What Is a GPA Calculator?
A GPA calculator (grade point average calculator) is a tool that converts your course grades and credit hours into a single number on a 4.0 scale. Students use GPA calculators to track academic progress, plan for future semesters, and determine eligibility for honors, scholarships, and graduate programs.
This free online GPA calculator lets you add unlimited courses with credit hours and letter grades (A+ through F). It calculates your semester GPA instantly and includes a cumulative GPA tab to combine your current semester with previous semesters.
Whether you need a college GPA calculator for a single semester or a cumulative GPA calculator to track your entire academic career, this tool handles it instantly. The formula is simple: GPA = Sum(Grade Points x Credits) / Sum(Credits). This calculator does that math for you in real time.
How to Improve Your GPA
Use the what-if feature to experiment: change grades on courses to see how different outcomes would affect your GPA. Focus on courses with more credit hours — improving a 4-credit course from a B to an A has twice the impact of improving a 2-credit course.
Need help studying more effectively? Our Grade Calculator helps you track individual test scores, and our AI Quiz Maker generates practice quizzes from any study material to help you prepare for exams.
Exactly how this calculator works out your GPA
Every course row turns into grade points using the standard 4.0 table below. The calculator multiplies those points by the course's credits to get its quality points, adds up the quality points and the credits of every counted course, and divides one by the other:
GPA = total quality points ÷ total credits counted
| Letter | Grade points |
|---|---|
| A+ | 4.0 (or 4.3) |
| 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 |
An A+ counts as 4.0 unless you switch “A+ is worth” to 4.3 in the scale settings. If you would rather type percentages than letters, set “Enter grades as” to Percentages. Each percentage becomes the highest letter whose minimum it reaches; the default minimums for A+ down to D- are 97, 93, 90, 87, 83, 80, 77, 73, 70, 67, 63 and 60, and anything below 60 is an F. So 88 is a B+, 92.5 is an A- and 59.9 is an F. You can change every cutoff to match your school's scale.
What counts and what does not
- Courses marked Pass/Fail are left out of both the credits and the quality points.
- A row with 0 or no credits is left out, and so is a percent row with no number in it.
- Credits can be fractional, so half-credit courses work.
Weighted GPA
Next to the unweighted GPA the calculator shows a weighted one. Courses marked Honors get a bonus of 0.5 points and courses marked AP / IB / Dual get 1.0, unless you change the bonus values in the settings. Two rules apply: an F gets no bonus at all, and by default a course's weighted points are capped at 5.0 (you can turn the cap off). With A+ set to 4.3, an A+ in an AP course would otherwise be 5.3; the cap makes it 5.0.
Both figures are shown to three decimal places, rounded. The letter beside the unweighted GPA is a rough guide that uses the midpoints between grades: 3.85 and above shows as A, 3.5 as A-, 3.15 as B+, 2.85 as B, and so on down. It is not an official conversion.
A worked example you can check
Enter these five courses on the Semester GPA tab (the numbers below are exactly what the calculator produces):
| Course | Credits | Grade | Level | Points | Weighted | Quality points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | 3 | A- | Regular | 3.7 | 3.7 | 11.1 |
| Chemistry | 4 | B+ | Honors | 3.3 | 3.8 | 13.2 |
| US History | 3 | B | AP | 3.0 | 4.0 | 9.0 |
| Spanish | 3 | C+ | Regular | 2.3 | 2.3 | 6.9 |
| PE | 1 | Pass | Pass/Fail | – | – | not counted |
Counted credits are 3 + 4 + 3 + 3 = 13 (PE is pass/fail, so its credit is left out). Quality points are 11.1 + 13.2 + 9.0 + 6.9 = 40.2. The unweighted GPA is 40.2 ÷ 13 = 3.0923…, shown as 3.092, with B beside it. For the weighted GPA, Chemistry counts 3.8 × 4 = 15.2 and US History 4.0 × 3 = 12.0, so the weighted quality points are 11.1 + 15.2 + 12.0 + 6.9 = 45.2, and 45.2 ÷ 13 = 3.4769…, shown as 3.477. Under the result you will see “13 credit hours” and “40.2 quality points”.
Adding earlier semesters
Switch to the Cumulative GPA tab and enter a previous GPA of 3.25 over 30 credits. The calculator treats that as 3.25 × 30 = 97.5 quality points and adds it to this term: 137.7 quality points over 43 credits, so the cumulative GPA is 137.7 ÷ 43 = 3.202. The previous GPA is added unchanged to the weighted total too, giving 142.7 ÷ 43 = 3.319. Because it cannot tell whether the figure you typed was weighted, enter the unweighted GPA from your transcript if you want the unweighted result to be accurate.
Planning for a target
Open “Plan for a target GPA” and enter a target of 3.3 with 15 credits next term. The planner works out the average you would need in those credits: (3.3 × (43 + 15) − 137.7) ÷ 15 = (191.4 − 137.7) ÷ 15 = 3.58, which it describes as about an A-. It always uses the unweighted GPA. If the answer is above the top of the scale (4.0, or 4.3 when A+ is set to 4.3) it tells you the target is not reachable with those credits; if the answer is zero or less, you are already there.
Making it match your school
- Copy your school's scale into the settings. The A+ value, the Honors and AP bonuses, the 5.0 cap and every percentage cutoff can be changed. They are saved in this browser along with your courses.
- Check how your school treats A+. Some scales count it as 4.0, others as 4.3. The choice changes both your GPA and what the planner treats as the maximum.
- Use credits, not class periods. If every course at your school is worth the same, any equal number works. If not, the credits are what make a 4-credit lab count for more than a 1-credit elective.
Common mistakes
- Counting pass/fail credits in “previous credits”. On the Cumulative GPA tab, enter only the credits that went into your previous GPA, or the result will be pulled down.
- Mixing weighted and unweighted figures. A weighted previous GPA entered on the Cumulative GPA tab makes the “unweighted” result include bonuses it should not.
- Expecting a retake to replace the old grade. The calculator cannot remove a course from a previous GPA. If your school replaces retaken grades, start from the transcript's own figures.
- Reading the letter as official. The letter beside the GPA is a midpoint guide, not your registrar's conversion.
Limits
This is an unofficial calculator. Your school or college's figure is the one that counts, and some institutions round differently, truncate rather than round, or weight only certain grades. Nothing you enter leaves your device: the calculator does the arithmetic in your browser and saves your courses in this browser's storage, so they are still there when you come back.
A GPA tells you how a term went, not which topics you are unsure of. To find those before the final, short self-check quizzes work better; see how to use quizzes for self-assessment and why retrieval practice helps you remember.