How to Calculate Your GPA: Step by Step

June 4, 2026 · Editorial Team

Calculating your GPA is straightforward once you understand credit weighting. Follow these five steps and you can work out any term or cumulative GPA.

Step 1 — Convert each grade to grade points

Look up your university's scale and find the grade-point value for each course grade. On a typical 4.0 scale, A = 4.0, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0, and so on.

Step 2 — Note each course's credit weight

Find the credit value of each course (often 3 credits for a one-term course, or 0.5 units at some schools). This is the weight the course carries.

Step 3 — Multiply grade points by credits

For each course, multiply its grade points by its credits to get its "quality points".

Step 4 — Add everything up

Sum all the quality points, and separately sum all the credits.

Step 5 — Divide

Divide total quality points by total credits. The result is your GPA.

Worked example

Course	Grade points	Credits	Quality points
Course A	4.0	3	12.0
Course B	3.0	3	9.0
Course C	2.7	3	8.1

Total quality points = 29.1, total credits = 9, GPA = 29.1 ÷ 9 = 3.23.

The mistake to avoid

Do not simply average the grade points (4.0 + 3.0 + 2.7 ÷ 3). That only works when every course has the same credit weight. Whenever courses differ in credits — a lab, a full-year course, a seminar — you must weight by credits or your GPA will be wrong.

Let the calculator do it

To skip the arithmetic, use the calculator for your university on this site. It already knows your school's scale and applies credit weighting automatically.

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