The GPA scale most US colleges use runs from 0.0 to 4.0. Each letter grade is worth a set number of grade points, an A is 4.0 and an F is 0.0, and your GPA is the average of those points weighted by how many credits each course carries.
That's the whole idea. The complications come from the details: whether your school uses plus and minus grades, what it gives an A+ or an A-, whether it rounds or truncates, and whether a high school weighted scale is in play.
The charts below cover the standard 4.0 scale, how to convert a letter grade to GPA and a percentage to GPA, and where schools differ. If you just want your number, the GPA calculator does the conversion and the credit weighting for you.
This page is about the number. How the college grading scale itself works, how class grades are calculated, and the rules on pass/fail and passing grades are on the college grading system page.
The 4.0 GPA scale
The standard scale, often just called the 4.0 grading scale, gives every letter a grade point value, with plus and minus grades sitting 0.3 above or below the plain letter. George Washington University publishes it as A 4.00, A- 3.70, B+ 3.30, B 3.00, B- 2.70, and so on down to D- 0.70 and F 0.00, and the University of Illinois describes the same four-point system with plus and minus grades.
| Letter grade | Grade points |
|---|---|
| A+ | 4.0 |
| 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 |
| D- | 0.7 |
| F | 0.0 |
Term and cumulative GPA on the 4.0 scale.
This is the letter grade to GPA chart to use unless your school tells you otherwise. The GPA calculator uses it by default.
Letter grade to GPA: why the decimals differ by school
Look at two transcripts from different schools and the same B+ can be worth 3.3 or 3.33. Both are common, and the difference comes down to house style.
Some schools use the tidy 0.3 steps above. Others use thirds, so a B+ is 3.33 and a B- is 2.67. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln uses thirds: A- 3.67, B+ 3.33, B- 2.67. The University of Chicago shows both conventions on one page, with 3.7 and 3.3 for the College and 3.67 and 3.33 for its business school.
The bigger variable is the A+. Most schools cap it at 4.0, the same as an A. A few give it 4.33. Arizona State's plus and minus scale includes an A+ worth 4.33, but the cumulative GPA is still capped at 4.00. Rice University used to give an A+ 4.33 points and changed it to 4.0 from fall 2018. And a few schools do their own thing entirely: the University of Memphis gives an A- 3.84.
| Grade | Common value | Thirds convention | With 4.33 A+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| A+ | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.33 |
| A | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| A- | 3.7 | 3.67 | 3.67 |
| B+ | 3.3 | 3.33 | 3.33 |
| B | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| B- | 2.7 | 2.67 | 2.67 |
None of this changes your letter grades. It only changes the number they add up to. The GPA calculator has a setting for how an A+ counts (4.0 or 4.33) and how an A- counts (3.7 or 3.67), so you can match your transcript exactly.
Percentage to GPA conversion chart
There's no direct percentage to GPA formula. A percentage becomes a letter grade first, using your school's cutoffs, and the letter becomes grade points. So an 88% is a B+ at most colleges, and a B+ is 3.3.
The chart below uses the common US college cutoffs published by Columbia University's School of Professional Studies and the University of the Incarnate Word, paired with the standard grade points.
| Percentage | Letter grade | GPA |
|---|---|---|
| 93 to 100 | A | 4.0 |
| 90 to 92 | A- | 3.7 |
| 87 to 89 | B+ | 3.3 |
| 83 to 86 | B | 3.0 |
| 80 to 82 | B- | 2.7 |
| 77 to 79 | C+ | 2.3 |
| 73 to 76 | C | 2.0 |
| 70 to 72 | C- | 1.7 |
| 67 to 69 | D+ | 1.3 |
| 63 to 66 | D | 1.0 |
| 60 to 62 | D- | 0.7 |
| Below 60 | F | 0.0 |
Because the percentage cutoffs are the part that varies most between schools, the middle column is where your own transcript might disagree. A school that sets its A at 94 will turn a 93% into an A-, and that's 3.7 instead of 4.0.
If your class grades are percentages, the weighted grade calculator works out the percentage for each course, and the college grading scale on the grade calculator lets you set the cutoffs to your school's before you convert. The GPA calculator shows the same percentage ranges next to their grade points.
One more thing that changes the conversion: some schools skip plus and minus entirely. Georgia Tech grades A, B, C, D and F, worth 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0, so on that scale an 88% converts to 3.0 rather than 3.3. Over a full transcript that can move a GPA by a tenth or two, which is why the same student can carry different GPAs at different schools. How those systems work is covered on the college grading system page; here the point is just that the conversion is blunter.
Weighted GPA scales: the 5.0 scale
High schools often add a weighted scale on top, where an A in an honors or AP class is worth more than 4.0, sometimes 4.5 or 5.0. It's a real number, but it isn't the one colleges tend to use, and the size of the bonus differs from school to school. How weighting works, what different districts add, and which figure colleges actually read is all on the weighted vs unweighted GPA page.
For this page's purposes: the GPA calculator works on the 4.0 scale, so use it for your unweighted GPA. To get there from a weighted transcript, strip the bonus first, so an A in AP counts as 4.0, then average as normal.
How to convert your GPA to a 4.0 scale
The method is the same whatever you're starting from. Turn each course into grade points on the 4.0 scale, multiply by the course's credits, add up, and divide by total credits. The University of Maryland's registrar sets it out in exactly those four steps.
Starting from letter grades, use the first chart. Starting from percentages, use the second chart to get the letter, then the grade points. Starting from a weighted 5.0 scale, remove the bonus points first.
A worked example with four courses:
| Course | Credits | Grade | Grade points | Quality points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biology | 4 | A- | 3.7 | 14.8 |
| Statistics | 3 | B+ | 3.3 | 9.9 |
| English | 3 | A | 4.0 | 12.0 |
| Spanish | 2 | B | 3.0 | 6.0 |
| Total | 12 | 42.7 |
GPA = 42.7 รท 12 = 3.56.
Notice that the 4-credit A- pulls more weight than the 2-credit B. That's the credit weighting, and it's the reason a plain average of letters gives the wrong answer. Put the same four courses into the GPA calculator and it returns the 3.56, and if you open "Include previous terms" and add your GPA and credits so far, it gives your new cumulative as well.
How GPA is rounded
Even the rounding varies. Arizona State rounds to the nearest hundredth. Nebraska-Lincoln rounds to the thousandths. Maryland truncates at the thousandths place without rounding, and Georgia Tech truncates after two decimal places.
So a calculated 3.5583 could appear as 3.56, 3.558 or 3.55 depending on the school. If you're checking a number against a cutoff, a scholarship minimum say, know which rule your school applies before you assume you've cleared it.
How to find your school's GPA scale
- Check your transcript or your registrar's grading page. Search "[your school] registrar grade point average." It lists every letter and its points.
- Look at the A+ and A- values specifically. That's where most of the differences hide: 4.0 or 4.33 for an A+, 3.7 or 3.67 for an A-.
- Check whether the scale is plus and minus or straight. A straight scale changes every conversion by up to 0.3.
- Check the rounding rule if you're near a cutoff.
- Set the GPA calculator to match, using the A+ and A- settings, and it will give you the same number your school does.