GPA Calculator — Semester, Cumulative, Target & Retake GPA

How GPA is calculated

Every graded course contributes quality points: its grade's point value multiplied by its credit hours. Add the quality points across all graded courses and divide by the total GPA credits. GPA = Σ(grade point × GPA credits) ÷ Σ(GPA credits).

Because credits multiply the grade, they set how much each course matters. A four-credit course moves the average roughly four times as much as a one-credit course with the same grade — which is what the course-impact table on this page measures directly.

The calculator keeps full precision internally and rounds only when it prints a number. A GPA shown as 3.33 is really 3.3333… inside the engine, and the cumulative and target calculations use the unrounded value.

Semester GPA vs cumulative GPA

A semester or term GPA covers only the courses in that term. A cumulative GPA covers every GPA-bearing course on your record, which is why it is a weighted blend rather than an average of term GPAs.

Projected cumulative GPA = (prior GPA × prior credits + this term's quality points) ÷ (prior credits + this term's credits). The more credits already behind you, the less any single term moves the figure — 15 new credits against 45 completed carry roughly a quarter of the weight; against 120 completed, roughly a ninth.

Enter the credits your GPA actually covers, not total credits earned. Courses that carry credit but no grade points are usually outside that number.

How target GPA planning works

To find the average a target needs, the planner solves: required average = [target × (current credits + planned credits) − current GPA × current credits] ÷ planned credits.

The result is classified rather than described vaguely. It is reachable, exactly at the scale maximum, not reachable within those credits, already secured, or already achieved. If the required average exceeds the scale maximum, no combination of grades in those credits reaches the target — the honest answer is that you need more credits, not better advice.

That is what the minimum-credits solver answers. Rearranging the same identity gives x = current credits × (target − current GPA) ÷ (future average − target), solved exactly rather than by trial. It also exposes the boundary case: if your assumed future average is not strictly above the target, the projection approaches that average and never reaches the target, however many credits you add.

How retakes can affect GPA

Repeating a course changes a GPA in one of a few ways, and which one applies is set by your institution rather than by arithmetic. This calculator models five and shows them side by side instead of picking one for you.

Replacing the old attempt removes its quality points and adds the retake's, leaving GPA credits unchanged. Using the most recent attempt is the same arithmetic when the retake is the later attempt — the page says so rather than presenting two identical results as independent evidence. Keeping the highest attempt changes nothing if the retake is not an improvement. Counting both attempts adds the retake's credits as well as its points, which dilutes rather than replaces. Averaging the attempts gives the course the mean of the two grade points over its original credits.

The spread between the best and worst of those outcomes is computed, so you can see how much the policy itself is worth in your specific case before you assume the most favourable one.

Weighted vs unweighted GPA

An unweighted GPA maps every course onto the same scale regardless of difficulty. A weighted GPA adds a boost for designated courses, commonly honours, AP, IB or dual-enrolment classes.

There is no single weighting system. Schools differ on which courses qualify, how large the boost is, whether it applies to plus/minus bands, and whether the weighted figure appears on the transcript at all. Many schools do not weight.

So this calculator never infers a boost. Weighted mode adds only the number you enter on a row. The category shortcuts fill in an example value — Honors +0.50, AP, IB and Dual Enrollment +1.00 — which you can overwrite with your school's actual figure.

What counts toward GPA?

Only graded courses carry grade points. By default this calculator excludes pass/credit, no-credit fail, withdrawal, incomplete and audit courses from both the numerator and the denominator.

Those defaults are conservative, not universal. A late or punitive withdrawal is recorded as a GPA-counted failing grade at some institutions. An unresolved incomplete converts to a GPA-counted F after a deadline at others. A no-credit fail is often instead recorded as an F that does count.

Where your institution counts one of these toward the GPA, enter the course as Graded with the grade it actually carries — an F entered that way correctly counts at 0 points while still occupying its credits.

GPA scales are not universal

The familiar 4.0 scale is a convention, not a rule. Some institutions place A+ at 4.33; some report weighted work on a 5.0 maximum; some use no plus/minus bands at all; some use percentage or 10-point systems that do not map cleanly onto any of these.

The calculator shows the maximum of whichever scale is selected, so a required average or target is always read against the right ceiling. A custom scale accepts your institution's own values after checking that they are numeric, non-negative and never rank a lower grade above a higher one.

Rounding is a policy too. Institutions differ on the number of decimal places and on whether they round or truncate, which can decide a borderline standing or honours threshold. This page rounds for display only and shows the fuller value in the substitution line.

Worked example

Take a record of 3.10 across 45 GPA credits, and a term of Biology A− (4 credits), Calculus B (4), History A (3) and English B+ (3).

Quality points: 3.7 × 4 = 14.8, 3.0 × 4 = 12.0, 4.0 × 3 = 12.0, 3.3 × 3 = 9.9 — 48.7 in total over 14 credits, so the term GPA is 48.7 ÷ 14 = 3.48. The cumulative projection is (3.10 × 45 + 48.7) ÷ (45 + 14) = 188.2 ÷ 59 = 3.19, a change of +0.09.

Aiming at a 3.50 cumulative over the next 15 credits needs [3.50 × 60 − 3.10 × 45] ÷ 15 = 70.5 ÷ 15 = 4.70 — above the 4.0 maximum, so it is not reachable in 15 credits. The best possible result over those credits is 3.33. Reaching 3.50 at a 4.00 average instead needs 45 × (3.50 − 3.10) ÷ (4.00 − 3.50) = 36 further GPA credits.

Retaking the 4-credit Calculus course from C to A under a replacement policy removes 4 × 2.0 = 8.0 quality points and adds 4 × 4.0 = 16.0, a net gain of 8.0: (139.5 − 8.0 + 16.0) ÷ 45 = 3.28. Counting both attempts instead gives (139.5 + 16.0) ÷ 49 = 3.17, which is why the policy matters.