GPA Calculator — Weighted and Unweighted GPA — USA 2026

GPA Calculator

How to Use This Calculator

Enter your values in the fields above and the calculator will compute results instantly as you type. You can adjust any input to compare different scenarios. All calculations happen in your browser — no data is sent to any server and nothing is stored. Use the share buttons below the results to save or send your calculations via WhatsApp, Twitter, or by copying the link. For related calculations, check the suggested tools in the "What to calculate next" section below.

The 4.0 Grade-Point Scale, Grade by Grade

The standard US 4.0 scale assigns A and 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 and F 0.0. Those are the values the calculator above uses, and they are the most common mapping at American high schools and colleges. Notice the gaps are not even: sliding from an A to an A- costs 0.3 grade points, while sliding from a C- to a D+ costs 0.4. That is why one minus sign moves a GPA more than students expect. Plus/minus policy genuinely varies, and this is where a calculator can quietly disagree with your transcript. Some schools award no plus or minus at all and record only A, B, C, D and F, so every A is a flat 4.0. Some use plus/minus but cap A+ at 4.0 — Purdue, for example, awards both A+ and A 4.0 grade points. Others run a 4.3 scale where A+ is worth 4.3; the University of Michigan School of Social Work does exactly that, then caps the reported cumulative GPA at 4.0. When the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents approved plus/minus grading for UGA, it set A at 4.0 and A- at 3.7 — but UGA awards no A+ and no D+ or D-, so its scale is shorter than the table above. Your course catalog is the place to confirm which version applies to you.

How Credit Hours Change the Answer: A Worked Example

Credit hours are the weights in a weighted average, and they routinely shift a GPA by a fifth of a point. The arithmetic is simple: grade points for a course equal the grade value times the credit hours, and your GPA is total grade points divided by total credit hours. Take a real five-course semester. Chemistry, 4 credits, C (2.0). Calculus, 4 credits, B (3.0). Writing, 3 credits, A (4.0). History, 3 credits, A- (3.7). Lab, 1 credit, A (4.0). A plain average of those five grade values is (2.0 + 3.0 + 4.0 + 3.7 + 4.0) divided by 5, or 3.34. The credit-weighted GPA is not the same number: 8.0 + 12.0 + 12.0 + 11.1 + 4.0 = 47.1 grade points, divided by 15 credits, or 3.14. That 0.20 gap comes entirely from the two weakest grades sitting in the heaviest courses. The rule generalizes cleanly — a C in a 4-credit course hurts four times as much as a C in a 1-credit lab, and an easy A in a 1-credit seminar rescues far less than it feels like it should. Enter your actual credit values in the calculator above rather than leaving everything at 1.

Weighted vs Unweighted GPA, and What the Bumps Actually Do

Unweighted GPA caps every course at 4.0 no matter how hard it was: an A in remedial algebra and an A in AP Calculus BC are both 4.0. Weighted GPA adds a difficulty bump before averaging. The most common convention is +0.5 for Honors and +1.0 for AP and IB Higher Level, so an A in an AP course is worth 5.0 and a B in that same AP course is worth 4.0 — equal to an A in a regular class. That is why weighted GPAs above 4.0 are ordinary, and why a weighted 4.3 tells you nothing on its own until you know how many advanced courses produced it. There is no national standard for these bumps. Many districts weight IB Standard Level at +0.5 instead of +1.0, some count dual-enrollment college courses as AP-equivalent and others as Honors-level, and a few run three-tier scales where regular tops out at 4.0, Honors at 5.0 and AP/IB at 6.0. The calculator above reports both figures side by side using the +0.5 and +1.0 convention, because admissions readers want the pair: the unweighted number to compare you against everyone else, the weighted number to show you chose the harder schedule. Many selective colleges recalculate applicant GPAs on their own internal scale regardless.

Why Raising Your GPA Slows Down Every Semester

Raising a GPA is an averaging problem, and averages get stubborn as the denominator grows. The formula is new GPA = (current GPA times credits completed, plus new grade points) divided by (credits completed plus new credits). Follow one student through it. A 2.80 across 30 credits equals 84.0 grade points. A perfect 4.0 semester of 15 credits adds 60 points: (84 + 60) divided by 45 = 3.20, a 0.40 jump. Repeat that same flawless semester at 45 credits and you get (144 + 60) divided by 60 = 3.40, only 0.20 more. A third gets you 3.52, a fourth 3.60. Identical effort, shrinking returns, because each new semester is a smaller slice of a bigger total. Two things follow. Early semesters are worth far more than late ones, so a rough first year is the highest-value thing to address and the reason not to wait. And grade replacement can move a GPA faster than a strong new semester: swapping an F (0.0) for a B (3.0) in a 4-credit course adds 12 grade points without adding a single credit to the denominator. Whether your school replaces the original grade or averages both is a school-specific policy. Model both versions in the calculator above before committing a semester to a plan.

Your Registrar’s Scale Governs, Not This Calculator

This page gives you an estimate on the standard 4.0 scale. Your registrar’s scale is the one that governs, and the two can disagree for reasons that have nothing to do with arithmetic. Here is where they usually diverge. Pass/fail and credit/no-credit courses normally carry credit hours but no grade points, so they leave the GPA untouched rather than counting as a 4.0. A withdrawal recorded as W typically does not count, while an F from an unofficial withdrawal does. Transfer work often brings the credit hours across but not the grade points, so a 3.9 earned at another institution may not lift your GPA at the new one at all. Plus/minus handling varies, and so does whether A+ is 4.0 or 4.3. Many programs also compute a separate major GPA next to the cumulative one, and eligibility rules sometimes apply to whichever is lower. The thresholds that decide real outcomes are institutional too. A cumulative 2.00 is the near-universal line for good academic standing, but Latin honors cutoffs range widely — many schools put cum laude near 3.5, some set it as low as 3.2, and others award honors by class percentile rather than a fixed GPA. Use the calculator above to plan and to check your own math, then confirm against your official transcript and catalog.