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Weighted to Unweighted GPA Calculator

Enter your weighted GPA and how many advanced courses you have taken. The calculator strips out the weighting to show your unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale.

Total courses means every graded class on your transcript so far, not just this year.

Unweighted
Weighted: · Letter grade: · Roughly

Grade to GPA conversion table

If you only need to convert a single grade rather than a full GPA, this is the standard mapping most American high schools use.

Letter grade, percentage, and unweighted 4.0 scale equivalents.
LetterGPAPercentage
A4.093–100%
A−3.790–92%
B+3.387–89%
B3.083–86%
B−2.780–82%
C+2.377–79%
C2.073–76%
C−1.770–72%
D+1.367–69%
D1.063–66%
F0.0Below 63%
Scales vary by school. Some high schools use a 10 point spread per letter rather than 7, and some do not use plus and minus grades at all. Your own transcript is the authority. This table is the most common version.

Weighted and unweighted, explained

An unweighted GPA puts every course on the same 4.0 scale. An A is a 4.0 whether you earned it in regular English or AP Physics. It caps at 4.0, always.

A weighted GPA adds points for harder courses. Most schools add a full point for AP and IB and half a point for honors, so an A in AP Chemistry counts as a 5.0. This is why weighted GPAs run above 4.0, and why a 4.3 means very different things at two different high schools.

Why the number on your transcript is not the number colleges use

Weighting is set by each high school with no national standard. One school weights AP a full point, another weights it half, a third weights nothing at all. A 4.4 from the first school and a 3.9 from the third can represent identical work.

Admissions offices know this, so most recalculate. They typically strip the weighting, sometimes drop non-academic courses like PE and health, and rebuild the GPA on their own scale. Then they read that number next to your transcript to see how demanding your schedule was.

Which means the useful question is not whether your GPA looks high. It is whether you performed well in the most demanding courses your school actually offered you.

Common questions

Is a 3.7 unweighted GPA good?

Yes, it is strong and competitive at most colleges. Rigor is the other half of the picture: a 3.7 earned across AP and honors courses generally reads better than a 4.0 earned in the least demanding schedule available.

Can an unweighted GPA be above 4.0?

No. Unweighted caps at 4.0 by definition, because an A is worth exactly 4.0 no matter the course. Anything above 4.0 is a weighted GPA.

Do colleges prefer weighted or unweighted?

Neither, really. Most recalculate using their own formula so they can compare applicants from thousands of different high schools on one scale. Report what your school reports and let them do their conversion.

Should I take an easier course to protect my GPA?

Usually not. Admissions offices look at course rigor directly, and a transcript that avoids available advanced courses is visible to them. A B in AP is generally read more favorably than an A in the regular section of the same subject, though this stops being true if the harder schedule causes grades to drop across the board.

How do I calculate GPA with a mid-year transcript?

Use every graded course completed so far, including freshman year. Colleges see your full high school record, not just your current year, so a running cumulative GPA is the number that matters.

Course-by-course, saved for later

The College Guide portal calculates GPA course by course with AP, IB, honors, and dual enrollment credit, and keeps it alongside your college list and test scores.

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Free to start. No credit card. Works for any high school grade level.