GPA is a weighted average, not an average of grades
This is the part that trips people up. Your grade point average is not the mean of your letter grades — it is the mean weighted by credits. Each course contributes its grade points multiplied by its credit hours, and the total is divided by the total credits taken.
The practical effect is that a five-credit course moves your GPA far more than a one-credit one. An A in a one-credit seminar does not offset a C in a four-credit core class, and averaging the two letters as if they were equal is the single most common way people miscalculate their own GPA. It also means the fastest way to protect a GPA is to put the effort where the credits are.
Using this GPA calculator
Each row is one course: enter its credit hours and pick its letter grade. Two rows are shown to start with, and Add course reveals more, up to twelve. Rows you leave blank are ignored entirely — an empty row is a course you have not entered, not a zero, so adding rows never drags your average down on its own.
Along with the GPA you get your total credits, your total grade points, and how many courses were actually counted. That last figure is a useful sanity check: if you entered six courses and it says four, two rows are missing a credit value or a grade.
One setting sits in the customize panel: what an A+ is worth. This is the one genuinely contested value in the whole scale. Many registrars cap at 4.0, so an A+ and an A are identical; others award 4.3 and allow a GPA above 4.0. Neither is wrong — check your own school's catalogue and set it to match, because on a transcript with several A+ grades the difference is substantial.
The 4.0 scale, and the formula worked through
The standard plus/minus scale runs 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. Multiply each by the course's credits, add them up, divide by total credits.
Say you took four courses: a 3-credit A, a 4-credit B+, a 3-credit A− and a 3-credit B. The grade points are 3 × 4.0 = 12, 4 × 3.3 = 13.2, 3 × 3.7 = 11.1 and 3 × 3.0 = 9 — 45.3 points across 13 credits. Divide and you get a GPA of 3.48.
Note what the weighting did there. The B+ was the lowest grade of the four and also the heaviest course, so it pulled hardest. Swap its credits with the A−'s and the same four letters produce a different number.
Semester GPA, cumulative GPA, and what this page does not cover
A semester GPA covers one term; a cumulative GPA covers everything you have taken. This calculator produces whichever you enter — put in one term's courses for a semester GPA, or every course you have ever taken for a cumulative one. There is no separate mode, because it is the same arithmetic over a longer list.
Two things it deliberately does not model. Weighted high-school scales, where an AP or honours course is graded out of 5.0, are a different system and would need a different set of grade points. And institution-specific rules — pass/fail courses excluded from the average, repeated courses where only the later attempt counts, transfer credits that carry hours but no grade points — vary too much to guess at. Leave those courses out and the number will match your transcript.
If your institution uses the 10-point scale and averages whole semesters instead, the CGPA calculator is the right tool.
FAQ
How is GPA calculated?
Multiply each course's grade points by its credits, add those up, and divide by the total credits. Courses worth more credits pull the average harder — that's the whole point of weighting.
| Course | Credits | Grade | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | A (4.0) | 12.0 |
| 2 | 3 | B+ (3.3) | 9.9 |
| 3 | 4 | A− (3.7) | 14.8 |
| 4 | 3 | B (3.0) | 9.0 |
| 13 credits | 45.7 | ||
45.7 ÷ 13 = a GPA of 3.52. Averaging the four grade points instead would give 3.50 — close here, wrong in general.
What are the grade points for each letter?
The standard 4.0 scale, with plus/minus grading:
| Grade | Points | Grade | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| A+ | 4.0 or 4.3 | C+ | 2.3 |
| 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 |
| F | 0.0 | ||
A+ is the only disputed one. Plenty of schools cap the scale at 4.0, so an A+ is simply an A; others award 4.3, which is how a GPA above 4.0 happens without honours weighting. Set it in the customize panel to match your transcript.
What counts as a good GPA?
Context decides it, but the rough bands most US institutions work with:
Many programmes require a 2.0 to stay in good standing, and scholarships often sit at 3.0 or 3.5. A 3.0 in a hard major is not the same as a 3.0 in an easy one, and admissions committees know it.
Do I include failed or withdrawn courses?
An F usually counts: zero grade points, but its credits still land in the denominator, which is exactly why one F hurts so much. A withdrawal (W) normally doesn't count either way — no points, no credits.
Pass/fail courses are typically excluded from GPA entirely. Retakes vary: some schools replace the original grade, others average both attempts. Leave a course's credits at 0 here to keep it out of the calculation.
How do I raise my GPA?
Slowly, and it gets harder every term. Each new grade is weighted against every credit you've already earned, so a single A moves a 60-credit transcript far less than it moved a 12-credit one.
Averaging several terms together is a different calculation — see the CGPA Calculator, which weights whole semesters instead of individual courses.