By Muhammad Mansoor Haidar, owner and developer · Last updated October 24, 2026
Leave out pass/fail courses: they earn credits but no grade points. Your courses are saved on this device only, in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Results are estimates. Your school’s rounding, grade replacement and pass/fail policies decide your official semester GPA.
How to calculate your semester GPA
Convert each letter grade to grade points (A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0 and so on), multiply by the course credits to get quality points, add the quality points together and divide by the total credits. That is the whole formula: semester GPA = total quality points ÷ total credits.
- Use final semester grades, not midterm estimates, for an official-style result.
- Credits matter: a 4-credit course moves your GPA more than a 1-credit course with the same grade.
- Courses graded pass/fail are normally excluded from GPA. Leave them out here too.
- Repeated courses follow your school’s policy: some replace the first grade, some average both. Follow your catalog.
Semester GPA vs cumulative GPA
The semester GPA covers one term only. Your cumulative GPA combines every semester, weighted by credits, and it moves more slowly as you accumulate credits: one strong semester lifts a first-year cumulative a lot and a final-year cumulative only a little.
To see where a semester leaves your overall record, use the cumulative GPA calculator with your previous GPA and credits.
What semester GPA do you need?
Work backwards from your goal. If your cumulative GPA is below your target, the semester GPA you need is higher than the target, because the new credits are averaged with everything before them. The cumulative calculator shows the combined result for any semester GPA you try, so you can test targets before the semester starts.
Worked example: a five-course semester
Five courses, 15 credits in total. Quality points are grade points × credits.
- Biology: A, 4 credits
- 16.0 quality points
- English Composition: A-, 3 credits
- 11.1 quality points
- College Algebra: B+, 3 credits
- 9.9 quality points
- World History: B, 3 credits
- 9.0 quality points
- Intro Psychology: A, 2 credits
- 8.0 quality points
- Total quality points
- 54.0
- Semester GPA
- 3.60
54.0 quality points ÷ 15 credits = 3.60. The 4-credit A in Biology does more work than any other course on the list.
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