College GPA calculator
Add this semester's courses, then the GPA and credits you already carry, for both the semester and the cumulative figure.
| Course | Grade | Credits | Remove |
|---|---|---|---|
Add a course, its grade and its credits to see your GPA.
How to use it
- Step 1Fill in this semester's courses: the letter grade and the credit hours for each one, as they appear in your course catalog.
- Step 2Under the table, type the GPA and the number of credits you have already earned. Both are printed on your transcript or in your student portal.
- Step 3The top figure is this semester on its own; the second is what your cumulative GPA becomes once the semester is added to everything before it.
Semester GPA and cumulative GPA are two different numbers
A semester GPA covers the courses of one term. A cumulative GPA covers everything you have taken, and it is the number that scholarships, honor societies and graduate programs ask for. It is not the average of your semester GPAs: each semester carries the weight of its own credits, so a heavy 18-credit term moves the cumulative figure much more than a 9-credit one.
The arithmetic behind the cumulative figure is simpler than it looks. Your transcript's GPA multiplied by your earned credits gives the quality points you have accumulated so far. Add this semester's quality points, add the credits, and divide again. That is exactly what the second answer above does, and the working is written out under it.
Why one semester moves a transcript so little
Once you have 60 credits behind you, a 15-credit semester is a fifth of the record. A student sitting at 2.80 over 60 credits who earns a perfect 4.00 over 15 credits ends at 3.04 — a real improvement, and still a long way from 3.50. Going the other way is just as slow, which is the good news after a bad term.
The practical use of that is planning. Type the grades you expect rather than the grades you have, and the page tells you where the semester lands you before the semester happens.
Where to find your numbers
The credits you have earned are on the transcript, usually as "hours earned" or "credits completed", and they are not always the same as the credits you attempted: a failed course was attempted but not earned, while it still counts in the GPA. Use the hours the GPA is calculated over, which the transcript labels "GPA hours" or "quality hours" when the two differ.
Questions and answers
How is a cumulative GPA calculated?
Multiply your current GPA by the credits it was earned over to get your quality points so far, add the quality points of the new semester, then divide the total by all the credits together. The page shows that line of arithmetic under the answer.
Can I raise my GPA in one semester?
You can move it, and how far depends on how many credits are already behind it. Early on, a strong semester moves the cumulative figure a lot; after three or four years it moves it by a few hundredths. Type the grades you are aiming for and the page will show you the size of the move.
Do withdrawals and pass/fail courses count?
Usually not toward the GPA. A W carries no grade points and no GPA hours; a pass usually brings credits toward graduation but stays out of the average. Leave both out of the table, and leave them out of the credits you type in below it.
Do transfer credits change my GPA?
At most schools they bring the credit hours but not the grade, so they raise the credits toward your degree without moving the average. Some programs recalculate everything for admission — if you are filling in an application, read what that application asks for.