Cumulative GPA Calculator
Enter the GPA and credit hours for each term and get your cumulative GPA as a credit-weighted average, with the quality points and the division shown. Then add a hypothetical future term to see where your overall GPA would land. Free, no sign-up.
Your Terms
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Cumulative GPA
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Total credits
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Total quality points
Project a Future Term
Add a hypothetical future term to see what your new cumulative GPA would be.
How to Use the Cumulative GPA Calculator
- 1. Enter each term. Type the term's GPA and the credit hours it counted for. Take both from your transcript; add a row for every semester, quarter or summer term (the name is optional).
- 2. Read your cumulative GPA. The first card is the credit-weighted GPA across all terms, next to total credits and total quality points. The working line shows the division with three decimals, so you can check it by hand.
- 3. Project a future term. In Project a Future Term, type the GPA you expect and the credits you will take. You get the new cumulative GPA, the new credit total and the sum that produced it.
- 4. Adjust and compare. Change the future GPA to see the best and worst cases. A row with no GPA or no credits is ignored rather than counted as zero.
The Cumulative GPA Formula
Cumulative GPA = total quality points ÷ total credits, where a term's quality points are its GPA × its credits. It is not the plain average of your term GPAs, because a 16-credit term should count for more than a 12-credit one.
Three terms, step by step
Term 1: 3.20 × 15 credits = 48.0 quality points
Term 2: 3.60 × 16 credits = 57.6 quality points
Term 3: 3.90 × 12 credits = 46.8 quality points
Total = 152.4 quality points over 43 credits; cumulative GPA = 152.4 ÷ 43 = 3.544 (3.54)
The plain average of 3.20, 3.60 and 3.90 is 3.57 — higher, because the best term has the fewest credits
Projecting What You Need
With 152.4 quality points over 43 credits, a future term of 15 credits at a 4.00 GPA gives (152.4 + 60) ÷ 58 = 3.66. That is the ceiling for this term: the more credits you already hold, the less one term can move the total. To find the term GPA a target requires, rearrange the formula: needed GPA = (target × total credits after the term − current quality points) ÷ new credits. A 3.60 target needs (3.60 × 58 − 152.4) ÷ 15 = 3.76, and typing 3.76 into the projection returns 3.60. A 3.70 target would need 4.15, which is above 4.0 — so it cannot be reached in one 15-credit term.
What Counts as a Credit
- Use GPA credits, not enrolled credits. Pass/fail, audited and withdrawn courses normally carry no grade points and are left out of the credit total for GPA.
- Mind your scale. The term GPA boxes accept values up to 5, so weighted GPAs work, but do not mix 4.0-scale and weighted terms in one total.
- Repeated courses and transfers vary. Some schools replace the old grade when you retake a course; many keep transfer credit out of the GPA. Follow your registrar's rule, and add a separate row if your school counts a transfer term.
Which GPA Tool Do You Need?
| You have | Use |
|---|---|
| A GPA and credit total for each term | This Cumulative GPA Calculator |
| Letter grades for one semester's courses | GPA Calculator, which can also fold in a single prior GPA |
| High school classes with honors or AP levels | High School GPA Calculator |
| A GPA to express as a percentage | GPA to Percentage Converter |
Frequently Asked Questions
- How is cumulative GPA calculated?
- Multiply each term's GPA by its credit hours to get quality points, add the quality points from every term, then divide by the total credit hours. Terms with more credits count for more, so cumulative GPA is a credit-weighted average, not a simple average of term GPAs.
- Why is my cumulative GPA not the average of my semester GPAs?
- Because semesters carry different credit loads. A 3.8 semester with 18 credits pulls your cumulative GPA up more than a 3.8 semester with 12 credits. The calculation weights each term by its credits, which is also how registrars compute it.
- How much can one more semester change my cumulative GPA?
- It depends on how many credits are already behind you. The new term's share of total credits is its credits divided by the new total, so with 43 credits behind you a 15-credit term carries 26% of the weight, and with 100 credits it carries 13%. Use the projection to see the exact result.
- How do I find the GPA I need to reach a target?
- Rearrange the formula: needed term GPA = (target × new total credits − current quality points) ÷ new term credits. If the answer is above your school's maximum, the target cannot be reached in that one term and you will need several. Check any answer by typing it into the projection.
- Where do I find my term GPA and credits?
- Your transcript or student portal lists a GPA and the credit hours attempted for GPA for each term. Use those GPA credit hours, not total enrolled credits — pass/fail courses usually do not count toward GPA.
- Do transfer credits count toward cumulative GPA?
- Usually not. Most schools accept transfer credits toward your degree but exclude the grades from your institutional GPA. If your school does include them, add the transfer term as its own row.