On the standard US 4.0 scale, an A equals 4.0 grade points, a B equals 3.0, a C equals 2.0, a D equals 1.0, and an F equals 0.0 — with plus and minus grades shifting the value by roughly 0.3 in either direction. The full chart below covers every letter grade from A+ to F.
The complete letter grade to GPA chart
| Letter Grade | Grade Points (4.0 scale) |
|---|---|
| A+ | 4.0 (some schools: 4.3) |
| A | 4.0 |
| A- | 3.7 |
| B+ | 3.3 |
| B | 3.0 |
| B- | 2.7 |
| C+ | 2.3 |
| C | 2.0 |
| C- | 1.7 |
| D+ | 1.3 |
| D | 1.0 |
| D- | 0.7 |
| F | 0.0 |
This is the most common convention used across US high schools and colleges, but it is not universal — it's issued by each institution individually, not by a single governing body. Some schools skip minus grades below a C, some don't offer D- at all, and some cap every A-range grade at a flat 4.0 regardless of plus/minus. Always cross-check against your school's official grading policy, usually published by the registrar.
Why plus/minus grades matter
A course grade of B+ (3.3) contributes noticeably more to your average than a plain B (3.0) once you multiply by credit hours over several courses. Ignoring the plus/minus distinction and rounding everything to whole-letter values is one of the most common reasons students miscalculate their own GPA by hand.
It's also worth noting that not every institution treats plus/minus grades identically even when they do use them. Some schools apply a 0.33 increment instead of 0.3 (making a B+ worth 3.33 rather than 3.3), and some cap the bottom of the scale differently, treating any D- or lower as an automatic 0.0. These small differences rarely change your GPA by more than a hundredth of a point, but they explain why two GPA calculators can occasionally disagree slightly on the same input data.
Worked example: converting letter grades to a semester GPA
Suppose you took five courses in a semester:
| Course | Credits | Letter Grade | Grade Points | Quality Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic Chemistry | 4 | B- | 2.7 | 10.8 |
| Linear Algebra | 3 | A | 4.0 | 12.0 |
| World History | 3 | A- | 3.7 | 11.1 |
| Public Speaking | 2 | B+ | 3.3 | 6.6 |
| Intro to Sociology | 3 | C+ | 2.3 | 6.9 |
Total credit hours: 4 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 3 = 15
Total quality points: 10.8 + 12.0 + 11.1 + 6.6 + 6.9 = 47.4
GPA = 47.4 ÷ 15 = 3.16
Notice how the 4-credit Organic Chemistry course, despite only earning a B-, still pulls significant weight because of its credit load — the same letter grade in a 1-credit lab would have barely moved the average. That's exactly what our Credit Hours to GPA guide explains in more depth, and it's the core mechanic behind every GPA Calculator computation.
Edge cases to watch for
- Pass/Fail courses: A "P" or "S" grade typically carries no grade points and isn't included in the GPA calculation at all — it's excluded from both the numerator and denominator.
- Incomplete (I) or In-Progress grades: These are usually left out of GPA until a final letter grade is posted, at which point your GPA is recalculated retroactively.
- Schools without plus/minus grading: If your institution only issues whole letters, just use the base value (A=4.0, B=3.0, etc.) and skip the modifiers entirely.
- A+ capped at 4.0: Because most US GPA scales top out at 4.0, an A+ often provides no numerical advantage over a plain A unless your school explicitly uses an extended scale (up to 4.3 or 4.5).
- High school honors/AP grades: Many high schools add bonus points for advanced coursework — that's a separate weighting system covered by our Weighted GPA Calculator, not the standard chart above.
How to use this chart on your own transcript
Start by pulling up your actual transcript or grade report and listing every course alongside its letter grade and credit hours. Then, working row by row, look up each letter grade in the chart above to get its grade point value. Multiply each grade point value by that course's credit hours to get "quality points," just as shown in the worked example. Once every course has a quality point value, add them all together and divide by your total credit hours — that final number is your GPA.
It helps to double-check your registrar's official grading policy document before doing this, since institutions occasionally publish slightly different tables than the one above. Community colleges, for instance, sometimes use a narrower scale without D- grades, while some graduate programs use a compressed scale where a B is effectively the lowest passing grade that still counts favorably. A few minutes spent confirming your school's exact scale can save you from an inaccurate self-calculated GPA.
A note on comparing GPA across schools
Because grade point scales aren't standardized nationally, a 3.5 GPA at one school isn't automatically equivalent to a 3.5 GPA at another — grading rigor, scale caps, and plus/minus conventions all differ. This matters most when GPA is being compared across institutions, such as during a transfer application, graduate school admissions, or scholarship eligibility review. When in doubt, admissions offices typically recompute applicants' GPAs using their own standardized formula rather than accepting the self-reported number at face value, precisely because of these scale differences.
Try it yourself
Rather than looking up each grade point value and doing the multiplication by hand, our GPA Calculator applies this exact conversion chart automatically — just enter your course grades and credit hours, and it computes your semester GPA instantly. Everything is calculated privately in your browser, with no account or sign-up required.
