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The GPA scale
A percentage becomes a letter, and a letter becomes the grade points that go into a GPA. This page sets out that chain, converts in any direction, and works four averages out in full so you can check them against your own transcript.
Method reviewed How we calculate
Convert a grade
Enter any one of the three and the other two follow. Values outside the table are refused rather than rounded into range, because a converter that answers a question it cannot answer is worse than one that declines.
- Letter
- Percent
- Grade points
A and A+ both count as 4.0 on this scale, so a GPA cannot tell them apart.
A is 4.0 grade points, or 93–96%. A+ is also 4.0 on this scale.
The conversion table
This is the most widely used table in United States secondary and undergraduate grading. It is a convention rather than a standard: your school sets its own boundaries and its table is the one that counts. Every figure below is read directly from the code that does the arithmetic, so the page and the calculators cannot disagree.
| Letter | Percentage | 4.0 scale | 4.3 scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| A+ | 97–100 | 4.0 | 4.3 |
| A | 93–96 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| A- | 90–92 | 3.7 | 3.7 |
| B+ | 87–89 | 3.3 | 3.3 |
| B | 83–86 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| B- | 80–82 | 2.7 | 2.7 |
| C+ | 77–79 | 2.3 | 2.3 |
| C | 73–76 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| C- | 70–72 | 1.7 | 1.7 |
| D+ | 67–69 | 1.3 | 1.3 |
| D | 63–66 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| D- | 60–62 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| F | Below 60 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Three things this table does that most published versions do not
The bands do not overlap. Every whole percent from 0 to100 belongs to exactly one letter. It is common to see a D given as 65–66 in one table and 65–67 in another on the same page, which puts a 67 in two grades at once and makes the table unanswerable at the boundary.
Every letter the scale pays is present. A D- is worth 0.7 grade points, so a percentage table with no D- row cannot express a grade the scale itself recognises. Twelve-row tables that drop it and move the failing cutoff up to 65 are common; here failing is below 60%, and every grade above that has a row.
The rounding rule is stated. A score is rounded to the nearest whole percent before lookup, so 89.5 becomes 90. Any table printed in whole numbers has this gap; most leave it silent, which means a reader with an 89.5 has no row to land on.
How a percentage becomes a GPA
The conversion runs in one direction and loses information at each step. A percentage is a point; a letter is a band of about three points wide; grade points are a single value shared by every score in that band. An 83 and an 86 are both a B and both worth 3.0, and nothing downstream can tell them apart again.
That is why the reverse direction can only ever return a range. Ask this page what 3.0 is as a percentage and the honest answer is 83–86%, not a single number. Any converter that answers "3.0 = 85%" has invented the 85.
The clearest case is at the top. On the standard 4.0 scale an A+ and an A are both worth 4.0, so that GPA means a percentage anywhere from 93 to 100. Tables print "A+ 4.0" directly above "A 4.0" and almost never say what that implies: above 93%, further marks stop earning anything.
Worked example: one high school semester
Each grade becomes its point value, that value is multiplied by the course's credit hours, and the products are summed and divided by the credits. Every figure in the table below is computed at build time, and the column adds up to the total shown.
| Course | Grade | Points | Credits | Points × credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English 11 | A- | 3.7 | 1 | 3.7 |
| Algebra II | B+ | 3.3 | 1 | 3.3 |
| Chemistry with lab | B | 3.0 | 2 | 6.0 |
| U.S. History | A | 4.0 | 1 | 4.0 |
| Spanish III | C+ | 2.3 | 1 | 2.3 |
| Physical education | A | 4.0 | 0.5 | 2.0 |
| Total | 6.5 | 21.3 | ||
21.3 ÷ 6.5 = 3.277
Why the credits matter
Average the six point values and ignore the credit hours and you get 3.383 instead of 3.277. The two-credit chemistry course carries twice the weight of the others and the half-credit PE course carries half, so the shortcut moves the answer. Both figures here are computed by the same engine from the same grades — only the credit treatment differs.
Worked example: Honors and AP courses
A weighted GPA adds bonus points to harder courses before the credit-weighted average is taken. On the 5-course schedule below, each AP course gains 1.0 and the Honors course 0.5.
| Course | Level | Grade | Base | Weighted | Credits | Points × credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AP Biology | AP | B+ | 3.3 | 4.3 | 1 | 4.3 |
| AP U.S. History | AP | A- | 3.7 | 4.7 | 1 | 4.7 |
| Honors Precalculus | Honors | B | 3.0 | 3.5 | 1 | 3.5 |
| English 11 | — | A | 4.0 | 4.0 | 1 | 4.0 |
| Ceramics | — | A | 4.0 | 4.0 | 0.5 | 2.0 |
| Total | 4.5 | 18.5 | ||||
18.5 ÷ 4.5 = 4.111 weighted, against 3.556 unweighted
Weighting is not a multiplier
The bonus is added per course, so it lifts the average in proportion to how much of your schedule is advanced. It is not applied to the finished figure: a student with straight A's in only regular classes has a weighted GPA of exactly 4.0 at a school using a 5.0 scale. The ceiling is something you reach by taking harder courses, not a number your grades are stretched to fit.
Worked example: a college term with a W
College GPAs work identically, with credit hours doing more of the work because they vary more. The two grades that earn no points are the interesting part.
| Course | Grade | Points | Credits | Points × credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic Chemistry | B- | 2.7 | 4 | 10.8 |
| Calculus II | A | 4.0 | 4 | 16.0 |
| Art History | A- | 3.7 | 3 | 11.1 |
| Statistics | C+ | 2.3 | 2 | 4.6 |
| Economics | W | — | — | — |
| Research seminar | P | — | — | — |
| Counted toward GPA | 13 | 42.5 | ||
42.5 ÷ 13 = 3.269
A W is not a zero
The withdrawal and the pass/fail seminar are removed from both sides of the division: 18 enrolled credits, 13 graded. Treating either as a 0.0 is the common fear, and it would put this term at 2.361 instead of 3.269 — 0.908 of GPA lost to a rule that does not exist. The dashes in those rows are deliberate; a zero in that column would contradict the rule.
Worked example: two terms combined
A cumulative GPA is a credit-weighted average of quality points, not an average of term GPAs. Multiply each term's GPA by its credits, add the products, divide by total credits.
| Term | GPA | Credits | Quality points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall | 3.9 | 12 | 46.8 |
| Spring | 2.8 | 18 | 50.4 |
| Total | 30 | 97.2 |
97.2 ÷ 30 = 3.24
The most consequential mistake on this page
Averaging the two term GPAs gives 3.35. The correct figure is 3.24 — a gap of 0.11, because the weaker term carried more credits and so counts for more. This shortcut is published as the method on a number of otherwise careful pages, and a tenth of a point is the width of a scholarship bracket at plenty of institutions.
Averaging averages is only safe when the credit loads are equal. Our cumulative GPA calculator asks for credits per term for exactly this reason.
Where this table does not apply
The table is a convention with wide agreement in the middle and real disagreement at the edges. Cases where you should use your own institution's numbers instead:
- Your syllabus states different cutoffs. Plenty of schools set an A at 94 or a passing grade at 70. Where your school's table and this one disagree, yours governs.
- Your school truncates rather than rounds. An 89.9 is an A- here and a B+ at an institution that drops the decimal.
- Grades outside the A–F range. Pass, no-pass, withdrawn, incomplete and audit carry no grade points and are excluded from the average rather than scored.
- Non-US systems. A UK first, a German 1.0 — where low is good — and an Indian percentage or CGPA do not map onto this table by any fixed factor, and a conversion that claims otherwise is guessing.
- Anything official. For applications and transfer credit, the registrar's figure is the only one that counts. This page is for understanding and checking, not for reporting.
Frequently asked questions
- Is a 4.0 GPA the same as 100%?
- No. On the standard 4.0 scale an A and an A+ are both worth 4.0, so a 4.0 corresponds to anything from 93% up to 100% — a 93 and a 100 are recorded identically. That is a property of the scale, not a rounding choice.
- What letter grade is 89.5%?
- We round to the nearest whole percent before looking the grade up, so 89.5 becomes 90 and lands on an A-. Tables printed as whole numbers leave that half-point undefined, which is why the rule is stated here rather than left to the reader. Your school may truncate instead of rounding.
- Can I average my semester GPAs to get my cumulative GPA?
- Only if every semester carried the same number of credits. In the worked example on this page, averaging two term GPAs gives 3.35 where the credit-weighted figure is 3.24 — a gap of 0.11, because the weaker term carried more credits and therefore counts for more.
- Does a W or a pass/fail course count as a zero?
- No. A withdrawal, a pass, an incomplete and an audit are left out of the average entirely: both the grade points and the credit hours are removed. The college example here is enrolled in 18 credits and graded on 13. Scoring the W and the pass/fail course as zeros would report 2.361 instead of 3.269 — understating the term by 0.908.
- Which scale should I use, 4.0 or 4.3?
- Whichever your school uses, and most United States schools cap an A+ at 4.0. The 4.3 option exists because a minority award it, and it is the only difference between the two tables. Check your transcript before reporting a figure.
Calculate it instead
These take letter grades and credits and show the working, including the quality-point total you would need to check the result by hand.
Middle School GPA Calculator
Letter grades or percentages, no credit hours to enter.
High School GPA Calculator
Weighted and unweighted together, with honors and AP bonuses.
College GPA Calculator
Credit-hour weighted, with pass/fail and withdrawn courses excluded correctly.
Cumulative GPA Calculator
Combine past terms by credit hour, the way a registrar does.
Weighted GPA Calculator
Bonus points for honors and AP, on your school's own scale.
Unweighted GPA Calculator
The plain 4.0 baseline that admissions offices compare across schools.