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GPA calculator for college and high school

Add your courses with their grades and credits to get your unweighted and weighted GPA, then work out your cumulative GPA and the grades you need to reach your goal.

Common US scale: A from 90%, B from 80%, C from 70%, D from 60%. Weighted GPA adds 0.5 for Honors and 1.0 for AP or IB courses, never on an F; scales and weights vary by school, so check your school’s catalog. Everything is calculated in your browser; nothing is sent.

How to use the GPA calculator

Enter each course with its letter grade and its credits, and your GPA updates as you type. For high school, set the course type to Honors or AP / IB to get your weighted GPA too. The four tabs cover:

  • GPA calculator: your unweighted and weighted GPA for a semester or a year;
  • Cumulative GPA: your new overall GPA once this term is added to your transcript;
  • Target GPA: the average you need over your next credits to reach a goal;
  • Percent to GPA: the letter grade and grade points for a percentage.

Pass/fail courses can be listed: they’re shown but left out of the GPA. It’s free, there’s no sign-up, and everything runs in your browser. To work out the grade of a single class from its assignments and tests, use the grade calculator instead.

How to calculate your GPA

GPA stands for grade point average. Each letter grade is worth a number of grade points, and each course counts according to its credits:

  1. turn each letter grade into grade points: an A is 4.0, a B+ 3.3, a B 3.0;
  2. multiply the grade points by the course credits;
  3. add up the results, then divide by the total number of credits.
CourseGrade × creditsGrade points
EnglishA (4.0) × 3 credits12
Algebra IIB+ (3.3) × 4 credits13.2
BiologyA- (3.7) × 4 credits14.8
U.S. HistoryB (3.0) × 3 credits9
Total14 credits49

Here, 49 grade points over 14 credits give a GPA of 49 ÷ 14 = 3.50. A four-credit course weighs more than a three-credit one, so the same grade moves your GPA more in a bigger class.

The GPA scale

Most US high schools and colleges use a 4.0 scale with plus and minus grades. The usual equivalents are:

Letter gradePercentageGrade points
A+97–1004.0 (4.3 at some schools)
A93–964.0
A-90–923.7
B+87–893.3
B83–863.0
B-80–822.7
C+77–792.3
C73–762.0
C-70–721.7
D+67–691.3
D63–661.0
D-60–620.7
Fbelow 600.0

Scales vary: some schools give 4.3 for an A+, others don’t use plus and minus grades, and some set an A at 93% or 94%. Your school’s catalog or student handbook has the official scale.

Weighted vs. unweighted GPA

An unweighted GPA uses the 4.0 scale for every course. A weighted GPA rewards harder classes: many high schools add 0.5 point for Honors courses and 1.0 point for AP, IB or dual enrollment courses, so an A in an AP class counts as 5.0. The bonus doesn’t apply to an F.

In the example above, Algebra II is an Honors course and Biology an AP course: the weighted GPA rises to 3.93, while the unweighted GPA stays at 3.50. Colleges often recalculate GPAs their own way, which is why many applications ask for both.

How to calculate your cumulative GPA

Your cumulative GPA covers every course on your transcript. To add a new term, weight each GPA by its credits:

cumulative GPA = (current GPA × credits completed + term GPA × term credits) ÷ total credits

With a 3.2 GPA over 45 credits and a 3.6 term over 15 credits: (3.2 × 45 + 3.6 × 15) ÷ 60 = 3.30. In the “Cumulative GPA” tab, the “Use the GPA from the first tab” button fills in this term’s GPA and credits for you.

How to raise your GPA

The “Target GPA” tab works backward: from your current GPA, your credits and your goal, it finds the average you need over the credits you have left. With a 2.8 GPA over 60 credits, reaching 3.0 takes a 3.40 average over the next 30 credits, about an A- average.

The more credits you’ve completed, the slower your GPA moves: a strong term lifts a GPA a lot in freshman year and much less in senior year. A 15-credit term at 3.5 lifts a 3.0 GPA to 3.25 after one term, but only to 3.06 after seven terms (105 credits). If a goal is out of reach, the calculator says so and tells you how many credits of straight A’s it would take.

College GPA vs. high school GPA

  • Credits: colleges weight courses by credit hours, often 3 or 4 per class; high schools use credits or units, sometimes 0.5 or 1 per course.
  • Weighting: weighted GPAs are mostly a high school practice; most colleges report an unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale.
  • Pass/fail and withdrawals: these usually don’t count toward the GPA, and repeated courses follow each school’s own policy.
  • Rounding: some schools round or truncate GPAs differently, so your official GPA can differ by a hundredth or two.

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Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate my GPA?

Turn each letter grade into grade points (A = 4.0, B = 3.0, C = 2.0, D = 1.0, F = 0), multiply by the course credits, add everything up and divide by the total credits. The calculator does it as you type.

A 3.0, a B average, is often seen as good, and 3.5 or higher as strong. What counts as good depends on your school, your major and the programs or scholarships you’re aiming for.

A 3.5 sits between a B+ (3.3) and an A- (3.7). It’s a solid B+ to A- average, roughly 89% to 90% on the usual scale.

An unweighted GPA uses the 4.0 scale for every class. A weighted GPA adds points for harder classes, often 0.5 for Honors and 1.0 for AP or IB, so it can go above 4.0.

Multiply each term’s GPA by its credits, add the results and divide by the total credits. A 3.2 over 45 credits and a 3.6 over 15 credits give (144 + 54) ÷ 60 = 3.30.

Yes, a weighted GPA can, because Honors and AP classes earn extra points: an A in an AP class counts as 5.0. Some colleges also give 4.3 for an A+.

Find the letter grade first, then its grade points: 85% is a B, worth 3.0, and 91% is an A-, worth 3.7. The “Percent to GPA” tab does it for any percentage.

Usually not: a pass earns credits but no grade points, so it doesn’t change your GPA. A fail can count at some schools, so check your school’s policy.

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