GPA Calculator
Calculate your GPA from grade points and credit hours per course, with a full quality-points breakdown and step-by-step working shown.
The GPA formula
Grade point average is a weighted average: every course's grade point counts in proportion to how many credit hours it's worth, not equally.
Each grade × credits pair is called that course's quality points. Add up every course's quality points, add up every course's credit hours, then divide — the result is the GPA.
Letter grade to 4.0 scale
Convert a letter grade to grade points before entering it. This is a common U.S. scale; confirm your school's exact version, since some schools skip plus/minus grades or use slightly different values (see FAQ below).
| Letter | Grade points | Letter | Grade points |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 4.0 | C | 2.0 |
| A- | 3.7 | C- | 1.7 |
| B+ | 3.3 | D+ | 1.3 |
| B | 3.0 | D | 1.0 |
| B- | 2.7 | D- | 0.7 |
| C+ | 2.3 | F | 0.0 |
Worked example
Three courses: an A (4.0) worth 3 credits, a B (3.0) worth 4 credits, and an A- (3.7) worth 3 credits.
- Quality points per course: 4.0 × 3 = 12, 3.0 × 4 = 12, 3.7 × 3 = 11.1
- Total quality points: 12 + 12 + 11.1 = 35.1
- Total credits: 3 + 4 + 3 = 10
- GPA: 35.1 ÷ 10 = 3.51
Term GPA vs. cumulative GPA
This calculator doesn't distinguish between a single term and a full academic career — the formula is identical either way, only the list of rows changes:
- Term GPA: enter only the courses from one semester or quarter.
- Cumulative GPA: enter every course from every term you've completed, all as rows in the same list. Because quality points and credit hours simply add up across terms, running every course through this one formula gives the same cumulative GPA a registrar's office would compute.
Common mix-ups
- Forgetting to weight by credits. Averaging the letter grades themselves (ignoring credit hours) is not GPA — a 1-credit A and a 4-credit A should not count equally.
- Including courses with no grade points. Pass/fail, audit, and some transfer courses often don't carry grade points and should be left out of the row list entirely (see FAQ).
- Mixing grading scales. A grade point from a 4.3-scale school doesn't mean the same thing as one from a 4.0-scale school — keep every row's numbers on the same scale.
Where this shows up
Students use GPA to track academic standing, qualify for scholarships or honors, and meet program admission requirements; schools use the same weighted-average formula to compute official transcripts. For a broader look at central-tendency measures beyond a weighted average, see mean, median, and mode; for scoring a single assignment or test rather than a full term, see the grade calculator and final grade calculator.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I calculate my GPA by hand?
- Multiply each course's grade point (on a 4.0 scale) by its credit hours to get that course's "quality points." Add up the quality points for every course, add up the credit hours for every course, then divide total quality points by total credit hours. That final number is your GPA.
- Why does a 3-credit A count for more than a 1-credit A?
- GPA is a weighted average, not a plain average — each course counts in proportion to its credit hours. A 3-credit course contributes three times as many quality points as a 1-credit course with the same grade, so it pulls the overall average further in that grade's direction. Two courses with the same letter grade are not equally "worth" the same to your GPA unless they also have equal credits.
- What is the difference between term GPA and cumulative GPA?
- Term GPA only weighs the courses from a single semester or quarter. Cumulative GPA weighs every course you've ever taken, across every term, using the same formula — total quality points across all terms divided by total credit hours across all terms. Enter every course you want included as one row list to get a cumulative figure; enter just one term's courses for a term GPA.
- Do all schools use the same 4.0 letter-grade scale?
- No — the table on this page shows a common U.S. 4.0 scale, but schools vary in whether they use plus/minus grades (A- = 3.7 vs. some schools' A- = 3.67), how they weight honors or AP courses, and whether a D still earns credit. Always check your own institution's official grading policy and enter the grade points it assigns, not just the scale shown here.
- What happens if I enter 0 credit hours for a course?
- A course with 0 credit hours contributes 0 quality points and 0 to the credit total, so it has no effect on the GPA either way — the same as leaving it out entirely. If every row has 0 total credits, there's nothing to divide by, and the calculator shows an error instead of a result.
- Can I include a pass/fail or audited course?
- Only if your school assigns it grade points — many pass/fail and audited courses are excluded from GPA entirely and carry no grade points, so they should not be entered as a row here. Check your transcript or registrar's policy; if a course did not receive a letter grade that counts toward GPA, leave it out.