This calculator computes your unweighted high school GPA — the standard 4.0-scale average colleges use to compare applicants from different schools on equal footing. Enter your courses, grades, and credit hours, and it does the credit-weighted math for you.

Unweighted vs. weighted GPA

Unweighted GPA treats every course the same: an A is 4.0 whether it's earned in a standard class, an Honors section, or an AP course. Weighted GPA, by contrast, adds bonus points for harder courses — often +0.5 for Honors and +1.0 for AP/IB — letting a student's GPA climb above 4.0. Because every school weights differently (and some don't weight at all), colleges almost always recalculate applicants to this same unweighted 4.0 scale before comparing them, which is exactly what this calculator produces. If your school reports a weighted GPA, use the vs Weighted GPA tab above to see how the two numbers diverge, or switch to the Semester GPA Calculator if you specifically need the weighted figure.

The standard 4.0 scale and credit hours

This calculator uses the near-universal US letter-grade scale: A/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. Each course's grade points are multiplied by its credit hours before being summed, so a 1.0-credit class counts twice as much toward your GPA as a 0.5-credit elective earning the same letter grade. Most full-year courses carry 1.0 credit; check your school's transcript or course catalog if you're unsure what a specific class is worth.

How colleges read your GPA

Admissions offices typically look at both your school-reported (often weighted) GPA and a recalculated unweighted GPA, alongside the rigor of your course schedule shown on the transcript. A 3.7 unweighted GPA earned across several AP courses is generally viewed more favorably than a 3.9 unweighted GPA in entirely standard-track classes, because the admissions committee sees the course difficulty separately from the raw number. Freshman-year grades do count toward most schools' cumulative GPA — check with your guidance counselor if your school has a different policy, since a few high schools exclude ninth grade from official transcripts.