A grade point average (GPA) is a single number that summarizes your grades by converting each letter grade into points and averaging those points across your courses.
On the standard US 4.0 scale, an A is worth 4 points, a B 3, a C 2, a D 1 and an F 0. Your school’s grading scale decides which percentages earn which letter.
The formula
GPA = total quality points ÷ total credits
Quality points for one class are the grade points times the credits the class carries. That is why a 4-credit course moves your GPA more than a 1-credit elective.
Example. One term with three classes:
| Class | Grade | Points | Credits | Quality points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biology | A | 4 | 4 | 16 |
| History | B | 3 | 3 | 9 |
| Art | C | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Total | 8 | 27 |
27 ÷ 8 = 3.38 GPA. A simple average of the three grades would be 3.0, so the credit weighting matters. If you want to skip the arithmetic, the GPA calculator does it for any number of classes.
Versions you’ll run into
There isn’t one GPA. Your transcript may show a term GPA, a cumulative GPA across all terms, an unweighted GPA, and a weighted GPA that gives extra points for honors and AP work. Colleges often recalculate their own version from your transcript, so knowing which number is which avoids confusion.
What a specific GPA means
Wondering whether a 3.3 or a 3.7 is good, or what letter grade it equals? Our GPA pages break down each value, for example what a 3.5 GPA means.
Related: credit hour · letter grade