GPA Calculator
Calculate your Grade Point Average from total grade points and total credit hours — the standard metric used by US high schools and universities to summarise academic performance. Enter the sum of all the grade points you have earned (for example, an A in a 3-credit class on a 4.0 scale contributes 4.0 × 3 = 12 points), the total number of credit hours those classes carried, the maximum value of your scale (4.0, 4.3, 4.5, or 5.0), and how many decimal places you want. The calculator returns your weighted GPA, capped at the scale maximum. This is the figure that appears on transcripts and that colleges, scholarship committees, and graduate programs use for screening.
About this calculator
GPA is a weighted average where the weights are credit hours: GPA = Σ(grade points × credits) ÷ Σ(credits), capped at the maximum of your scale. The most common scale in the United States is the 4.0 scale, with A = 4.0, B = 3.0, C = 2.0, D = 1.0, F = 0.0; pluses and minuses add or subtract 0.3 (so A− = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, etc., though many schools count A+ as 4.0 rather than 4.3). Honors, AP, and IB courses are often boosted by 0.5 to 1.0 on a "weighted" scale, which is why some students graduate with GPAs above 4.0. Credit weighting matters: an A in a 4-credit chemistry class moves your GPA more than an A in a 1-credit gym class, because it carries four times the weight. Edge cases to watch: classes graded Pass/Fail or Credit/No-Credit typically do not factor into GPA at all (they are excluded from both numerator and denominator); withdrawals (W) usually do not affect GPA but appear on the transcript; incompletes (I) are often treated as F if not resolved by a deadline. The cap on the scale is a practical guard against accidentally entering grade points that exceed the maximum possible — but if you legitimately have a weighted GPA above 4.0 from honors/AP boosts, set the gradeScale to 4.5 or 5.0 before computing.
How to use
Example 1 — Single semester, standard 4.0 scale. You took five classes this semester: Calculus I (4 credits, grade A = 4.0), English Composition (3 credits, grade B+ = 3.3), Intro to Psychology (3 credits, grade A− = 3.7), Spanish II (4 credits, grade B = 3.0), and Physical Education (1 credit, grade A = 4.0). Total grade points: (4.0×4) + (3.3×3) + (3.7×3) + (3.0×4) + (4.0×1) = 16 + 9.9 + 11.1 + 12 + 4 = 53.0. Total credit hours: 4 + 3 + 3 + 4 + 1 = 15. Enter 53.0 for Total Grade Points, 15 for Total Credit Hours, 4.0 for Grade Scale, and 2 for Decimal Places. Result: 3.53. Verify: 53.0 ÷ 15 = 3.5333..., which rounds to 3.53. ✓ Example 2 — Cumulative GPA over four years on a weighted 5.0 scale. After four years of high school you have earned 624 total grade points (including AP boosts) across 168 total credit hours. Enter 624 for Total Grade Points, 168 for Total Credit Hours, 5.0 for Grade Scale, and 2 for Decimal Places. Result: 3.71. Verify: 624 ÷ 168 ≈ 3.7143, which rounds to 3.71. The result stays well under the 5.0 cap. ✓
Frequently asked questions
What is considered a good GPA?
On a standard 4.0 scale, a GPA of 3.0 (B average) is considered solid, 3.5 is competitive for most undergraduate scholarships and college admissions, and 3.7 or higher is excellent. Anything below 2.0 typically puts a student at risk of academic probation. Context matters enormously: a 3.5 from a school with significant grade inflation is much less impressive than a 3.5 from a school known for rigour, and admissions officers know this through profiles they maintain on each high school. For graduate school applications a 3.5 is generally the minimum competitive threshold, with top programs expecting 3.7+. Internships at top firms often filter at 3.5 or 3.7, and some elite consulting and finance firms screen at 3.7 or higher.
How is a weighted GPA different from an unweighted one?
An unweighted GPA treats every class equally on the standard 0.0–4.0 scale, so an A in any class is worth 4.0 points. A weighted GPA gives extra credit for harder courses — typically +0.5 for honors classes and +1.0 for AP, IB, or college-level dual-enrollment courses — which lets the maximum exceed 4.0, sometimes reaching 5.0 or higher. The point is to reward students who challenge themselves rather than penalising them when a tougher class produces a slightly lower letter grade. Colleges almost always recalculate GPA using their own methodology when comparing applicants from different high schools, because weighting schemes vary so widely that raw weighted numbers are not directly comparable. When this calculator is used with a weighted scale (4.5 or 5.0), be sure your grade points already include the honors/AP boost in the points you enter.
How do I compute cumulative GPA across multiple semesters?
Add up all the grade points you have ever earned across every semester (each class's letter grade × that class's credit hours) and divide by the total number of credit hours you have ever taken. Do not average the per-semester GPAs together — that gives the wrong answer whenever semesters had different credit loads. For example, if you got a 4.0 in a 6-credit summer term and a 3.0 across a 16-credit fall term, your cumulative is (4.0×6 + 3.0×16) ÷ 22 = (24 + 48) ÷ 22 ≈ 3.27, not the naïve average of 3.5. This calculator handles cumulative GPA correctly because it works in grade points and credit hours directly — feed it the totals across all semesters of interest.
What are the most common mistakes people make when calculating GPA?
The biggest is averaging semester GPAs together instead of weighting by credits, which produces a wrong answer whenever credit loads differ between semesters. The second is including Pass/Fail or Credit/No-Credit classes in the credit total without including any grade points for them — this artificially deflates the GPA. The third is forgetting that withdrawals (W) usually do not count, while failed classes (F) count as 0 grade points across the full credit value of the course, dragging the GPA down hard. The fourth is mixing scales: if you have an A− worth 3.7 in your school's scale but enter 3.67 (some schools round) or 4.0 (treating all A grades as identical), the GPA will be slightly off. Finally, AP/honors boosts are inconsistent across schools — confirm your school's exact policy before using a weighted scale.
When should I not use this calculator?
Skip this calculator if your school uses a fundamentally different system — for example, a percentage-based grading scale (common in much of Europe, India, and Asia), a 12.0 scale (common in Canada), or a degree-classification system like the UK's First/Upper Second/Lower Second/Third. Each of these has its own conversion rules and the 4.0-scale GPA is not directly applicable. It is also the wrong tool for figuring out "what grade do I need on the final to get a B?" — for that, use a grade-needed or final-grade calculator that solves for the missing variable. Do not use it for predicting a GPA boost from retaking a failed class, because schools differ on whether the new grade replaces or merely supplements the old one. Finally, this calculator caps the result at the chosen scale max, so for unusual weighted systems where the cap should be higher, set gradeScale accordingly.