How to use it· 4 steps
- Add each course with its credit hours — often 3 or 4 at college, 1 or 0.5 per class in many high schools — and its letter grade.
- Choose whether A+ counts as 4.0 or 4.3, and switch on weighting if your school adds a bonus for honors, AP or IB courses.
- Read the semester GPA, the credits counted and the quality points. Pass/fail and withdrawn courses are left out automatically.
- To update your overall GPA, enter your cumulative GPA so far and the number of credits it covers.
Step by step
How to use the gpa calculator
- 1Add each course with its credit hours — often 3 or 4 at college, 1 or 0.5 per class in many high schools — and its letter grade.
- 2Choose whether A+ counts as 4.0 or 4.3, and switch on weighting if your school adds a bonus for honors, AP or IB courses.
- 3Read the semester GPA, the credits counted and the quality points. Pass/fail and withdrawn courses are left out automatically.
- 4To update your overall GPA, enter your cumulative GPA so far and the number of credits it covers.
How a GPA is calculated
Each letter grade converts to grade points — 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, D− = 0.7, F = 0 — and each course's points are multiplied by its credit hours to give quality points. The GPA is total quality points divided by total credits: GPA = Σ(points × credits) ÷ Σ(credits).
A worked example with the courses pre-filled above: English, 3 credits, A− gives 11.1 quality points; Calculus, 4 credits, B+ gives 13.2; Chemistry, 4 credits, A gives 16.0; History, 3 credits, B gives 9.0. That is 49.3 quality points over 14 credits, a GPA of 3.52. A plain average of the four grade points would say 3.50 — close here, but the gap widens whenever a heavy course has a different grade from a light one. A 4-credit lab counts four times as much as a 1-credit seminar, which is the whole point of credit weighting.
Pass/fail courses, and courses you withdrew from, earn credit toward graduation at most schools but carry no grade points, so they are excluded from both sides of the division. Mark them P or W and they are counted separately.
Weighted versus unweighted GPA
Many US high schools weight GPAs to reward harder courses: commonly +0.5 for an honors class and +1.0 for AP, IB or dual-enrolment college courses, so an A in AP Chemistry counts as 5.0. That is why weighted GPAs can exceed 4.0, and why a 4.2 and a 3.8 from two different schools may describe the same transcript. Both bonuses are editable, because schools set their own.
Policies differ on the lower grades. Almost no school adds the bonus to an F, and this calculator never does; some also withhold it from D grades. If your handbook says so, set the course to Regular for that row.
The A+ question is similar. Most high schools and many colleges cap an A+ at 4.0; some colleges award 4.3 (often written 4.33). Choose the one your registrar uses. When you are applying to college, expect admissions offices to recalculate: many strip weighting entirely, and some count only core academic subjects.
Cumulative GPA, and how hard it is to move
Your cumulative GPA is a credit-weighted average across every term, so a new term combines with it by credits, not by averaging two GPAs: new cumulative = (prior GPA × prior credits + this term's quality points) ÷ (prior credits + this term's credits). A 3.20 over 60 credits plus a 3.80 term of 15 credits gives (192 + 57) ÷ 75 = 3.32.
The more credits behind you, the less a single term moves the figure. After 90 credits at 3.0, even a perfect 4.0 over 15 credits lifts you only to 3.14. That arithmetic matters when a scholarship or programme has a hard cutoff: it tells you early whether a target is realistic, and how many strong terms it will take.
Retaken courses are the main exception. Under grade-replacement or grade-forgiveness policies the new grade replaces the old one in the GPA; under others both count. This calculator assumes every course entered counts, so for a replacement policy simply leave the old attempt out of your prior figures.
Percentages, other scales and other countries
If your courses report percentages rather than letters, switch the entry mode and each percentage is mapped to a letter on the widely used scale: 97 and above A+, 93–96 A, 90–92 A−, 87–89 B+, 83–86 B, 80–82 B−, and so on down to below 60 for an F. Schools set their own bands — some give a plain A from 90 with no minus grades — so if yours differs, enter letters directly.
This is the American 4.0 system. It does not convert to other systems by formula. Indian universities grade on a 10-point CGPA and SGPA scale with their own notified conversions, which the CGPA to percentage and SGPA to CGPA converters on this site handle; UK degree classes, the Australian 7-point scale and European ECTS grades each have their own rules, and credential-evaluation services use published tables rather than arithmetic.
Your registrar's figure is the official one. Rounding conventions, repeated courses and transfer credits all vary, so treat this as the fast, private check you run before the transcript arrives.
Answers
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate my GPA?
Multiply each course's grade points by its credit hours, add those up, and divide by the total credits. Three credits of A (12) plus four of B (12) is 24 quality points over 7 credits — a 3.43 GPA.
What is the difference between weighted and unweighted GPA?
Unweighted GPA uses the plain 4.0 scale for every course. Weighted GPA adds a bonus for harder classes — typically 0.5 for honors and 1.0 for AP or IB — so it can go above 4.0.
Do pass/fail classes count toward GPA?
Usually not. They earn credits toward graduation but no grade points, so they are left out of the calculation. Choose P in the grade list and they are excluded.
Is an A+ worth more than an A?
At most schools no — both are 4.0. Some colleges count an A+ as 4.3. Use the A+ setting to match your school.
Can I use this for an Indian CGPA or SGPA?
No — those use a 10-point scale with their own conversions. Use the CGPA to percentage or SGPA to CGPA converters instead.
Is my information stored anywhere?
No. The courses and grades stay in your browser and disappear when you leave the page.