Calculate your semester GPA on a standard 4.0 scale from your course grades and credit hours.
Set a course's credit hours to 0 if you only have fewer than 4 courses this semester. This uses a standard plus/minus 4.0 scale - check your school's own scale if it differs.
Each letter grade is converted to grade points on a standard 4.0 scale, multiplied by that course's credit hours to get "quality points," then all the quality points are added up and divided by the total credit hours. That weighted average is your GPA.
This gives more weight to a grade earned in a 4-credit course than the same grade in a 1-credit course, since a higher-credit class contributes more quality points to the total.
With grades of B+ (3 credits), A (4 credits), A- (3 credits), and B (2 credits), the total is 43.0 quality points across 12 credit hours, for a GPA of 3.58.
How is GPA calculated?
Multiply each course's grade points by its credit hours to get quality points, add up the quality points across all courses, then divide by the total credit hours. The result is a credit-weighted average of your grades.
What's the difference between semester and cumulative GPA?
Semester GPA covers only the courses from one term, like this calculator does. Cumulative GPA covers every course you've taken across all terms - to combine them, you'd add your previous total quality points and credit hours to this semester's, then divide the combined totals.
Does this use plus/minus grades?
Yes - it uses a common plus/minus 4.0 scale (A=4.0, 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, F=0.0). Some schools use a simpler scale without plus/minus distinctions, so check your school's official scale if you need an exact match.
What if my school uses a different grading scale?
Grading scales vary by institution - some don't use plus/minus grades, others weight honors or AP courses differently. This calculator uses a widely used standard scale as a solid estimate, but your school's registrar or catalog is the authoritative source for your official GPA.
How do I calculate my cumulative GPA across multiple semesters?
Add up the total quality points from every semester, add up the total credit hours from every semester, then divide the combined quality points by the combined credit hours. You can use this calculator's "total quality points" and "total credit hours" figures as one semester's contribution to that larger calculation.
Do all schools weight grades the same way?
No - some high schools add extra weight for honors, AP, or IB courses (for example, treating an A as 5.0 instead of 4.0 in a weighted scale). This calculator uses the standard unweighted 4.0 scale most commonly used at the college level.
What if I got an incomplete or pass/fail grade?
Pass/fail (or credit/no-credit) courses are typically excluded from GPA calculations entirely at most schools, since they don't carry standard letter grades. Leave that course's credit hours at 0 so it doesn't affect the result here.
Can I add more than 4 courses?
This calculator handles up to 4 courses at once. For a semester with more courses, calculate the additional courses' quality points separately (grade points x credit hours), then add those to the totals shown here before dividing by your full credit hour count.