Free tool

GPA calculator, weighted and unweighted

Put in your actual schedule. You get both numbers, with the AP, IB, dual-enrollment and Honors bump applied the way most US high schools apply it.

CourseLevelGrade

Weighted

4.17

With the AP / IB / Honors bump

Unweighted

3.67

Straight 4.0 scale

From 3 courses. Nothing you type here leaves your browser.

A GPA is one of five things colleges weigh. Orblite tracks all five, and tells you which one is actually holding you back.

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Meet Orblite

Weighted and unweighted, and why both exist

Unweighted GPA puts every class on the same 4.0 scale. An A in AP Chemistry and an A in a standard elective are both worth 4.0, which is the point: it measures how you did, not what you took.

Weighted GPA adds points for harder classes. On the most common US scale — the one this calculator uses — AP, IB and dual-enrollment courses add a full point and Honors adds half, so an A in an AP class is worth 5.0 and an A in Honors is worth 4.5. That is why weighted GPAs can exceed 4.0.

Colleges look at both, and most large universities recalculate your GPA themselves using their own scale before they compare you to anyone. That is worth knowing before you spend a weekend agonising over a hundredth of a point: the number that matters most is the one your transcript supports, not the one any calculator prints.

Your school's scale wins over this one

American high schools weight courses in genuinely different ways. Some add 1.0 for AP and nothing for Honors. Some cap the weighted GPA at 5.0, some don't cap it at all. Some weight only the core five subjects. A few use a 100-point scale and convert at the end.

This calculator uses the most common convention, which makes it a good estimate and a bad substitute for your school's own report. If the number here and the number on your transcript disagree, your transcript is right.

What actually moves a GPA

Arithmetic, mostly, and it is unsentimental. Early grades are worth the same as late ones but they sit in the average for longer, which is why a rough freshman semester is both survivable and annoyingly persistent — you cannot remove it, you can only outweigh it.

The other thing worth understanding is the trade between rigour and grades. Dropping from AP to Standard to protect an A costs you the weighting bump and costs you the rigour, which admissions readers weigh separately and often above the GPA itself. Taking a harder class and getting a B is frequently the better outcome. Frequently, not always — and which one it is depends on your schedule, your year, and what the rest of your application is doing.

That is the kind of judgment a calculator cannot make and a counselor can.

Common questions

Does an A+ count as more than 4.0?: Not here, and not at most schools. Some districts use 4.3 for an A+, which is why a school-reported GPA can come out slightly higher than this one. Everything else on the scale is standard.
Should I include gym, study hall, or a pass/fail class?: Usually not — most schools leave non-graded and pass/fail courses out of the GPA entirely. If your school does include them, add them here at Standard level.
How do I calculate a cumulative GPA across all four years?: Add every graded course from every year, not just this semester. This calculator averages whatever you put in it, so a full four-year list gives you the cumulative figure and one semester's list gives you that semester's.
Is a 3.8 weighted GPA good?: It depends entirely on the schedule behind it, which is exactly why the question is hard to answer from a number. A 3.8 carrying five APs is a different application from a 3.8 carrying none. Any site that answers this with a percentile is guessing.
Do you store what I type?: No. The calculation runs in your browser and the courses are saved in your browser's own storage so a refresh doesn't lose them. Nothing is sent to us and there is no account.