GPA Calculator & Cumulative GPA Planner
Calculate a term GPA from your letter grades and credit hours, project your cumulative GPA from a prior record, and find the term GPA a target needs — on a 4.0, 4.33 or custom scale, with pass/fail courses excluded and optional honors/AP weighting.
GPA scales, rounding and weighting vary by institution — the default 4.0 scale is a common U.S. convention, not a universal standard, and your registrar's computed GPA is authoritative. This is an educational estimator; nothing you enter leaves your browser.
GPA = Σ(grade point × credits) ÷ Σ(credits)28 ÷ 9 = 3.1128 quality points across 9 credit hours is a term GPA of 3.11 on the 4.0 scale.
⚠ This uses a common U.S. 4.0 scale. Institutions differ in cutoffs, plus/minus values, rounding and how repeats are counted — confirm your school’s policy.
How it works
Add a row for each course with its letter grade and credit hours. The calculator multiplies each grade's point value by its credits, sums the quality points, and divides by total credits to get your term GPA. Enter your current cumulative GPA and completed credits to project a new cumulative GPA, or set a target cumulative GPA to see the term GPA you would need. Switch scales, mark pass/fail courses, and add an explicit honors/AP boost per row when you use weighted mode. Everything runs in your browser and shows the formula and the numbers substituted in.
Three courses — A in 3 credits, B in 4 credits and C in 2 credits — give 12 + 12 + 4 = 28 quality points over 9 credits, a 3.11 term GPA. With a prior 3.00 across 30 credits, the new cumulative GPA is (90 + 28) ÷ (30 + 9) = 3.03. To reach a 3.20 cumulative over the next 15 credits from that 3.00/30 record, you would need a 3.60 term GPA.
Key insight
A GPA is a credit-weighted average, not a plain average of grades: a high mark in a one-credit seminar moves it far less than the same mark in a four-credit course. And because the 4.0 scale is a convention rather than a law, the scale and rounding your institution uses matter as much as the arithmetic.
Assumptions
- The default 4.0 scale is a common U.S. convention, not a universal standard; every institution may weight, round or band grades differently.
- Grade points and credit hours use the same course list, and each graded course carries more than zero credit hours.
- Pass/fail (and credit/no-credit) courses are excluded from the GPA because they carry no grade points.
- Weighted mode applies only the honors/AP boost you enter on each row; no automatic weighting is applied.
- Cumulative projection assumes the prior GPA and completed credits you enter are on the same scale as this term.
Limitations
- It does not apply grade replacement, repeated-course forgiveness or academic-renewal policies.
- It does not convert international grades to a U.S. GPA, nor apply any single national scale as universal.
- It does not determine your institution's official rounding, plus/minus values, or how it counts withdrawals and incompletes.
- It is an educational estimator; your registrar's computed GPA is authoritative where they differ.
FAQ
How is GPA calculated?
Multiply each course's grade point value by its credit hours to get quality points, add the quality points across all graded courses, and divide by the total credit hours. GPA = Σ(grade point × credits) ÷ Σ(credits). It is a credit-weighted average, so higher-credit courses count for more.
Is a 4.0 GPA scale universal?
No. The 4.0 scale here (A and A+ = 4.0 down to F = 0) is a common U.S. convention, but institutions differ on plus/minus values, whether A+ is 4.0 or 4.33, rounding, and how they treat withdrawals or repeats. Use your registrar's scale where it differs — the calculator also offers a 4.33 and a fully custom scale.
How does the cumulative GPA projection work?
Enter your current cumulative GPA and the credits it covers, then add this term's courses. The tool combines them: cumulative GPA = (prior GPA × prior credits + this term's quality points) ÷ (prior credits + this term's credits). It is a weighted blend, so the more prior credits you have, the less a single term moves the cumulative figure.
How do weighted (honors/AP) grades work here?
In weighted mode you enter the boost yourself — for example +1.0 for an AP course — and the tool adds it to that row's base grade value before averaging. It never applies a boost automatically, because honors and AP weighting rules differ by school. Turn weighted mode off for an unweighted GPA.
Are pass/fail courses included in the GPA?
No. Pass/fail (and credit/no-credit) courses carry no grade points, so they are excluded from both the numerator and the denominator of the GPA. Mark a row pass/fail and it is left out of the average, though you can still record its credits for your own reference.
What term GPA do I need to reach a target?
Enter your current cumulative GPA and credits and a target cumulative GPA, plus the credits you will take. The tool solves required term GPA = (target × (prior + planned credits) − prior GPA × prior credits) ÷ planned credits, and tells you if that exceeds the scale maximum — meaning the target is not reachable in a single term.
Does CalcDomain store my grades?
No. Everything you type stays in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server, and no grade or credit value is saved in cookies, local storage, session storage, IndexedDB or the page URL. Reload the page and the inputs reset.
Related Calculators
Methodology, sources, review
GPA = Σ(grade point × credit hours) ÷ Σ(credit hours), computed by a dedicated, dependency-free engine (v1.0.0) shared by this page and the /education hub quick tool. The default scale is a common U.S. 4.0 map (A and 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), with an optional 4.33 scale (A+ = 4.33) and a fully custom, monotonicity-checked scale. Pass/fail courses are excluded from the GPA. Weighted mode adds only the honors/AP boost you enter on a row — no automatic weighting. Cumulative GPA = (prior GPA × prior credits + term quality points) ÷ (prior credits + term credits). The target planner solves the term GPA needed to reach a cumulative target and flags it when it exceeds the scale maximum. Grade replacement, repeated-course forgiveness and international grade conversions are not modeled. No scale is a universal standard — institutions differ.
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Author Ugo Candido · Updated