 gap between the two numbers.
That gap is why the question "what's your GPA?" needs a follow-up. A 4.0 weighted from a schedule of AP classes and a 4.0 unweighted from standard classes are different achievements, and class-rank systems built on weighted GPA reward students for taking the harder schedule even when a B in AP beats an A in the regular section. Enter your own schedule both ways above to see your personal gap.
Which GPA scale colleges actually use
Admissions offices overwhelmingly think in unweighted 4.0 terms, and many recalculate your GPA from the transcript rather than taking your school's number: they strip local weighting, sometimes drop non-academic courses like PE, and apply their own scale so applicants from different high schools can be compared. The University of California system, for example, computes its own GPA from 10th and 11th grade academic courses with capped honors bonuses. So report what your transcript says, but expect the college to redo the math.
After high school the variations continue. Most US colleges grade on the same 4.0 scale this tool uses, a minority award 4.3 for an A+, and a few schools grade on 100-point or percentage systems that convert back to 4.0 for graduate applications. Latin honors thresholds commonly sit near 3.5 for cum laude, 3.7 for magna and 3.9 for summa, though every college sets its own lines. For athletes, NCAA Division I eligibility requires at least a 2.3 GPA in approved core courses. When a target matters to you, check the institution's published cutoff rather than a general chart.
Frequently asked questions
How is GPA calculated on the 4.0 scale?
Convert each letter grade to its grade-point value (A = 4.0, B = 3.0, and so on), multiply by the course's credit hours to get quality points, add up the quality points for all courses, and divide by the total credit hours. The result is your grade point average. Because the division is weighted by credits, a poor grade in a high-credit course hurts more than the same grade in a one-credit elective.
What's the difference between weighted and unweighted GPA?
An unweighted GPA treats every course on the same 4.0 scale regardless of difficulty, so the highest possible is 4.0. A weighted GPA adds extra points for advanced courses — typically +1.0 for AP and Honors classes — which is why some students report GPAs above 4.0. Colleges often recalculate to their own standard, so report whichever your school officially uses and keep both handy.
How do plus and minus grades affect GPA?
On most US scales, a plus or minus shifts the grade-point value by about 0.3. An A− is 3.7, a B+ is 3.3, a B− is 2.7, and so on. A handful of schools don't use plus/minus grading and count every A the same as 4.0; if yours is one of them, just pick the base letter and ignore the modifiers.
What are quality points?
Quality points (sometimes called grade points) are the product of a course's grade-point value and its credit hours. A 3-credit course with an A earns 12 quality points (4.0 × 3). Your registrar sums quality points across all courses and divides by total credits to get your GPA — this calculator shows both numbers so you can verify the math against your transcript.
Do pass/fail or withdrawn courses count?
Usually not. Pass/Fail, Credit/No-Credit, audit and withdrawn courses typically don't carry grade points and are excluded from GPA, though a "Pass" may still grant credit hours toward graduation. Policies vary by school, so check your catalog. To keep this calculator accurate, simply leave those courses out of the list.
Can I calculate my cumulative GPA across semesters?
Yes — just enter every graded course from all the terms you want to include in one list. The calculator sums all quality points and all credit hours together, which is exactly how a cumulative GPA is computed. To project a future term, add the courses you plan to take with the grades you expect and watch the running average update.
What is a good GPA?
Context matters, but on the unweighted 4.0 scale a 3.0 is solid, a 3.5 is competitive for most colleges and a common Dean's List cutoff, and a 3.7 or higher puts you in range for selective admissions and merit scholarships. Averages differ by school and by major, and employers rarely ask about GPA past your first job. The trend counts too: an upward GPA across semesters reads better than a flat one at the same final number.
How fast can I raise my GPA?
Slower than most students expect, because every new grade is averaged against all existing credits. If you have 30 credits at a 2.8 and earn a perfect 4.0 across a 15-credit semester, the math is (30 × 2.8 + 15 × 4.0) ÷ 45 = 3.2. A straight-A semester moved the cumulative number only 0.4. The more credits you accumulate, the more inertia the average has, which is why early semesters matter so much.