GPA Scale — Convert Between 4.0, 5.0, 7.0 and 10-Point

A grade point average means nothing without the scale it sits on: a 3.5 is excellent out of 4.0 and a failing mark out of 10. To move a figure from one scale to another, divide by the top of the scale you started on and multiply by the top of the one you want — a 3.75 on a 5-point scale is (3.75 ÷ 5) × 4 = 3.0 on a 4-point scale. Enter your own number below and it appears on all five scales at once, with the letter grade it corresponds to.

Created by Ashar PervaizLast updated 24 October 2026

The Number Is Half the Information

A transcript that reports "3.5" and nothing else is incomplete, and most application forms know it. That is why they ask for the scale in a separate box. The five scales in common use put the same student in wildly different-looking places.

What "GPA Scale" Means on a Form

The phrase trips people up. It sounds like a category when it is really a denominator. An application asking for your GPA scale wants the maximum your institution awards, so the figure above it can be read at all. Report it the way your transcript states it, as a pair.

GPA: 3.5    Scale: 4.0      ← correct
GPA: 8.2    Scale: 10.0     ← correct
GPA: 3.5                    ← ambiguous, and will be queried

Where a form gives you both boxes, do not convert — enter your original figures and let the institution apply its own mapping. A converted number with no note of where it came from is the single most common reason an application is sent back for clarification.

Letter Grades Against the 4.0 Scale

The 4.0 scale is built on letters rather than the other way round, and each letter carries a fixed number of grade points. This is the table most people are looking for when they ask what a B is worth.

Three warnings about that table. Plus and minus grades are not universal — plenty of institutions award a flat 3.0 for any B. An A+ is worth 4.0 on a standard scale but 4.3 on the Canadian one, which is the whole reason the second column exists.

And the 5.0 scale is deliberately absent. Letters do not rescale onto it, because it is a weighted scale rather than a longer one. A B in a regular class is 3.0 there, exactly as it is on a 4.0 scale. The extra point is awarded for the difficulty of the course, not for the grade. Stretching the letters proportionally would produce tidy numbers that no transcript would ever print.

One more thing that table cannot show: your own average will usually fall between two of its rows rather than on one. A GPA is a mean of letters, so a student with some A grades and some B grades lands at 3.5 — above B+ at 3.3, below A− at 3.7, and properly described as B+/A− rather than either alone. Reading it down to the band below is the common mistake, and it quietly costs the student a third of a grade every time it is repeated on a form.

Moving a Figure Between Scales

The arithmetic is one line, and it is the same line whichever direction you are going in.

Target = (your GPA ÷ your scale maximum) × target maximum

8.0 on 10-point → (8.0 ÷ 10) × 4 = 3.2 on 4.0
3.75 on 5-point → (3.75 ÷ 5) × 4 = 3.0 on 4.0
5.5 on 7-point → (5.5 ÷ 7) × 4 = 3.14 on 4.0

Where the Simple Formula Stops Being True

Proportional conversion assumes the scales are evenly spaced and that a grade sits in the same relative position on each. Neither assumption survives contact with real grading. Credential evaluators know this, which is why they do not use the formula at all.

World Education Services and comparable bodies map each grade band to a US equivalent rather than dividing. Under that approach a student above a certain threshold — commonly cited around 80%, or a top-decile class standing — can be assessed at a full 4.0 even though the proportional sum would give less. The gap runs the other way too: the arithmetic can flatter a figure that a band-mapped evaluation would mark down.

The practical rule is to use the formula when a form asks you to estimate, and never when the number will be assessed. If an institution is evaluating you, send the transcript with its own scale and let them apply their mapping.

A 5.0 Is Not a Better 4.0

The 5.0 scale is normally a weighted one, and weighting is a statement about course difficulty rather than performance. An advanced or AP course earns an extra grade point, so a student taking hard subjects and scoring well can finish above 4.0.

That makes weighted and unweighted figures genuinely incomparable. A 4.6 weighted and a 3.9 unweighted may describe the same student, and an admissions office reading both will usually recalculate from the course list rather than take either at face value. If you are reporting one, say which it is. Our college GPA calculator works in grade points and credit hours, which is the form that survives this distinction.

Verification and Review Date

Every conversion in the tables above is generated from the one-line formula this page sets out, rather than typed in, so the figures cannot drift from the method they demonstrate. Scale maxima and the letter-grade points were checked against the published conventions for each system, and they remain conventions — institutions set their own award tables, so treat your transcript as the authority. This page was last reviewed on 10 October 2026. Our about page describes how tools on this site are built and verified.

GPA Scale Questions