What Weighted vs Unweighted GPA Means
Unweighted GPA treats every course the same, no matter how difficult it was. An A is always worth 4.0 whether it came from a regular class or an AP class carrying a much heavier workload. Weighted GPA fixes this by adding extra points for harder courses, which is why a weighted GPA can climb above the standard 4.0 ceiling. This calculator shows you both numbers side by side, since most students and parents want to see the full picture rather than just one or the other.
Seeing both numbers together also makes it easy to understand exactly how much your course selection is boosting your GPA. A large gap between your weighted and unweighted GPA usually means you're taking a demanding course load. A small gap might mean most of your classes are regular level, or that your grades in advanced classes are lower than your grades in regular ones.
How AP, Honors, and IB Courses Add Weight
The most common weighting system, and the one this calculator uses, adds 1.0 point to your grade for AP and IB courses, and 0.5 points for Honors courses. That means an A in an AP class is worth 5.0 instead of 4.0, a B becomes 4.0 instead of 3.0, and so on down the scale. An A in an Honors class becomes 4.5 instead of 4.0. A regular class gets no boost at all, so an A there stays at 4.0 exactly as it would on the unweighted scale. Some schools use slightly different numbers, so it's worth double-checking your own school's specific handbook if your reported GPA doesn't quite match what this calculator produces.
Which GPA Do Colleges Look At?
Most colleges look at both numbers, but not in the way many students assume. Because every high school weights its GPA scale a little differently, admissions offices often can't directly compare a 4.3 weighted GPA from one school to a 4.1 weighted GPA from another school without knowing exactly how each school calculates weighting. To solve this, many colleges simply recalculate your GPA using their own internal formula based on your transcript, treating your reported weighted number as more of a rough context signal than the exact figure they use for comparison. Your actual course rigor, meaning how many AP, Honors, or IB classes you took relative to what your school offered, gets evaluated as its own separate factor alongside whatever GPA number ends up on your application.
Common Weighting Scales
The scale used in this calculator, unweighted 4.0 with a 0.5 boost for Honors and a 1.0 boost for AP and IB, is the most widely used approach among US high schools, but it's not universal. Some schools use a 5.0 weighted maximum for AP courses specifically while capping Honors boosts differently. A smaller number of schools use a 6.0 scale for particularly rigorous course combinations. If your school's official transcript shows a different weighted GPA than what this calculator produces, check your school's specific grading policy handbook, since these variations are common and don't indicate an error in either number.
Once you've got a handle on your weighted GPA here, our Cumulative GPA Calculator can help you track how it changes across every semester of high school, and our AP Score Calculator can help you predict how those AP classes are likely to score on exam day.