Compute the US-style GPA from letter grades and credits.
Standard US 4.0 scale (A+/A = 4.0). Some schools cap A+ at 4.0; others allow 4.3. Honors thresholds vary by institution — typical Latin honors shown.
The grade-point average (GPA) on a 4.0 scale is the standard academic metric in the United States, Canada, and a growing number of international universities, and it drives consequential decisions: scholarship eligibility (most aid programs cut off at 3.0 or 3.5), graduate-school admissions (top programs cluster above 3.7), Latin honors at graduation (cum laude at 3.5, magna at 3.7, summa at 3.9 — exact thresholds vary), and even some employer screens. Computing GPA by hand is feasible but error-prone for two reasons: each course carries different credits (a 4-credit lab is double-weighted against a 2-credit elective), and the letter-to-point mapping has half-grade modifiers (A− = 3.7, B+ = 3.3) that students often forget. This calculator handles up to six courses, the standard 13-grade scale (A+ through F including all minus and plus modifiers), and returns the GPA, the total credits counted, the number of courses contributing, and the corresponding Latin honors band — the four numbers that go on the transcript and the application form.
GPA = sum(grade_points × credits) / sum(credits). The grade-point mapping is the standard US scale: A+ and A both 4.0 (most schools cap at 4.0; some allow A+ = 4.3, but the calculator follows the dominant convention), 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 = 0.0. Each row in the form provides a letter grade and a credit value; the calculator multiplies them, sums the products, and divides by the total credits. Empty rows (zero credits) are silently dropped, so partial use of the form works without errors. The honors bands the result is mapped to: ≥ 3.9 Summa cum laude, ≥ 3.7 Magna cum laude, ≥ 3.5 Cum laude, ≥ 3.0 Good standing, ≥ 2.0 Pass, below that Below pass. These thresholds are typical but not universal — Yale's summa is 3.9, Stanford's is 3.95, Berkeley caps it at the top 5 % of the graduating class — so the band is informational rather than authoritative.
Six rows of (letter grade dropdown, credits number). Defaults: four courses at 3 credits each, the typical full-time semester load at most US universities (15 credits per semester, five 3-credit courses). Enter your grades, set the credits per course (1 to 12 in 0.5 increments — a half-credit course is common in some programs), and the panel updates: GPA on the 4.0 scale as the headline, the count of courses actually contributing (those with non-zero credits), the total credits summed, and the honors band. To compute a cumulative GPA across multiple semesters, enter each course-grade pair from every semester (consolidate where useful — six rows holds one full semester), or run the tool once per semester and weight the results manually.
A student with four courses: Calculus II (B+, 4 credits), Organic Chemistry (A−, 4 credits), English Composition (A, 3 credits), Introduction to Psychology (B, 3 credits). Compute: Calculus = 3.3 × 4 = 13.2; Org Chem = 3.7 × 4 = 14.8; English = 4.0 × 3 = 12.0; Psych = 3.0 × 3 = 9.0. Sum of products = 49.0. Sum of credits = 14. GPA = 49.0 / 14 = 3.50. Honors band: Cum laude. Now imagine the same student earned an A in Org Chem instead of A−: products become 13.2 + 16.0 + 12.0 + 9.0 = 50.2. GPA = 50.2 / 14 = 3.59. The single half-grade improvement on a 4-credit course moves the cumulative GPA by 0.09 — substantial, and a useful illustration of why heavy-credit courses matter more for the overall ranking than lighter ones. The Latin band stays Cum laude; to reach Magna (≥ 3.7) the student would need that A AND another A on a 3-credit course (gaining +1.0 × 3 / 14 = +0.21).
First, dividing by the count of courses instead of the sum of credits. A 4-credit C and a 1-credit A are not equivalent contributions; the credit weighting is what makes GPA different from a simple average. Second, mixing grading conventions. The 4.0 scale varies: some schools cap A+ at 4.0, others at 4.3. Some schools award no minus grades (A, B, C, D, F only). The calculator follows the most common 13-grade variant; check your school's handbook before using these numbers in an official document. Third, forgetting failed courses. F (0.0) drags GPA hard — a 3-credit F on top of an otherwise 3.5 GPA across 12 credits drops the cumulative to 2.8. Re-taking the course (if your school allows grade replacement) restores most of the loss; calculate both scenarios. Fourth, ignoring pass/fail courses. Many schools exclude P/F grades from GPA calculation entirely, which the calculator handles correctly if you simply leave them out of the rows. Other schools record P/F passes as B grades for GPA purposes — check your registrar's policy. Fifth, comparing GPAs across institutions or countries. A 3.5 at MIT is not equivalent to a 3.5 at a small liberal-arts college; admissions committees know this and adjust. The 4.0 scale is also not directly convertible to the French /20 (a 3.7 GPA is roughly 14–15/20, but only loosely), the German 1–6 scale, or the British 1st-class/2:1/2:2 system. Calibrate to the audience.
GPA is the dominant US convention; the world is more varied. 5.0-scale weighted GPA is used in many US high schools to credit AP and honors courses (an A in AP Calculus = 5.0; an A in regular Calculus = 4.0), so a high schooler can graduate "above 4.0" — but the underlying ranking is the same. Quality points (= grade × credits) are the British equivalent often used internally. The French moyenne /20 is structurally similar (weighted by coefficients) but uses a different scale; a 14/20 corresponds approximately to a 3.5 GPA. The German Notensystem 1.0–6.0 is inverted (1.0 is best, 6.0 is fail); a 1.5 maps to about a 3.7. Cumulative versus semester GPA: most transcripts show both. Semester GPA isolates a term's performance; cumulative is the running average across all terms taken — the number that matters for honors and for some transfer applications. Major GPA: some programs report a separate GPA for courses in the major; the calculator can compute it by entering only major-listed courses. For graduate-school admissions, the major GPA often matters more than the cumulative.