The GPA scale: letter grades to grade points
On the 4.0 scale, an A is worth 4 grade points, a B 3, a C 2, a D 1 and an F 0. Plus and minus grades usually move a letter by a third of a point, so a B+ is 3.33 and an A− 3.67. Your GPA is the average of those points, each course counted by its credits.
| Letter | Percent | 4.0 scale | Honors +0.5 | AP or IB +1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A+ | 97–100 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 5.0 |
| A | 93–96 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 5.0 |
| A− | 90–92 | 3.67 | 4.17 | 4.67 |
| B+ | 87–89 | 3.33 | 3.83 | 4.33 |
| B | 83–86 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
| B− | 80–82 | 2.67 | 3.17 | 3.67 |
| C+ | 77–79 | 2.33 | 2.83 | 3.33 |
| C | 73–76 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 3.0 |
| C− | 70–72 | 1.67 | 2.17 | 2.67 |
| D+ | 67–69 | 1.33 | 1.83 | 2.33 |
| D | 63–66 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.0 |
| D− | 60–62 | 0.67 | 0.67 | 0.67 |
| F | Below 60 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
The percentages are the common US college cutoffs that Wikipedia lists; your syllabus may set others. The grade points follow the .33 rule many schools use, the same values UT Austin and the University of Florida publish. An A+ counts the same as an A here, as it does at most schools.
The Honors and AP columns show a common weighted setting for high schools. There is no national rule: your school’s handbook sets its own extra points, and colleges often recalculate GPAs without them when they compare applicants.
Find the letter for your percentage on your own class’s cutoffs with the grading scale calculator, then add up your courses in the GPA calculator. Grades from outside the US: grading systems by country.
Plus and minus grades
Many schools that give plus and minus grades add a third of a point for a plus and take a third away for a minus: B+ 3.33, B 3.0, B− 2.67. Some schools use 0.3 or 0.25 instead, and a few give half-step grades such as AB for 3.5, so check your transcript key before you compare two schools’ GPAs.
Schools also disagree about the A+. Most count it as 4.0, the same as an A, because 4.0 is treated as the top of the scale; some count it as 4.33. UT Austin’s and the University of Florida’s published values start at A 4.0.
Weighted GPA: Honors, AP and IB
A weighted GPA gives extra points for harder classes. The common setting adds 0.5 for Honors and 1.0 for AP or IB, so an A in an AP class counts 5.0 and a B counts 4.0. Your school decides which classes qualify and whether a D still earns the bonus.
Some districts go further: Chicago Public Schools gives an A 5 points in Honors and 6 in AP or IB Diploma classes. That is why two students with the same grades can have different weighted GPAs, and why colleges often recalculate. The national high school average of 3.11 gives no extra points, so compare it with your unweighted GPA.
The high school GPA calculator shows your weighted and unweighted GPA side by side.
What is the highest GPA possible?
On an unweighted 4.0 scale the highest GPA is 4.0: an A in every graded course. It goes higher only where a scale gives more than 4 points for some grade.
| Scale | Highest GPA | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Unweighted 4.0 | 4.0 | An A in every graded course. An A+ adds nothing where it counts as an A. |
| 4.0 with A+ at 4.33 | 4.33 | An A+ in every course, at the schools that count it as 4.33. LSAC, which reports GPAs to law schools, converts every A+ to 4.33; AMCAS, for medical schools, counts it as 4.0. |
| Weighted, AP and IB +1.0 | 5.0 | An A in every class, with every class AP or IB. Regular classes stop at 4.0, so most top weighted GPAs land between 4 and 5. |
| Chicago Public Schools | 6.0 | An A in every class, all of them AP or IB Diploma (6 points each; Honors 5, regular 4). |
| MIT’s 5.0 scale | 5.0 | An A in every subject: MIT counts A 5, B 4, C 3, D 2 and F 0, and converts to the 4.0 scale by counting A 4 instead. |
A transcript that shows a 4.5 is therefore not wrong, but it is not on the same scale as a 4.0 from a school that does not weight. Ask which scale a GPA is on before comparing it with anyone else’s.
Indian universities grade on a 10-point CGPA instead, and each publishes its own conversion to a percentage: see CGPA to percentage.
From a percentage to grade points
A percentage does not become grade points directly. Your class percentage first becomes a letter on your class’s scale, and the letter then becomes points. With the cutoffs above, an 88% is a B+ and earns 3.33; on a whole-letter scale it is a B and earns 3.0.
Without plus and minus grades, the federal High School Transcript Study converts percentages like this:
| Percent | Letter | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 90–100 | A | 4.0 |
| 80–89 | B | 3.0 |
| 70–79 | C | 2.0 |
| 60–69 | D | 1.0 |
| Below 60 | F | 0.0 |
How the points become a GPA
Multiply each course’s points by its credits, add the results, and divide by the credits. An A in a 3-credit course, a B+ in a 3-credit course and a C in a 2-credit course give 12 + 9.99 + 4 = 25.99 points over 8 credits: a 3.25 GPA.
GPA = (points × credits, added up) ÷ total credits
A cumulative GPA does the same over every term; what a cumulative GPA counts explains how to combine semesters. To see what your number means, open its page, such as a 3.0 or a 3.5 GPA, or read what counts as a good GPA.
Sources: Wikipedia, Academic grading in the United States; NCES, How the transcript study calculates GPA; UT Austin, Grade point average computation (Catalog 2026–2027, checked September 27, 2026); University of Florida, Grades and grading policies (Undergraduate catalog 2026–2027, checked September 27, 2026); Chicago Public Schools, policy 605.13 (checked September 19, 2026); NCES, NAEP glossary, “grade point average”; LSAC, Transcript summarization (checked October 11, 2026); AAMC, Grades factored into AMCAS GPA calculations (checked October 11, 2026); MIT Registrar, Calculating GPA (checked October 11, 2026).