Unweighted GPA Calculator

An unweighted GPA is your grade average on the plain 4.0 scale, where every course counts the same way: an A is 4.0 whether the course was regular, Honors or AP. No bonus points are added for difficulty. It runs from 0.0 to a maximum of 4.0, and it is the figure colleges can compare fairly across schools with different weighting systems.

Convert each letter grade to points (A = 4.0, B = 3.0, C = 2.0, D = 1.0, F = 0.0, with +/− steps), multiply by the course's credits, add everything up and divide by the total credits. Four courses worth 45.3 quality points over 13 credits give 3.48. The calculator above is pre-filled with exactly that example.

Because weighting is not standardised. One school's AP bonus is +1.0, another's is +0.5, a third does not weight at all — so weighted GPAs from different schools are not comparable numbers. Admissions offices recalculate an unweighted GPA from the transcript to put applicants on one scale, then judge course difficulty separately by looking at what you actually took.

No — weighting only ever adds points, never removes them, so a weighted GPA is always greater than or equal to the unweighted one for the same grades. If a number you are quoted breaks that rule, one of the two was calculated on a different set of courses. On the weighted GPA calculator the two are shown side by side so you can compare your own pair directly.

Yes — a 3.5 unweighted is a strong average, halfway between a B and an A across every course with no help from weighting, and above the admission averages of a great many colleges. It also tends to understate a hard course load: a 3.5 built from AP courses reads differently from a 3.5 built from standard ones, which is why colleges look at the transcript alongside the number. Our guide to what counts as a good GPA works through the thresholds in detail.

Every course that finishes with a letter grade on your transcript normally counts, weighted by its credits. Pass/fail courses sit outside GPA, and some schools exclude certain non-academic courses from their own calculation — but a college recalculating your GPA will typically include all graded academic courses. When in doubt, include the course; the difference one elective makes is small and honest.