Letter Grade to GPA

How to Convert a Letter Grade to GPA Points

Every GPA starts with a conversion: each letter grade on your transcript is assigned a grade point value, and the GPA is a weighted average of those values. This converter shows the grade points for any letter from A+ down to F on the three scales US schools actually use — the standard 4.0 scale and the 4.3 and 4.33 variants — along with the percentage band that usually produces that letter.

How the Letter-to-GPA Conversion Works

The system is simpler than it looks. An A is worth 4.0 points, and each step down the ladder subtracts a fixed amount. On the standard 4.0 and 4.3 scales, a minus modifier subtracts 0.3 and a plus adds 0.3: B is 3.0, B+ is 3.3, B- is 2.7, down to D- at 0.7 and F at 0.0. The 4.33 scale uses thirds instead — A- is 3.67, B+ is 3.33, B- is 2.67 — matching how the universities that grade on 4.33 publish their tables. The A+ is the other difference: capped at 4.0 on the standard scale, it earns 4.3 or 4.33 at schools that use those variants.

Marks like P (Pass), NP (No Pass), W (Withdrawn), and I (Incomplete) have no grade point value at all. They are excluded from GPA math entirely — both from the points and from the credit count — which is why this converter does not list them.

Letter Grade to GPA Conversion Table

Worked Example: Averaging Three Grades

Suppose you earned an A-, a B+, and a B in three courses that carry equal credit. Convert each letter first: A- is 3.7, B+ is 3.3, and B is 3.0. Then average the points:

(3.7 + 3.3 + 3.0) ÷ 3 = 10.0 ÷ 3 = 3.33

That 3.33 is an unweighted GPA — it assumes every course counts equally. Notice that the three points summed to a clean 10.0, but the average still comes out to a repeating decimal (3.333…), which is reported rounded to two places. GPAs are almost never tidy numbers, and that is normal.

Plus/Minus Policies and the A+ Question

The scales in the table differ in two ways. First, the A+: on the standard 4.0 scale it earns the same 4.0 as an A, while a 4.3 or 4.33 scale awards real extra value that can lift a GPA above 4.0. Second, the plus/minus steps: the 4.0 and 4.3 scales use 0.3 steps (A- at 3.7, B+ at 3.3), while the 4.33 scale uses thirds (A- at 3.67, B+ at 3.33). Whole letters — A, B, C, D, F — carry the same values everywhere. The practical questions are just: does your school award extra points for an A+, and which step convention does its published table use? Your transcript key or registrar page will say.

A separate wrinkle is whether a school uses plus/minus at all. Some grade only in whole letters (A, B, C, D, F), which makes every grade a whole point value. Others record modifiers on the transcript but ignore them in GPA math. None of these choices changes how the conversion works — only which table you should read from. Our guide to the 4.0, 4.3, and 4.33 scales covers the differences in detail.

From One Grade to a GPA

Converting a single letter is step one. To build an actual GPA, each course's points must be weighted by its credit hours: a 4-credit biology course with a B contributes 3.0 × 4 = 12 quality points, while a 1-credit seminar with the same B contributes only 3. Total quality points divided by total credits gives the GPA. That weighting is why two students with identical letter grades can have different GPAs. Rather than doing the multiplication by hand, enter your courses into the college GPA calculator, which applies the same conversion table used here and handles credits, multiple semesters, and excluded P/NP/W/I marks automatically.

Limitations

This converter uses the most widely published grade point values, but it cannot know your school's specific policy. If your institution uses thirds values (3.67/3.33/2.67), ignores plus/minus in GPA math, or treats A+ in its own way, the official transcript table wins. The percentage bands shown are also typical rather than universal — the letter on your transcript, not the percentage behind it, is what enters the GPA.