GPA Calculator
Your GPA
3.67
B+ average
Total Credits
10
credit hours
Quality Points
36.7
grade points × credits
Letter Grade
B+
equivalent
GPA Scale
How It Works
GPA is calculated by multiplying each course's grade points by its credit hours, summing these products, and dividing by the total credit hours. This gives you a weighted average where courses with more credits have a greater impact on your GPA.
About the GPA Calculator
The GPA Calculator computes your Grade Point Average by converting letter grades into grade points and weighting each course by its credit hours. You enter each course's grade (A, B+, C, and so on) along with the number of credits it carries, and the tool multiplies grade points by credits, sums those products, and divides by the total credits attempted to produce a weighted average. This credit-weighted approach is the standard method used by virtually every college and university registrar.
Most institutions use an unweighted 4.0 scale where an A equals 4.0, a B equals 3.0, a C equals 2.0, a D equals 1.0, and an F equals 0.0, with plus and minus modifiers nudging values up or down by roughly 0.3 (for example, a B+ is 3.3 and an A- is 3.7). Because each course's influence on your GPA is proportional to its credit load, a five-credit lab course moves your average far more than a one-credit seminar earning the same letter grade. Understanding this weighting helps you prioritize where to focus effort.
Common uses include tracking semester and cumulative GPA, checking eligibility for scholarships, honor societies, or graduate program cutoffs, and modeling how a current course load will shift your standing. Many students run what-if scenarios before final exams to learn the minimum grades needed to hit a target average. If you only have a percentage rather than a letter grade, pair this with the Grade Calculator first to determine your letter, then bring it here.
For accuracy, confirm whether your school uses plus/minus grading or rounds to whole letters, since that single policy difference can swing a transcript GPA by a tenth of a point. Keep credit hours exact rather than estimating, and calculate cumulative GPA across all terms rather than averaging semester GPAs, which produces a different and usually incorrect number. If your school uses a different maximum like a 5.0 weighted scale, use the GPA Converter to translate between systems.
Frequently asked questions
- How is GPA calculated?
- Each grade is converted to grade points, multiplied by the course's credit hours, summed, and then divided by the total credit hours attempted to give a credit-weighted average.
- What is the difference between weighted and unweighted GPA?
- An unweighted GPA caps every course at 4.0 regardless of difficulty, while a weighted GPA adds extra points for honors, AP, or IB courses, sometimes pushing the maximum to 5.0.
- Why does one course affect my GPA more than another?
- Courses are weighted by credit hours, so a four-credit class influences your average roughly four times as much as a one-credit class earning the same grade.
- Can I average my semester GPAs to get my cumulative GPA?
- No. Averaging semester GPAs ignores differing credit loads; you must recalculate using total grade points divided by total credits across all terms.
- Do plus and minus grades matter?
- Yes. On most scales a plus or minus adjusts the grade point by about 0.3, so a B+ (3.3) versus a B (3.0) can meaningfully change a cumulative GPA over many courses.