GPA Calculator
Work out a term GPA from your courses, a cumulative GPA that folds in everything before this term, or the GPA you need this term to reach a target. Grades can be entered as letters or as percentages, courses can be weighted for honors and AP or IB classes, and pass and withdrawn courses are handled the way registrars handle them: they do not move the GPA. Every result shows its quality points, because a GPA you cannot take apart is a GPA you cannot argue with.
Disclaimer: This calculator gives estimates for general information only. It is not financial, medical or other professional advice. Grading scales and weighting policies differ by school; your institution’s official transcript and handbook are the final word on your GPA.
What this calculator does
A GPA is a weighted average pretending to be a simple one: grades count in proportion to their credits, which is why an A in a one-credit seminar does not rescue a C in a four-credit lecture. This calculator does the full job in three modes. Term mode takes your courses and returns the GPA with every course's quality points shown. Cumulative mode folds this term into your record so far. Target mode works backwards: given your current cumulative GPA and the credits you are about to take, it tells you the term GPA the target requires, and says plainly when the target cannot be reached this term no matter what you score. Grades can be letters or percentages, honors and advanced courses can be weighted, and pass/fail and withdrawn courses are excluded exactly as a registrar excludes them.
How to use it
- One row per course, credits always. Credits are the weights in the average; a row without them cannot be counted and the calculator will ask rather than guess. Course names are optional and only label the results table, which is worth doing when the table is the thing you will argue with, in an advising meeting or a grade appeal.
- Weighted means this specific policy. The weighted scale here adds 0.5 for honors and 1.0 for AP or IB courses, caps any course at 5.0 points, and never boosts an F: a failed course is worth zero however advanced it was. That is the most common policy in US high schools, not the only one. If your school weights differently, run the unweighted scale and treat the weighted figure as an approximation, and check your handbook for the number your transcript will actually carry.
- Percentages convert on the table shown below. Schools slice percentages differently; the conversion used here is the common ten-point scale with plus and minus bands (93 and up is an A, 90 to 92 an A-, and so on). It is printed in full on this page so you can see exactly which letter a percentage became, and if your syllabus uses different cut-offs, enter the letters directly instead.
- Pass and withdrawn courses are listed but not counted. Select P or W and the course appears in the results table marked not counted, with its credits excluded from the GPA, which mirrors transcript practice. Some schools do count a failed pass/fail course; if yours does, enter that one as an F.
- The target solver tells the truth early. A target that needs a 5.2 term GPA on a 4.0 scale is not a challenge, it is an impossibility, and it is better to learn that in October than in May. The solver gives the maximum cumulative GPA a perfect term could produce, so the conversation can move to what is actually achievable: a two-term plan, or a revised target.
- Repeated courses are your school's rule, not this page's. Some institutions replace the first grade, some average both attempts, some count the better one. Enter the attempts the way your school counts them; the limitations section flags this because it changes cumulative figures materially.
How it is calculated
GPA = total quality points / total credits counted, where quality points for a course = grade points x credits. Grade points on the standard 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, D- 0.7, F 0.0. Cumulative GPA combines prior quality points (prior GPA x prior credits) with this term's before dividing by all credits. The target solver inverts the same identity: required term GPA = (target x total credits after this term - prior GPA x prior credits) / new credits. Percentage conversion: A at 93+, A- 90, B+ 87, B 83, B- 80, C+ 77, C 73, C- 70, D+ 67, D 63, D- 60, F below 60.
Worked examples
A typical term: four courses, 3 credits at an A, 4 credits at a B+, 3 credits at an A-, 2 credits at a C. Quality points: 12 + 13.2 + 11.1 + 4 = 40.3 over 12 credits, a GPA of 3.36. Notice the B+ in the 4-credit course does more work than the A- in the 3-credit one; that is the weighting doing exactly what it is supposed to do.
The same term, weighted: make the B+ course an AP course and the A- course an honors course. Their points become 4.3 and 4.2 per credit, quality points rise to 45.8, and the weighted GPA is 3.82 against the same 3.36 unweighted. Both numbers are real; they answer to different transcripts, which is why the page reports the unweighted figure alongside whenever weighting is on.
Folding in a record: a student carrying 3.20 over 60 credits adds the 3.36 term above. Cumulative: (192 + 40.3) / 72 = 3.23. A single strong term moves a long record slowly, and the arithmetic shows why: the old 60 credits outweigh the new 12 by five to one.
Chasing a target: the same student wants 3.30 cumulative after a 15-credit term. Required term GPA: (3.30 x 75 - 192) / 15 = 3.70: demanding, possible. A target of 3.60 would require 5.20, which does not exist on a 4.0 scale; a perfect term caps the cumulative at 3.36. The solver prints both numbers, because "impossible, and here is the ceiling" is more useful than a red error.
Percentages in, letters out: 95, 88 and 74 in three 3-credit courses convert to A, B+ and C, quality points 12 + 9.9 + 6 = 27.9, GPA 3.10.
Reading your result
A GPA is a summary with the detail stripped out, and the quality points table is how you put the detail back. If your GPA surprises you, find the course whose credits multiplied a mediocre grade into a large quality-point loss; it is almost always a high-credit course, not the one-credit elective you have been worrying about. For target planning, read the required term GPA against your recent terms rather than your best one: a plan that needs your best-ever term repeated is a hope, and the same plan over two terms is usually arithmetic.
Limitations
- Scales are local. Some institutions use a 4.3 for an A+, some have no minus grades, some weight AP at +2.0. This page implements the most common US conventions and prints them in full; where your school differs, your school's figures govern, and the unweighted letters mode is the closest neutral ground.
- No GPA-to-percentage conversion is offered, on purpose. There is no official converse of the percentage table: a 3.36 does not "equal" a percentage, and institutions that need one apply their own rule. Tools that print one are inventing it.
- Repeated-course and forgiveness policies are not modelled. Grade replacement, academic renewal and freshman forgiveness all rewrite history in institution-specific ways. Adjust the prior GPA and credits you enter to reflect your school's treatment before using cumulative or target modes.
- Plus and minus grades are assumed. On a straight A-B-C scale, enter the plain letters; the points table used will match.
Frequently asked questions
How is GPA calculated, in one sentence?
Multiply each course's grade points by its credits, add those quality points together, and divide by the total credits: that is the whole formula, and everything else on this page, weighting, cumulative records, target solving, is bookkeeping around it.
What is the difference between weighted and unweighted GPA?
Unweighted treats every course as worth the same per credit on a 4.0 ceiling. Weighted pays a bonus for harder course levels, here +0.5 for honors and +1.0 for AP or IB up to a 5.0 ceiling, so two students with identical letters can carry different weighted GPAs if one took the harder schedule. Colleges recalculate both ways depending on their own policy, which is why serious transcripts report the unweighted figure and the course levels separately.
How many points is an A in a 3-credit course?
Twelve quality points: 4.0 points per credit times 3 credits. The same A in a 4-credit course is 16, which is the entire reason credits are in the formula. When students say a class "killed their GPA", it is nearly always a high-credit class with a low grade, and the quality points table in the results shows the damage course by course.
Can a GPA above 4.0 be real?
Yes, on a weighted scale, where AP and IB bonuses push the ceiling to 5.0. On an unweighted scale 4.0 is the maximum, because an A is the highest grade and worth 4.0 per credit. If a tool or a transcript shows 4.4, it is weighted, and comparing it against an unweighted 4.0 from another school without knowing that is meaningless.
Related calculators
Method: quality points (grade points x credits) summed over counted courses, divided by counted credits; weighting +0.5 honors and +1.0 AP or IB capped at 5.0 with no boost on a failing grade; pass and withdrawn courses excluded; cumulative and target figures derived from the same identity. Grade-point scale and percentage conversion bands as printed on this page. Last reviewed: 13 October 2026.