Skip to calculator
Final Grade

High School GPA Calculator

Weighted GPA with the Honors and AP bonuses applied — and the unweighted number next to it, so you can see what the rigor is actually worth.

Your courses

Honors adds +0.5, AP/IB adds +1. Bonuses apply to passing grades only.

Result

Weighted scale

Your weighted GPA is 3.88 across 4 credits. Unweighted it is 3.50.

Unweighted
3.50
Rigor boost
+0.38
Credits
4

How weighted GPA works

Every letter grade converts to points on a 4.0 scale — A is 4.0, B is 3.0, and so on. A weighted GPA then adds a bonus on top for courses your school considers harder, so that a student taking demanding classes is not penalised against one taking easy ones.

course points = base points + rigor bonus
GPA = Σ(course points × credits) ÷ Σ(credits)

Regular +0.0 · Honors +0.5 · AP / IB +1.0

The bonus rides on the grade, not instead of it. An A in AP is 5.0; a C in AP is 3.0 — the same as an A in a regular class. Rigor helps, but it does not rescue a poor grade.

A worked example

These are the courses loaded above, one credit each:

AP Biology — A → 4.0 + 1.0 = 5.0
Honors English — B+ → 3.3 + 0.5 = 3.8
Algebra II — A- → 3.7 + 0.0 = 3.7
World History — B → 3.0 + 0.0 = 3.0

weighted = (5.0 + 3.8 + 3.7 + 3.0) ÷ 4 = 3.88
unweighted = (4.0 + 3.3 + 3.7 + 3.0) ÷ 4 = 3.50

A 3.88 weighted, 3.50 unweighted. The two AP and Honors courses are worth 0.38 of GPA between them — meaningful, and worth knowing before you decide whether to add a third AP next year.

Is another AP worth it?

Run the arithmetic before you decide. Adding one AP course to a six-course schedule and earning an A adds roughly 0.17 to a weighted GPA. Earning a B in that same AP adds about 0.05 — and drops your unweighted GPA. The break-even is roughly: take the harder course if you can hold within one letter grade of what you would have earned in the easier one.

That is the arithmetic. The other half is that admissions officers read the transcript for rigor independently of the number, and a B in AP frequently reads better than an A in the regular section. The calculator cannot weigh that part for you.

Why your GPA gets harder to move

GPA is an average over everything you have taken, so its inertia grows every semester. One A in a one-credit course lifts a 3.5 GPA by about 0.06 after four courses, but by only 0.02 after twenty. A freshman year that goes badly is genuinely harder to recover from than a senior year that does — not because anyone weights it that way, but because there is less to average against early on.

The practical version: fix problems in the semester they happen. To see exactly where the next term lands your average, use the cumulative GPA calculator.

Before you trust the number

Weighting schemes vary more than almost anything else in US grading. Check your handbook for four things: which courses qualify for a bonus, how large the bonus is, whether the scale caps at 5.0, and whether non-academic courses count at all. If your school does something different, change the levels above to match — and the unweighted figure stays correct no matter what.

For a flat 4.0 college-style average, use the GPA calculator. To work out the letter grade in an individual class first, start with the weighted grade calculator.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between weighted and unweighted GPA?
Unweighted treats every course the same: an A is 4.0 whether it is AP Physics or a study hall. Weighted adds a bonus for harder courses — typically +0.5 for Honors and +1.0 for AP or IB — so an A in AP Physics counts as 5.0. That is why weighted GPAs can exceed 4.0 and unweighted ones cannot.
Is the bonus really +0.5 for Honors and +1.0 for AP?
It is the most common convention, and it is what this calculator uses, but it is a convention rather than a standard. Some districts weight Honors at +1.0, some cap the scale at 5.0 regardless, some weight only core academic subjects, and some do not weight at all. Your school handbook is the authority — if it differs, the unweighted figure here is still exactly right.
Do I get the AP bonus if I fail the class?
Not here, and not at most schools. This calculator applies the rigor bonus only to passing grades, because awarding a full point for an F in AP would rank failing a hard course above passing an easy one. A D still earns the bonus; an F does not.
Which GPA do colleges actually look at?
Most selective colleges recalculate. They strip out non-academic courses, apply their own weighting scheme, and compare you against your school’s profile — so neither number on your transcript is quite what they use. Report what your school reports and let them do their own conversion. Course rigor gets evaluated separately from the number regardless.
How do I raise a weighted GPA?
Two levers: better grades, and more weighted courses. The second is often faster. Moving one regular course to Honors adds 0.5 to that course’s points, which across a six-course schedule lifts the average by roughly 0.08 — and taking an AP adds twice that. Whether the harder course is worth it depends on whether you can hold the grade.
What if my school uses semester credits instead of one per year?
Use whatever unit your transcript uses and stay consistent. GPA is a credit-weighted average, so as long as every course is measured on the same scale — all in semesters or all in years — the result is identical.

Other calculators

See every calculator →