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GPA Calculator

Your weighted semester GPA on the 4.0 scale - enter courses, credits and grades, get the answer instantly.

GPA Calculator

Enter your courses, credits and letter grades (4.0 scale).

Your GPA: -

Uses the standard US 4.0 scale. For percentage or other grading systems, see our GPA converter.

How GPA Is Calculated

Each letter grade maps to grade points (A = 4.0, B = 3.0, C = 2.0 and so on). Multiply each course grade by its credit hours, add them up, and divide by total credits:

GPA = total grade points ÷ total credit hours

A 3-credit A (12 points) pulls your GPA up more than a 1-credit A (4 points) - which is why heavy courses matter most.

Tips to Raise Your GPA

  • Prioritise high-credit courses - they move the average most in both directions.
  • Use add/drop deadlines strategically if a course is going badly early.
  • Check whether your school allows grade replacement for retaken courses.
  • Improve how you study, not just how much - see our evidence-based study techniques.

What the calculator above is doing

It computes a credit weighted mean. You give it a grade and a credit value for each module, it converts each grade to a point value, multiplies each by its credits, adds those products and divides by the total credits. That is the whole operation, and it is worth stating plainly because the arithmetic is not where this goes wrong.

What goes wrong is everything around the arithmetic: which modules belong in the calculation, which attempts count, and what your institution does at the edges. The calculator cannot know any of that, and neither can any calculator, because those are rules held by your institution and they differ.

WHY AN UNWEIGHTED AVERAGE IS A DIFFERENT NUMBER

  module A .. 60 credits .. grade point 3.0
  module B .. 10 credits .. grade point 4.0

  average of the grades ....... 3.5
  weighted by credits ......... (3.0x60 + 4.0x10) / 70 = 3.14

  same student, same marks, two different figures
  the credits decide which one is yours

The weighting mistake, which is the common one

If every module you take carries the same credit value, the weighted and unweighted averages are identical and none of this matters. As soon as they differ, and they usually do, averaging the grades directly produces a number that is not your average.

The direction of the error is not random. Small modules are often the ones where marks are highest, because they are shorter, more focused and assessed more narrowly. Large modules, including dissertations and projects, are where marks spread out. Averaging without weights therefore tends to flatter, which is precisely the direction you do not want to be wrong in when deciding where to apply.

Five things that change the answer

Credit weighting A grade point average is a weighted mean, and the weights are credits. This is the single most common source of a wrong figure: people average the grades themselves, which silently treats a small module and a dissertation as equally important. If your modules carry different credit values, an unweighted average is not your average, it is a different number that happens to look similar.Which attempts count Institutions differ on whether a failed attempt stays on the record, whether a repeat replaces or supplements the original, and whether a capped resit mark enters the average at the cap. Two students who did identical work can carry different averages under different rules. Read your own regulations before you compute anything, because no calculator can know which rule applies to you.Which modules count Some systems count everything, some exclude a foundation year, some weight later years more heavily, and some exclude modules taken outside your main subject. There is often an official average used for progression and a different one printed on the transcript. Find out which one an application is asking for before you supply a number.Rounding Where rounding happens changes results at boundaries, and boundaries are exactly where it matters. Rounding each module before averaging and rounding only the final figure can produce different answers, and an institution that publishes to two decimal places is telling you it does not round early. If you are near a threshold, this is worth reading rather than assuming.What the receiving institution does It recalculates. An admissions office almost never takes a self reported average at face value; it works from the transcript, applies its own rules about what counts, and often converts through its own mapping. So the number you compute is for your own planning and for choosing where to apply. It is not the number that will be used to decide.

Where to find the rules. They are in your programme regulations or academic handbook, usually in a section on progression and classification, and they are written for staff rather than students, which is why almost nobody reads them. It is worth the twenty minutes. Every question above has a definite answer in that document, and knowing them turns a guess into a figure you can defend.

What an average does not capture

An average is one number standing in for a large amount of information, and the information it discards is often the information an admissions reader most wants.

Trajectory. A student who started poorly and finished strongly and a student who did the reverse can share an average. Almost every reader treats those two differently, and a personal statement can make the trajectory visible where a number cannot.

Relevance. Strong marks in the subject you are applying to continue matter more than the same marks spread evenly, and a mediocre average with excellent performance in the core modules is a different application from a uniform one. Point at the relevant modules explicitly rather than hoping they are noticed.

Context. Marks earned under a system where top grades are rare are not the same as identical looking marks from a system where they are common. This is the whole reason conversion between scales is unreliable, and it is why receiving institutions do their own assessment rather than trusting a converted figure.

Circumstances. Illness, bereavement, disruption and caring responsibilities show up as a dip. Institutions usually have a formal process for recording these, and something recorded through that process at the time carries weight that an explanation offered years later does not.

Using your average sensibly in an application

Compute it correctly, then use it for exactly two things: deciding which programmes are worth the effort of applying to, and knowing whether you sit comfortably above a stated minimum or uncomfortably near it. Those are real decisions and a good estimate is enough for both.

Do not use it as a claim. Anything you state about your record has to be supported by the transcript, because the transcript is what will be read. A figure computed under favourable assumptions that the official document does not support is worse than no figure, because it creates a discrepancy the reader has to resolve, and they will resolve it against you.

If a programme states a minimum in a scale you do not use, resist converting and quoting. Ask the institution which body assesses foreign qualifications for them and what they need from you. That question is answered in a sentence, it costs nothing, and it replaces a guess with the actual rule.

If your average is below where you want it

The arithmetic tells you something useful here. As credits accumulate, each new module moves the average less, which means late improvement raises the figure slowly. This is discouraging but it is worth knowing, because it tells you where effort actually pays.

What moves faster is everything the average does not contain: relevant experience, a piece of work you can show, a clear account of trajectory, a supervisor who has read your proposal, and marks in the specific modules a reader will care about. Those are also, conveniently, the things that are still in front of you rather than behind you.

Before you leave this page

  • Get the credit value of every module, not just the grade
  • Weight by credits rather than averaging the grades themselves
  • Read your regulations on failed and repeated attempts
  • Check whether resit marks are capped, and whether the cap enters the average
  • Find out whether a foundation year is included
  • Check whether later years are weighted more heavily
  • Find out where your institution rounds, and to how many places
  • Ask an application which average it wants, official or computed
  • Never report a figure your transcript does not support
  • Keep your working, so you can explain any figure you quote

Where to go next

Questions people ask

How do I calculate my GPA?

Multiply each course grade (A=4.0, B=3.0, C=2.0, D=1.0, F=0) by its credit hours, add the grade points together, and divide by total credit hours. A 3-credit A and a 4-credit B gives (12+12)/7 = 3.43.

What is a good GPA?

Above 3.0 is solid, 3.5+ is strong for graduate school and scholarships, and 3.7+ is competitive for top programs. Context matters: course difficulty and trend over time count too.

Is a 3.0 GPA good in college?

A 3.0 (B average) meets most employers minimum and keeps most scholarship and program options open, though competitive graduate programs typically look for 3.5 or higher.

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