How to Calculate Your GPA (4.0 Scale)

Your GPA, or grade point average, is your grades turned into a single number. Each letter grade is worth a number of points — an A is 4, a B is 3, a C is 2, a D is 1, an F is 0 — and your GPA is the total points you earned divided by the total credit hours you took. Credits are what make the average fair: a 4-credit course counts for more than a 1-credit course, exactly as it should. The formula is one line, but the details around it — plus and minus grades, weighted courses, semester versus cumulative — are where people get tripped up.

By Calcly Team · Last updated 8 November 2026 · Free guide

The 4.0 grade scale

On the standard 4.0 scale, each letter grade maps to a point value. Most schools that use plus and minus grades follow the same table below, though a few round differently — an A- might be 3.7 at one school and 3.67 at another — so if a tenth of a point matters to you, check your own school's handbook rather than trusting a table on the internet.

Worked example

Take a student with four courses in one term. She earns an A in a 3-credit course (4.0 × 3 = 12 points), a B in another 3-credit course (3.0 × 3 = 9 points), an A in a 4-credit course (4.0 × 4 = 16 points), and a C in a 3-credit course (2.0 × 3 = 6 points). Add the points: 12 + 9 + 16 + 6 = 43. Add the credits: 3 + 3 + 4 + 3 = 13. Divide: 43 ÷ 13 = 3.31. Her GPA for the term is 3.31. Notice how the 4-credit A pulled the average up more than the 3-credit C pulled it down — that is the credit weighting doing its job. If you ignore the credits and just average the four grades (4.0 + 3.0 + 4.0 + 2.0) ÷ 4, you get 3.25 instead, which is wrong: it gives the 4-credit course the same weight as a 3-credit one. Always multiply by credits first, then add, then divide.

Weighted vs unweighted GPA

So far we have been talking about unweighted GPA, where the best grade in any course is worth 4.0. Many high schools also report a weighted GPA, which gives harder courses extra points so that students are not punished for taking them. The usual bump is 1.0 extra point: an A in an AP or honours course is worth 5.0 instead of 4.0, a B is worth 4.0 instead of 3.0, and so on. Take the same student as above, but suppose the 4-credit A was in an AP course. Under a weighted scale that A is worth 5.0 × 4 = 20 points instead of 16, so her total becomes 47 points over the same 13 credits — a weighted GPA of 47 ÷ 13 = 3.62, against an unweighted 3.31. Weighted GPAs can go above 4.0, which is why a “4.5 GPA” on an application usually means weighted, not that someone scored above perfect. Colleges know this, which is why most of them recalculate GPA on their own scale from your transcript rather than taking either number at face value.

Semester GPA vs cumulative GPA

The two numbers answer different questions. Semester GPA covers one term only: the points from that term divided by the credits from that term. It tells you how one term went. Cumulative GPA covers everything: all the points you have ever earned divided by all the credits you have ever taken. It is the number on your transcript and the one most applications ask for. The two move differently. Early on, one strong term can lift a cumulative GPA a lot, because there are few credits behind it. Later, the same strong term barely moves it, because it is diluted by everything that came before. A student with 48 credits at a 2.9 who earns a 4.0 across 12 more credits ends up at (139.2 + 48) ÷ 60 = 3.12 — a good term, but only a 0.22 improvement. That is worth knowing before you promise yourself a dramatic recovery in a single term.

What is a good GPA?

It depends what the number is for. A 3.0 is a solid B average and clears the bar for most jobs and many graduate programmes. A 3.5 puts you in B+ to A- territory and is competitive for scholarships and selective programmes. A 3.7 or above is strong almost anywhere. But the number never travels alone: admissions officers and employers read it alongside your course load, your trend over time, and what your school offers. A 3.6 built on the hardest courses your school offers usually impresses more than a 3.9 built on the easiest ones, and a GPA that rises from 2.8 to 3.5 over two years tells a better story than a flat 3.4. If your number is lower than you want, the honest fix is unglamorous: more credits at high grades dilute old grades, and retaking a failed course — where your school replaces the grade — removes a zero from the average entirely.

Want your number without the arithmetic? Use our GPA calculator — add your courses with grades and credits and it works out your weighted GPA on the 4.0 scale. To check a grade as a percentage first, try our percentage calculator.