GPA Calculator

GPA = Σ(pointsᵢ × creditsᵢ) ÷ Σcreditsᵢ

pointsᵢ

The grade point of the i-th course — a number on your school's scale, not a letter grade. On a 4.0 scale an A is 4.0 and an F is 0. The grade scale selector above sets the largest value this page will accept, so a mistyped 4.5 on a 4.0 scale is caught instead of quietly inflating the answer

creditsᵢ

The credit hours of the same course. This is the weight: a four-credit course moves the GPA twice as far as a two-credit one, and a course worth zero credits does not move it at all

Σcreditsᵢ

Total credit hours, printed in the result. It is the divisor — not the number of courses, and that one difference is what separates a GPA from a plain average of the same grade points

scale

The top of the grade scale you are on: 4.0, 4.3 or 5.0. It never enters the arithmetic itself; it sets the upper bound on each grade point and the denominator of the percentage printed beside the result

GPA

The credit-weighted average of the grade points, somewhere between 0 and your scale's top. The quality points printed below are Σ(pointsᵢ × creditsᵢ), so dividing them by the credit total reproduces this number

A GPA is asked for on applications, scholarship forms, transfer credit checks and some internship listings, and it is also the quickest way to see what a term did to your record. Use this page to check a GPA already printed on a transcript, to work one out from the grade points your school reports, or to answer the question the weighted mean is really about: how far one heavy course moved the number. The two averages sit side by side here, so the effect of credit weighting is visible rather than argued about — with equal credits they come out identical. If all you have is letter grades or percentages, convert them with your own school's table first: those tables differ between schools, and this page deliberately does not invent one.

1. Five courses, 15 credits: GPA 3.65 against an unweighted 3.6

   1. Quality points: 4 × 3 + 3.7 × 4 + 3.3 × 3 + 3 × 2 + 4 × 3 = 12 + 14.8 + 9.9 + 6 + 12 = 54.7
   2. Credit total: 3 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 3 = 15
   3. GPA: 54.7 ÷ 15 = 3.6467, printed as 3.65
   4. Unweighted average of the same points: (4 + 3.7 + 3.3 + 3 + 4) ÷ 5 = 18 ÷ 5 = 3.6
   5. Share of the 4.0 scale: 3.6467 ÷ 4 = 91.2%

   The two averages differ by 0.05, and everything in that 0.05 comes from one course: the 3.7 is worth four credits while the 3.0 is worth two. Had the credits been swapped, the weighted GPA would have come out below the unweighted one. This is the whole reason a GPA is not just an average of your grades.

2. A zero-credit course: 4.0 weighted, 3.0 unweighted

   1. Quality points: 4 × 3 + 2 × 0 = 12 + 0 = 12
   2. Credit total: 3 + 0 = 3
   3. GPA: 12 ÷ 3 = 4 — the second course contributed nothing to the numerator and nothing to the divisor
   4. Unweighted average: (4 + 2) ÷ 2 = 3, because a plain average has no way to know the course was worth no credits

   Zero-credit courses exist — labs, some seminars, pass/fail add-ons — and a weight of zero means exactly that: the course is listed, its grade point is counted in the plain average, and it leaves the GPA untouched. The credit total prints 3 rather than 2 courses, which is why it is printed at all.

3. The same list on a 5.0 scale: GPA 4.36

   1. Quality points: 4.5 × 2 + 5 × 3 + 3.8 × 4 = 9 + 15 + 15.2 = 39.2
   2. Credit total: 2 + 3 + 4 = 9
   3. GPA: 39.2 ÷ 9 = 4.3556, printed as 4.36
   4. Share of the 5.0 top: 4.3556 ÷ 5 = 87.1%
   5. Set the scale back to 4.0 and this list is refused: 4.5 and 5 are beyond the top of that scale

   The same three grade points would be illegal on a 4.0 scale, which is the only thing the scale selector does. Notice too that the unweighted average (4.43) is higher than the weighted one here: the two-credit course has the lowest grade point and the four-credit course the middle one.

This page computes a weighted mean of grade points; it does not know your school's rules. The table that turns letters or percentages into grade points is set by each institution and differs between them, so the points have to be entered as they appear on your transcript — nothing here infers them. The result is only as good as the scale you selected: a 4.0, 4.3 and 5.0 scale can describe the same performance with three different numbers, which is why they are not comparable across schools. Grade points outside the selected scale are refused rather than clipped. Courses worth zero credits contribute to the plain average but not to the GPA, and the two lists must be the same length, since pairing is by position. Nothing on the page grades the result: whether 3.65 is good depends on the programme you are applying to.

How do I calculate my GPA from grade points and credits?

Multiply each course's grade point by its credit hours, add those products to get the quality points, then divide by the total credit hours. For grade points 4, 3.7, 3.3, 3 and 4 on 3, 4, 3, 2 and 3 credits the quality points total 54.7 and the credits total 15, so the GPA is 54.7 ÷ 15 = 3.65. Every one of those numbers is printed above, so the division can be checked against the panel without retyping anything.

Why is the weighted GPA different from the plain average of my grades?

Because a plain average gives every course the same say, while a GPA gives a four-credit course twice the say of a two-credit course. In the first example the weighted GPA is 3.65 and the unweighted average of the same five grade points is 3.6 — a gap of 0.05 that exists only because the higher grade sits on the heavier course. The two numbers are printed side by side so that this is visible rather than taken on trust. When every course carries the same credits, the two are identical, which is the quickest way to confirm you have understood the difference.

Which grade scale should I choose, and can I type letter grades?

Choose the top of the scale your school uses: 4.0 and 4.3 are the common American ones, and 5.0 is common where a grade point average is reported on a five-point scale. This page takes numbers, not letters, because the table that converts an A or an 85% into grade points is set by each institution — two schools can report the same transcript on different numbers, and inventing one table here would be wrong for most readers. Convert with your own school's table first, then paste the points.

What happens to a course worth zero credits?

It is listed, it appears in the unweighted average, and it leaves the GPA completely untouched: a weight of zero contributes nothing to the numerator and nothing to the divisor. Entering 4 and 2 points on 3 and 0 credits gives a GPA of 12 ÷ 3 = 4 while the plain average is 3. Pass/fail add-ons, some labs and a few seminars really do carry no credits, so a zero is a legitimate entry rather than a mistake — but the credit total, which is printed, will look smaller than the number of courses on the list.

How do I work out my cumulative GPA?

Add the quality points you already have to the quality points from this term, and divide by the combined credit hours — not by averaging the two GPAs. The college GPA calculator does exactly that: it asks for your GPA so far and the credits behind it, then combines them with a term's worth of courses. Averaging two GPAs gives the wrong answer whenever the two sets of credits differ, and it is the most common mistake with cumulative figures, since a term of 15 credits barely moves a record of 90.

• Measures of Location — e-Handbook of Statistical Methods, section 1.3.5.1 (the arithmetic mean as a measure of location and its sensitivity to a single heavy value; with every weight equal, the weighted mean computed here is exactly that number) — National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
• Measures of the Center of the Data — Introductory Statistics 2e, section 2.5 (the mean as the balance point of a list of values, and how one extreme value moves it) — OpenStax, Rice University
• GB/T 3358.1-2009, Statistics — Vocabulary and symbols, Part 1 (the Chinese national vocabulary standard for general statistical terms and symbols; the record page notes that no online full text is offered) — State Administration for Market Regulation, China