GPA Calculator

How GPA is actually calculated

Your grade point average (GPA) is a single number that summarises your academic performance. It is the credit-weighted average of every course grade you have earned. The calculation is the same in nearly every US high school and university; only the scale and the weighting rules vary.

The math takes four steps:

1. Convert every letter grade to GPA points. The standard 4.0 table assigns A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0, and so on down to F = 0.0.
2. Multiply each grade\u2019s GPA value by the number of credits (sometimes called credit hours, units, or course weights). The result is called quality points.
3. Sum the quality points across all your courses.
4. Divide that sum by the total credits attempted. Round to two decimals.

Example: an A in a 4-credit course (4.0 × 4 = 16 quality points) plus a B+ in a 3-credit course (3.3 × 3 = 9.9 quality points) gives 25.9 quality points across 7 credits — a GPA of 25.9 ÷ 7 = 3.70.

Weighted vs. unweighted GPA — what is the difference?

An unweighted GPA caps every course at 4.0 regardless of difficulty. An A in remedial math counts the same as an A in AP Calculus BC. This is the simplest and most universal scale, and it is the one most international students and grad-school applications use.

A weighted GPA rewards harder courses by adding bonus points. The most common convention in US high schools is:

• Regular courses — no bonus (4.0 ceiling).
• Honors courses — +0.5 (so an A becomes a 4.5).
• AP, IB, or dual-enrollment college courses — +1.0 (so an A becomes a 5.0).

This means a weighted GPA can exceed 4.0 — values up to 4.5, 5.0, or even 5.5 are common at competitive high schools. Selective universities almost always recalculate using their own internal scale, so do not panic if your "weighted 4.7" looks different on a Common App preview.

Which GPA do colleges actually look at?

Highly selective US universities typically recalculate your GPA from your transcript using their own formula. The most common approach: drop physical-education and elective grades, count only academic courses, treat plus/minus modifiers either as +/-0.3 or ignore them, and apply a uniform weighting boost. The Common App and Coalition profiles ask high schools to report both the unweighted and the weighted GPA directly.

For graduate admissions, programs almost always use a 4.0 unweighted GPA from your major coursework — and many ask you to use the World Education Services (WES) credential evaluation if you studied abroad.

The three tools no other GPA site has

Beyond the standard calculators, we have built three planning tools you will not find on competitor sites — designed to make GPA something you can actively shape rather than passively check:

• Target GPA Predictor — tell us your current cumulative GPA, the credits you have earned, your goal, and the credits you have left, and we return the exact GPA you need to maintain on the road ahead.
• GPA Improvement Simulator — a live slider that shows in real time how a strong (or weak) next term shifts your cumulative GPA. Useful for setting realistic recovery goals after a rough semester.
• Multi-Scale Comparison Tool — see your US 4.0 GPA simultaneously in the UK Honours system, German 1.0–5.0, Indian CGPA, Chinese 5.0, Australian 7-point, and percentage scales. Built for students applying internationally.

Privacy by design

Your grades are sensitive. That is why every tool on this site runs as a static page that loads a small piece of JavaScript and does the math locally — your inputs never touch our servers. We do not run a database, do not store transcripts, and do not require an account. You can confirm this by opening your browser\u2019s Network tab while you use any calculator: after the page loads, you will see no further outbound requests.

Built for accuracy, speed, and every device

The calculators here have been tested against published scale tables from the College Board, IB Organization, and the registrars of more than 30 US universities. The percentage-to-letter mapping uses the standard 90/80/70/60 cutoffs. Pages load in under a second on a 3G connection, work offline once visited, and pass the WCAG AA contrast and mobile-friendliness audits. Whether you are checking your weighted GPA on a Chromebook in study hall or projecting a cumulative GPA on a phone the night before applications close, the math is reliable and the interface stays out of the way.