GPA Calculator

A grade point average is a weighted mean, not a plain one — and that single fact explains most of the confusion around it. A B in a four–credit lab pulls on your average roughly four times as hard as an A in a one–credit seminar, so scanning a transcript and guessing almost always gives the wrong number. This calculator does what a registrar does: it converts each letter grade into grade points, weights each course by its credit hours, and divides.

How the calculation works

Each letter grade maps to a fixed number of grade points on a 4.0 scale. Multiply that by the course's credit hours to get the course's quality points. Your GPA is the sum of all quality points divided by the sum of all credit hours:

• Quality points for a course = grade points × credit hours
• GPA = total quality points ÷ total credit hours

The scale built into this tool is the common plus/minus 4.0 scale: 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, F = 0.0.

The five sample courses on the page show this in action. Mathematics (A, 3 credits) contributes 12.0 quality points, English (B+, 3) contributes 9.9, Physics (A−, 4) contributes 14.8, History (B, 3) contributes 9.0, and Computer Science (A, 3) contributes 12.0 — 57.7 points across 16 credit hours, or 3.60625, displayed as 3.61. Drop the four-credit Physics course from A− to B and the average falls to 3.43. The same 0.7-point slip in a three-credit course would cost you a quarter less, purely because it carries fewer credit hours. That asymmetry is the whole point of credit weighting.

Weighted versus unweighted — and which one this gives you

“Weighted” means two different things, and mixing them up is the most common GPA mistake:

• Credit-hour weighting. Courses count in proportion to their credit hours. This calculator always does this, and so does essentially every college transcript.
• Course-difficulty weighting. Many high schools add a bonus to honors, AP, IB or dual-enrolment courses, so an A might count as 4.5 or 5.0 instead of 4.0. This calculator does not apply difficulty bonuses — its grade menu stops at A = 4.0.

So the figure you get here is an unweighted, credit-weighted GPA. If your school publishes a weighted GPA, use this number as your unweighted baseline and then apply your school's published bonus on top, because the size of that bonus and the courses it covers are set locally and vary widely.

Why the scale itself differs between institutions

There is no single national GPA standard, so two students with identical report cards can end up with different averages. The differences that matter most:

• A+ handling. Some institutions award 4.3 or 4.33 for an A+; many cap every A-range grade at 4.0. This tool has no A+ option, so it follows the capped convention.
• Plus/minus grading. Some schools record whole letters only, where a B+ counts as a flat 3.0 rather than 3.3. If that is your school, choose the whole letter here and ignore the plus and minus entries.
• D− and other low grades. Some scales include a D− at 0.7. This one does not; the lowest passing option is D at 1.0.
• Excluded grades. Pass/fail, credit/no-credit, audited, transferred and withdrawn courses often earn credit without entering the GPA at all. Leave them out.
• Repeated courses. Some schools replace the original grade, others average both attempts, others keep both on the transcript but count only one.

Your registrar's office or student handbook is the authority on all five points. For the financial side of the same decisions, the college cost calculator and scholarship eligibility checker cover the money rather than the grades.

How to use the GPA calculator

1. Start from the five sample courses already on the page. Overwrite them with your own, or press Reset at any point to bring the samples back.
2. Type a course name in the first field. Names are labels only — they never affect the result.
3. Pick the letter grade from the dropdown. The eleven options run from A down to F, including the plus and minus grades listed above.
4. Enter the credit hours in the third field. It accepts whole numbers from 0 to 10.
5. Press Add Course for each additional course, or the red × to delete a row. Deleting the last remaining row leaves one blank row rather than emptying the list.
6. Read the large number at the top. It recalculates the moment you change a grade or a credit value and is rounded to two decimal places. The coloured line beneath it is a rough letter band, not a separate calculation.

One useful quirk: a course entered with 0 credits is skipped entirely, dropping out of both the points total and the credit total. That makes it a tidy way to keep a pass/fail course in your list without letting it distort the average.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this calculate a weighted AP or honors GPA?

No. It applies credit-hour weighting but no difficulty bonus, because the grade menu tops out at 4.0. Use the result as your unweighted GPA and add your school's published honors or AP bonus separately.

Why is there no A+ option?

The built-in scale caps the A range at 4.0, which is how many institutions treat an A+. If your school awards 4.3 for an A+, this calculator will slightly understate your average whenever you have one.

How do I work out a cumulative GPA across several semesters?

Enter every course from every term into the same list. Because the formula divides total quality points by total credit hours, one long list produces the correct cumulative figure. Averaging your separate term GPAs together does not, unless every term carried exactly the same number of credits.

My school uses half credits. What do I enter?

The credits field stores whole numbers, so a fractional entry gets truncated. Double every course's credits instead — a 1.5-credit course becomes 3, a 3-credit course becomes 6. Only the ratio between courses affects the result, so the GPA comes out identical.

Will this match my official transcript exactly?

Often, but not always. Differences usually trace back to a different institutional scale, repeated-course policies, pass/fail and transfer credits, or rounding rules. Treat this as a close estimate and your transcript as the record of fact.

Can I use it for high school as well as college?

Yes, for an unweighted average. Enter each class with the credit value your school assigns it; if every class carries equal credit, the result is simply the mean of the grade points.