GPA Calculator
GPA is a credit-weighted average, not a plain one — a B in a four-credit course moves it twice as far as a B in a two-credit course. Weighted and unweighted are shown together because schools and colleges use both.
Your Courses
One course per line: name, grade, credits, level.
Credits are the weights
GPA is total quality points divided by total credits. Quality points for a course are its grade point value times its credit hours, so a four-credit course carries twice the influence of a two-credit one. This is why dropping a low grade in a heavy course moves a GPA far more than improving a light one, and why the averaging is never a simple mean of the letters.
Weighted GPA and its limits
Most US high schools add 0.5 for honours and 1.0 for AP or IB, so an A in AP is worth 5.0 on a 4.0 scale. Schemes vary widely, which is exactly why colleges frequently recalculate GPA themselves using their own weighting — or use the unweighted figure — to compare applicants across schools. Both figures are shown above for that reason.
Plus and minus grades
This page uses the common scale where A = 4.0, A− = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0 and so on. Some institutions do not use plus and minus at all, and a few cap A+ at 4.0 rather than 4.3. Check which scale applies before comparing a computed GPA against a published cut-off.
Credit hours, not courses, are what the average is built from
A grade point average weights each grade by the credit hours attached to the course, which is why a B in a 4-credit lab moves the average more than an A in a 1-credit seminar. Averaging letter grades directly, as if each course counted equally, is the single most common way a hand-calculated GPA drifts away from the official transcript figure. The same logic governs a cumulative GPA: it is recomputed from every credit hour ever attempted, not averaged from each term's GPA.
Institutions differ on the details, and the differences are material. Some use plus and minus modifiers and some do not; some cap an A+ at 4.0 while others award 4.3; transfer credits commonly count towards the degree but are excluded from the GPA; and repeated courses may be replaced, averaged, or both depending on the policy. Weighted high school scales add 0.5 for honours and 1.0 for AP or IB, which is why a weighted GPA can exceed 4.0 while the unweighted figure cannot.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is GPA calculated?
What is the difference between weighted and unweighted GPA?
How do I calculate cumulative GPA?
Does an A+ count as more than an A?
Sources
Official publications only. Links open the original document in a new tab.
- U.S. Department of Education Department of Education US Department of Education