Grade Point Scale Reference

What this reference shows

Pick a letter grade and the tool shows its value on four common scales: unweighted 4.0 (the US default), extended 4.33 (used by some colleges and graduate programs for A+), weighted AP 5.0 (a letter grade + 1.0 bonus for AP/IB courses), and the approximate percentage band the letter represents. This is a lookup tool, not a calculator — no math on your part.

The four scales, explained

Unweighted 4.0. The standard US convention: A = 4.0, B = 3.0, C = 2.0, D = 1.0, F = 0.0, with pluses and minuses at 0.3/0.7 offsets. A+ is treated the same as A — both earn 4.0. This is the scale almost every US high school uses for its baseline GPA, and the scale many selective colleges recalculate to for admissions.

Extended 4.33. Some colleges and graduate programs reward A+ with 4.33 instead of 4.0, letting top performers distinguish themselves above a straight-A baseline. The rest of the scale matches the unweighted 4.0 convention. This scale is most common at elite universities and in some graduate programs; your transcript may show values up to 4.33 if your institution uses it.

Weighted AP 5.0. Under the College Board's common weighting convention, a letter grade in an AP or IB course earns an extra +1.0 grade point. An A in AP Calculus counts as 5.0, a B as 4.0. Honors courses typically earn +0.5 under the same framework. This is the scale you see on weighted US high school transcripts that go "above 4.0".

Percentage bands. A common US convention maps A = 93–100, A- = 90–92, B+ = 87–89, B = 83–86, B- = 80–82, and so on in 3–4 point bands down to F below 60. Individual schools set their own cutoffs — some use A = 90+ or A = 94+. These bands are the most common US high school/college convention, not a universal rule.

Worked example

Consider a grade of B+. On the unweighted 4.0 scale it is worth 3.3. On the extended scale it remains 3.3 (the extended only affects A+). On the weighted AP 5.0 scale it counts as 4.3 if earned in an AP course. The percentage equivalent is 87–89%. These four numbers describe the same letter in four different academic reporting contexts — which one applies depends on whose transcript you are reading.

When to use which scale

• Unweighted 4.0: reporting your high school GPA on college applications; calculating basic class performance; comparing yourself across different institutions using a common denominator.
• Extended 4.33: programs that explicitly use the extended scale (some Ivy League schools, many graduate programs). Check your institution's handbook before assuming A+ = 4.33.
• Weighted AP 5.0: schools that publish weighted GPAs, class-rank calculations that account for course rigor, and honor-roll or scholarship policies that explicitly cite a 5.0 scale.
• Percentage: individual assignment grading, international transcript conversion, and any context where numeric precision matters more than a letter grade.

Common misconceptions

The percentage bands are not universal. Schools publishing A = 90% or A = 94% are both common, and you cannot assume the band in the reference table applies to your institution. The same goes for weighting: some schools weight AP at +1.0 and Honors at +0.5; others weight Honors at 0 and AP at +1.0; a few weight AP at +0.5. Always check your school's published grading policy before translating a letter to a number.

What this tool is not

This is a reference, not a GPA calculator. It does not combine multiple courses or compute averages — for that, use the Unweighted GPA or Weighted GPA calculators. It is also not an international conversion tool: UK, Indian, European, and East Asian grading systems differ substantially from the US conventions shown here.