How Is GPA Calculated?
Last updated 2026-07-23
GPA (Grade Point Average) turns your letter or percentage grades into a single number by weighting each course by its credit hours. Here is exactly how that calculation works.
The basic formula
Your GPA is a credit-weighted average of your grade points. In plain words:
GPA = (sum of grade points × credit hours) ÷ (total credit hours)
A course worth 4 credits affects your GPA twice as much as a course worth 2 credits. That credit weighting is why simply averaging your grade points gives the wrong answer.
Step by step
- Convert each grade to its grade points, using your university's scale (for example, A = 4.0, B+ = 3.3).
- Multiply each course's grade points by its credit hours, giving that course's quality points.
- Add up all the quality points.
- Add up all the credit hours.
- Divide total quality points by total credit hours, then apply your university's rounding rule.
A worked example
Suppose a student takes three courses on a 4.0 scale:
- Calculus — 4 credits — A (4.0) → 16.0 quality points
- History — 3 credits — B+ (3.3) → 9.9 quality points
- Physics — 3 credits — B (3.0) → 9.0 quality points
Total quality points = 16.0 + 9.9 + 9.0 = 34.9. Total credits = 4 + 3 + 3 = 10. GPA = 34.9 ÷ 10 = 3.49.
Not every course goes into the division
Before you divide, decide which courses belong in the calculation at all. Most universities publish grades that carry no point value — transfer credit, audits, withdrawals, incompletes, and pass marks like P or CR. A course graded that way is removed from both sides of the fraction: it adds no quality points and no credit hours to the division, even when it still counts toward your degree.
Failing grades usually work the opposite way. An F normally earns no credit toward the degree but is still counted in the average at 0 points — so it drags the number down while adding nothing to your progress. Leaving a failure out of your hand calculation is one of the most common ways to arrive at a GPA that is too flattering.
The last step: rounding
Dividing rarely gives a clean number, so every university has a rule for what to do with the rest. Most round to the nearest two decimal places. Some truncate instead — they simply cut the number off, so a calculated 3.4989 is recorded as 3.49, not 3.50. Some round to one decimal place, or to three.
This sounds pedantic until a threshold is involved. Honours classifications, scholarship renewals and graduate-school minimums are usually stated to two decimals, and a truncating university will leave you just below a line that a rounding university would have put you above. How GPA rounding works covers this in full.
Why your university's result can differ
The method above is universal, but the numbers are not. Universities differ in the grade points they assign (some use A = 4.0, others A = 4.3 or a 10-point scale), whether they include plus/minus grades, how they treat pass/fail and repeated courses, and how they round. Some scales are even inverted — on the German 1.0–5.0 scale, 1.0 is the best possible grade and a rising average means your results are getting worse.
That is why the same grades can produce a different GPA at two different schools, and why a single "national" formula is wrong for most students who use it. Read more on where the differences come from.
Want the exact number for your school instead of a generic one? Open the GPAWorld calculator and pick your university — it uses that university's own grade points, rounding, and CGPA formula.
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Frequently asked questions
Is GPA just the average of my grades?
Not quite. GPA is a credit-weighted average: each course is weighted by its credit hours, so higher-credit courses influence your GPA more than lower-credit ones.
Do all universities use a 4.0 scale?
No. Many use a 4.0 scale, but others use 4.3, 5.0, 10-point, or percentage-based scales, each with their own grade-point values. Always use your own university's scale.
Are failed or pass/fail courses included in GPA?
It depends on the university. Failed courses usually count as 0 grade points, while pass/fail courses are often excluded from the GPA calculation but may still earn credit.