GPA Calculator

A GPA calculator turns a list of letter grades into one number, the grade point average, by weighting every grade by the credit hours of the course it came from. This one does the term GPA, the weighted GPA with Honors and AP bonuses, the cumulative GPA once you add the record you already have, and the term GPA you would need to hit a target. It works on the 4.0 scale with plus and minus grades, and lets you switch to the two variations schools most often use.

If you want the grade for a single class from its assignments, or the score you need on a final exam, that is a different sum and lives on the grade calculator. A GPA only starts once each class has a letter grade.

The GPA formula, in quality points

Every letter grade is worth a number of grade points: on the common scale an A is 4.0, a B is 3.0, a C is 2.0, a D is 1.0 and an F is 0. Multiply those points by the course's credit hours and you get its quality points. Add the quality points for every course, add the credit hours, and divide the first total by the second. That is the whole GPA formula: total quality points divided by total credit hours.

The four courses loaded in the tool are Pearson's worked example. Biology is 4 credits with an A, so 4 × 4.0 = 16 quality points. Chemistry is 3 credits with a B+, 3 × 3.3 = 9.9. Math is 3 credits with an A-, 3 × 3.7 = 11.1. English is 2 credits with a B, 2 × 3.0 = 6. That is 43 quality points over 12 credits, and 43 ÷ 12 = 3.58. Credit weighting matters: the 4 credit A counts twice as much as the 2 credit B. A plain average of the four grade points would give 3.5 and understate this term. Scholaro's example makes the same point with an A over 3 credits and two Bs over 3 and 2 credits: 27.0 quality points over 8 credits is 3.38.

Which 4.0 scale is yours

Almost every American school uses 4.0 for an A and 0 for an F, but they disagree in three places, and the tool has a switch for each.

• Tenths or thirds. Most calculators and many high schools give an A- 3.7, a B+ 3.3, a B- 2.7 and so on. Registrars at the University of Florida, George Mason and the University of Nebraska Lincoln use thirds instead: 3.67, 3.33, 2.67, 2.33, 1.67, 1.33 and 0.67. The gap is a few hundredths per grade, and a mix of pluses and minuses can cancel it out entirely. The default four courses give 3.58 on either scale.
• What an A+ is worth. Nebraska, like most schools, caps an A+ at 4.00, the same as an A. Some scales, including the default on Calculator.net, give it 4.3; there, 4 credits of A+, 2 of B and 3 of A come to 35.2 quality points over 9 credits, a 3.91. Only choose 4.3 if your transcript key says so.
• Half steps. A few programs skip minus grades and put a plus halfway between letters. Rutgers Engineering uses A 4, B+ 3.5, B 3, C+ 2.5, C 2, D 1 and F 0, and its worked example of five courses lands on 34.5 quality points over 15 credits, a 2.300. On a half step scale the tool's tenths setting reads each plus grade 0.2 low, so treat its answer as a close lower estimate.

A few schools leave the 4.0 scale entirely. MIT grades on a 5.0 scale where A is 5, B is 4, C is 3, D is 2 and F is 0, and rounds the result to one decimal place, so its numbers cannot be compared directly with anyone else's.

Weighted versus unweighted GPA

An unweighted GPA treats every class the same and tops out at 4.0. A weighted GPA adds a bonus for harder courses, so it can go higher. The most common scheme, used by College Transitions, gpacalculator.net and Test Ninjas alike, adds 0.5 for an Honors course and 1.0 for AP, IB or dual enrollment. An A in AP Chemistry is then worth 5.0 rather than 4.0, and a B+ in Honors English is 3.8. Some districts give a flat 0.5 to every advanced course instead; the bonus menu covers both. With bonuses in play, the highest possible weighted GPA usually sits between 4.5 and 5.0.

The bonus is meant to reward success in a hard class, not soften a failing one, so the tool gives no bonus on a D or an F. That follows the University of California rule that a D or F in an honors course earns no extra point, and the common practice College Transitions describes. Mark each course's level in the row and the tool shows both numbers side by side: switch the headline between unweighted and weighted, and the other one appears beneath it.

Two worked examples show how far apart the numbers drift. College Transitions takes an A in AP Biology, a B+ in English and an A- in History, all 1 credit: weighted (5.0 + 3.3 + 3.7) ÷ 3 = 4.0, unweighted 3.67. NUM8ERS takes six courses with three APs and one Honors class and gets 4.25 weighted against 3.67 unweighted. Neither number is wrong. They answer different questions.

Which number colleges actually use

Report whatever your high school's transcript shows, but expect admissions offices to redo it. The College Board's BigFuture notes that colleges often recalculate a GPA to their own standard, may drop noncore subjects such as physical education, and may adjust or strip the weighting so that applicants from different schools can be compared. The University of California publishes its method: only A-G courses taken from the summer after 9th grade through the summer after 11th grade, A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1 with pluses and minuses ignored, and one extra point per semester of an approved honors level course up to 8 points, of which no more than 4 can come from 10th grade. Nonresidents get the extra point for AP and IB only. The minimum is 3.0 for California residents and 3.4 for nonresidents, and UC does not round the result.

Cumulative GPA, done properly

Your cumulative GPA is every graded credit you have ever earned at the school, averaged by credit. You cannot get it by averaging your semester GPAs, because a light term and a heavy term do not weigh the same. Indeed's example has four semesters: 3.6 over 12 credits, 3.5 over 13, 4.0 over 12 and 3.6 over 14. Multiply each GPA back into quality points, 43.2 + 45.5 + 48 + 50.4 = 187.1, and divide by the 51 credits for 3.67. The gap grows when terms differ in size: a 4.0 over a 3 credit summer class and a 2.0 over a 15 credit semester average to 3.0 on paper, but the true figure is (12 + 30) ÷ 18 = 2.33.

To fold a new term into your record, type your GPA so far and the credits behind it into the cumulative band. The tool turns them back into quality points, adds this term's, and divides by the combined credits. Use credits that counted toward the GPA, not total credits earned, if your transcript lists both, since pass and transfer credit usually sit outside it.

The GPA you need for a target

Rearranging the same formula gives the planning question every student eventually asks. The term GPA you need equals the target times all credits, minus your current quality points, divided by this term's credits. Pearson's example is sobering: a student on 3.20 over 60 credits who wants 3.50 after a 15 credit term would need a 4.70, which no 4.0 scale allows. When that happens the tool says so and works out how many credits of straight 4.0 grades it would take instead, here 60 × 0.30 ÷ 0.50 = 36 credits, a bit more than two full terms.

That is why an early GPA moves easily and a late one hardly moves at all. gpacalculator.net shows it plainly: a 2.50 after 30 credits climbs to exactly 3.00 with 15 credits of straight A grades, but the same 15 perfect credits on top of 90 only lift it to 2.71. Every new course is a smaller slice of a bigger record. Heavy credit courses move the average most, so they are the best place to aim effort.

Grades that do not count

Some transcript entries carry credit but no grade points. Calculator.net ignores P, NP, I and W; Nebraska lists I, P, N, NR and W as carrying no GPA weight; Kansas leaves out CR, NC and S/U grades. Pick P or W in a row and the tool leaves those credits out of both totals and tells you how many it set aside. A failing grade in a letter graded class is different: an F is 0 points with its full credits, which is why one F on a 4 credit course hurts so much.

Retakes depend on your school's repeat policy. George Mason tells students to remove the earlier attempt's quality points and GPA hours before recalculating, which is full grade replacement. Pearson's example shows what that is worth: a 2.80 over 50 credits with a 4 credit D replaced by an A becomes 3.04. Other schools average both attempts or count both, so read the catalog first. To model a replacement here, fold the old attempt out of your GPA so far and enter the retake as a normal row.

What the number means

For context, the NAEP High School Transcript Study found the average GPA of 2019 high school graduates was 3.11, up from 3.00 in 2009, across a sample of 47,300 graduates at 1,400 schools. At college, gpacalculator.net calls 3.0 solid and 3.7 to 4.0 excellent. The line that matters most is lower: federal student aid rules require a GPA of at least a C, or its equivalent, by the end of the second academic year in a program longer than two years. A typical full time college load is 12 to 15 credits a term, which is why one heavy course can swing a semester GPA by several tenths.

Schools also round differently. Nebraska reports GPA to the thousandths place, MIT to one decimal, and UC does not round at all. The tool shows two decimals in the headline and three in the working line, so you can match whichever your transcript uses. For a weighted average of anything that is not a grade, the average calculator takes any values and weights.