High School GPA Calculator
Calculate your high school GPA with Regular, Honors, AP, IB and Dual Enrollment courses. Weighted and unweighted are shown together, because colleges often want the unweighted one.
Credits are optional — leave them blank if every course at your school counts equally.
Entries
Weighted GPA
—
Unweighted GPA
—
Difference
—
| Course | Credits | Grade | Points with bonus | Quality points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Sign in or create a free account to save this calculation. Everything else works without one.
Both numbers are worth knowing. Your school reports one of them on your transcript, but many colleges recalculate your GPA themselves, often unweighted and sometimes using only core academic courses.
Related calculators
Weighted GPA Calculator
Add course-level bonuses for Honors, AP and IB classes and compare weighted GPA against unweighted.
Unweighted GPA Calculator
Calculate GPA on a straight scale with no bonus for course difficulty.
GPA Calculator
Calculate your GPA from course credits and grades, using letter grades, percentages or grade points.
Cumulative GPA Calculator
Combine your existing GPA with a new semester, or add several semesters together, to get your overall GPA.
How to use this calculator
- Choose how your school weights courses. If you are not sure, start with common weighting and check your student handbook.
- Add each course, its level and the grade you earned.
- Add credits only if courses at your school carry different weights — many high schools treat every course equally.
Unweighted and weighted, and why both exist
An unweighted GPA treats every course the same. An A is 4.0 whether it came from AP Chemistry or a study skills elective, and the scale tops out at 4.0.
A weighted GPA adds bonus points for harder courses, so a student taking demanding classes is not penalised for the lower grades those classes can produce. It can go above 4.0.
With credits, each term is multiplied by the course's credit value first — the same formula the GPA Calculator uses.
A worked example
Five courses, all counting equally, with common weighting:
| Course | Level | Grade | Unweighted | Weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AP Biology | AP | A | 4.0 | 5.0 |
| Honors English | Honors | B+ | 3.3 | 3.8 |
| Algebra II | Regular | A- | 3.7 | 3.7 |
| US History | Regular | B | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| AP Chemistry | AP | B | 3.0 | 4.0 |
| Total | — | — | 17.0 | 19.5 |
Unweighted: 17.0 ÷ 5 = 3.40. Weighted: 19.5 ÷ 5 = 3.90.
The half-point difference comes entirely from the two AP courses and one honors course. Notice that the B in AP Chemistry is worth more weighted (4.0) than the A- in regular Algebra II (3.7) — which is the whole argument for weighting, and also why unweighted GPAs are still asked for.
Course levels and what they usually mean
| Level | Typical bonus | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Regular | +0.0 | Standard college-preparatory courses. |
| Honors | +0.5 | Accelerated, set by the school rather than an external body. |
| AP | +1.0 | College Board curriculum with an end-of-year exam. |
| IB | +1.0 | International Baccalaureate; higher level is sometimes weighted more than standard level. |
| Dual Enrollment | +1.0 | College courses taken in high school. Weighted at some schools, not at others. |
Important notes and limitations
Your school and your colleges will calculate this differently
High schools differ on weighting, on whether electives count, and on how pass/fail and repeated courses are handled. Colleges frequently ignore all of that and recalculate from your transcript using their own rules. Two accurate GPAs for the same student can differ by half a point.
- Some schools exclude PE, health and electives from GPA entirely.
- Some cap the weighted GPA, or weight only a fixed number of courses per year.
- Middle school courses taken for high school credit sometimes count and sometimes do not.
- The GPA on your transcript is the one that counts officially. This is a planning tool.
Frequently asked questions
Which GPA will colleges see?
They see your transcript, which shows whatever your school reports. Many admissions offices then recalculate a GPA of their own — commonly unweighted, sometimes restricted to core academic subjects — so that applicants from different schools can be compared fairly. Knowing both of your numbers is the useful thing.
Is a 3.9 weighted GPA better than a 3.7 unweighted?
They are not directly comparable — they measure different things. A 3.7 unweighted means very strong grades; a 3.9 weighted could mean strong grades in a demanding schedule, or good grades in many weighted courses. Context is what makes either meaningful.
Do all high schools weight GPAs?
No. Plenty report unweighted GPAs only, and among those that weight, the bonus values vary widely. Choose "No weighting" above if yours does not.
Should I take AP classes if they might lower my GPA?
Weighting exists precisely to stop that being a pure loss, and colleges assess course rigour alongside grades. But a course you cannot keep up with helps neither your transcript nor your learning. This is a conversation for your counsellor, not a calculation.
How is high school GPA different from college GPA?
College GPAs are almost always credit-weighted — a four-credit course counts twice as much as a two-credit one — and weighting for course difficulty is rare. See the College GPA Calculator for that.
Guides that explain this
-
Weighted vs Unweighted GPA
What the two scales measure, why an AP class can push a GPA above 4.0, and which one colleges actually look at.
-
How High School GPA Is Calculated
Unweighted and weighted methods, how Honors, AP and IB are treated, and why colleges often recalculate your GPA themselves.