College GPA Calculator

What a GPA is, and why credits matter

Your GPA, your grade point average, is one number that sums up how you did across all your courses. So let's see how it comes together.

Here is the part people miss: not every course counts the same. A GPA is a credit-weighted average, which is a roundabout way of saying a four-credit course pulls harder on your average than a one-credit elective. Earn an A in a heavy course and it lifts your GPA a lot. Earn the same A in a tiny one-credit class and it barely nudges it. So credits are the muscle behind each grade.

This calculator takes your courses, the credits each one is worth, and the letter grade you earned, and rolls them into a single GPA for the term.

How to use the College GPA Calculator

One row per course. Each row has three parts:

• Course Name: anything you like, just so you can tell the rows apart.
• Credits: how many credit hours the course is worth, usually 1 to 4.
• Grade: pick the letter grade you earned from the dropdown.

Press Add Course for another row, Remove Course to drop the last one, then Calculate. You get your GPA on a 4.33 scale.

How the College GPA Calculator works

The formula is a credit-weighted average, and it fits on one line:

GPA = sum of (credits × grade points) ÷ sum of credits

Each letter grade is first turned into grade points using this scale:

We multiply each course's grade points by its credits, add all of those up, and divide by your total credits. That gives the average grade point you earned per credit, which is your GPA.

A worked example

Say you took three courses this term:

• Calculus, 4 credits, grade A (4.00 points)
• History, 3 credits, grade B+ (3.33 points)
• Lab, 1 credit, grade C (2.00 points)

Multiply credits by grade points and add them up:

(4 × 4.00) + (3 × 3.33) + (1 × 2.00) = 16 + 9.99 + 2 = 27.99

Now add up the credits: 4 + 3 + 1 = 8. Divide one by the other: 27.99 ÷ 8 = 3.50. Your GPA for the term is 3.50.

Notice how the one-credit C barely moved things, while the four-credit A did the heavy lifting. That is credit weighting in action.

The 4.33 scale, and why your school might differ

This calculator uses a 4.33 scale, where a straight A is 4.00 and an A+ nudges you a little higher to 4.33. That is worth knowing, because not every school does it this way.

Plenty of US schools cap the scale at 4.00 and treat an A+ the same as an A, so an A+ earns no extra. Some schools use a 4.33 or 4.3-style scale, while others cap GPA at 4.0. So if your school caps at 4.0, your official GPA may sit a touch lower than the number here whenever A+ grades are in the mix. For every grade below an A+, the two scales line up exactly. When in doubt, your school's catalog or registrar holds the scale that counts.

Who this is for

• College students checking their GPA at the end of a term, or partway through it.
• Anyone weighing a course load, since seeing how credits pull the average shows where a strong grade matters most.
• Students near a cutoff for a scholarship, a major, or the dean's list, who want the number before it is official.

Calculating a high school GPA with Honors or AP weighting instead? The High School GPA Calculator handles those bonus points. And if you just need the point value of a single letter grade, the Letter Grade to GPA Conversion covers that.

Things to keep in mind

• This is one term's GPA. For a cumulative GPA across your whole degree, enter every course from every term, or combine this result with your past totals.
• Scales vary by school. The 4.33 points above are one common version. Your school may cap A+ at 4.0 or use slightly different values, so the official number lives on your transcript.
• No difficulty weighting here. This is a straight college GPA. AP and Honors bonuses are a high school thing, handled in the High School GPA Calculator.
• Pass or fail courses usually sit out. A pass or fail grade normally adds credits without changing your GPA, so it is not part of this calculation.

Questions people ask