How GPA is calculated on a 4.0 scale

Unweighted GPA on this page is quality points divided by credits. A quality point is the letter’s value times the credits for that course. Weighted GPA uses the same credits and adds a bump before the multiplication: honors adds 0.5 and AP/IB adds 1.0. An F stays at 0 even if you mark the course honors or AP. The bump is not applied to a zero.

This is a planning scale, not a transcript. Schools publish their own tables. A college that treats A− as 3.67, or that caps a weighted GPA at 5.0 in a different way, will not match this page. The grade calculator is a different tool. It weights assignment scores inside one course. It does not average courses into a GPA.

Letters map like this: A+ and A are 4.0, A− is 3.7, B+ is 3.3, B is 3.0, B− is 2.7, C+ is 2.3, C is 2.0, C− is 1.7, D+ is 1.3, D is 1.0, D− is 0.7, and F is 0. A percent uses the same points with these cutoffs: 93 and up is 4.0, 90 is 3.7, 87 is 3.3, 83 is 3.0, 80 is 2.7, 77 is 2.3, 73 is 2.0, 70 is 1.7, 67 is 1.3, 63 is 1.0, 60 is 0.7, and anything under 60 is 0. A percent of 150 is allowed. A percent above 150 is refused.

93% is 4.0. 92% is 3.7, because 92 is below the 93 cutoff and still at least 90. An F marked AP stays 0 weighted points. One credit of each of those three grades is (4 + 3.7 + 0) / 3 = 2.5667 both unweighted and weighted, since the only bump would have been on the F and the F does not receive it.

Take an A for 3 credits on the regular row, a B+ for 3 credits on honors, and a C for 4 credits on AP/IB. Unweighted points are 4 × 3 = 12, plus 3.3 × 3 = 9.9, plus 2 × 4 = 8. The sum is 29.9. Credits are 10. Unweighted GPA is 29.9 / 10 = 2.99.

Weighted points are 4 × 3 = 12 for the A, (3.3 + 0.5) × 3 = 11.4 for the honors B+, and (2 + 1) × 4 = 12 for the AP C. The sum is 35.4. Weighted GPA is 35.4 / 10 = 3.54. The honors bump and the AP bump are why 3.54 is higher than 2.99. They are not a second average of the letter grades alone.

If you also type an earlier GPA of 3.5 on 20 credits, the cumulative figure mixes that history with the new unweighted points, not the weighted ones. Earlier quality points are 3.5 × 20 = 70. Add 29.9 and you have 99.9. Credits are 20 + 10 = 30. Cumulative GPA is 99.9 / 30 = 3.33. Leave both earlier boxes blank and the cumulative line stays off. Filling only one of them is refused.

Earlier GPA has to sit from 0 to 5. Earlier credits and the new credits each have to be greater than zero. One course is limited to 40 credits. The new courses together are limited to 1,000 credits, and earlier credits are limited to 1,000 as well. A blank row is skipped. A row with a grade and no credits, or credits and no grade, stops the calculation.

If your handbook uses plus and minus differently, compute one course by hand from the handbook and compare it with this page before you average a semester. A mismatch means the tables differ. It does not mean the division failed. Quality points divided by credits is the whole average once the points are chosen.

The page does not store the courses. A refresh clears them unless you kept the numbers in the address hash the calculator uses for the fields you changed. The result is not an official record and not advice about probation, scholarships, or admission. Those decisions use the registrar’s number.

The unweighted points are 12 + 9.9 + 8 = 29.9. Dividing by 10 credits prints as 2.99 after the page keeps four decimal places and drops trailing zeros. The weighted points are 12 + 11.4 + 12 = 35.4, and 35.4 / 10 prints as 3.54. A phone calculator should agree. If it does not, a bump was omitted or a credit was typed on the wrong row.

The cumulative 3.33 is (3.5 × 20 + 29.9) / 30. 3.5 × 20 is 70. 70 + 29.9 is 99.9. 99.9 / 30 is 3.33. That mix uses unweighted points. The page will not substitute the weighted 35.4. The earlier GPA is a single number you type. It is not split back into honors and AP.

92.9 percent is still in the 90 band, so it is 3.7, the same as 90. 93.0 is 4.0. There is no 3.85 on this page between those two cutoffs. 59.9 is 0. 60 is 0.7. A school that calls 90 an A and 80 a B, with no minus grades, is using another table. Enter the letter your school already assigned when you have one. Use the percent bands only when you have a percent and no letter.

Credits may be a fraction the parser accepts, such as 0.5, when the credit is greater than zero and the course does not exceed 40. A 4.0 on 0.5 credits contributes 2 quality points. The average divides by total credits, so a half-credit A moves the GPA less than a 4-credit A.

Change the 4-credit C to a 4-credit regular B and leave the A and the honors B+ in place. A regular B is 3.0, so the unweighted points are 12 + 9.9 + 12 = 33.9. Divided by 10 credits that is 3.39. The previous unweighted GPA was 2.99. Four credits of movement from C to B raised the average by 0.40. The same letter change on a 1-credit course would add 1 point, and 30.9 / 10 = 3.09, a rise of 0.10.

A low grade in a high-credit course dominates. Weighted results move as well, unless the grade is an F, which never receives the honors or AP bump. Count the credits before you treat a single letter as the whole semester. The grade calculator still does not do this job. It mixes assignment scores inside one course and does not know a cumulative GPA.

Enter only A and 3 credits on the regular row. Unweighted and weighted are both 4, because there is no bump and the only points are 4 × 3 divided by 3. Add a second row, F and 3 credits marked AP. Unweighted points are 12 + 0 = 12. Credits are 6. The GPA is 2. Weighted points stay 12 because the F does not gain the AP point, so the weighted GPA is also 2. That single check tells you the bump rule is the one on this page.

If your school gives an AP F a point anyway, do not use the weighted line. Use the unweighted line, or do the division from the handbook. The page will not switch tables.