Percentage to Letter Grade
Convert a percentage or points score to a letter grade and 4.0 grade points on an editable grading scale.
Schools and instructors set their own grading scales. These cutoffs are common examples; edit them to match your syllabus.
B+ starts at 87%: 2.77 percentage points away.
Updated Formula covered by automated tests
Enter a score as a percentage, or as points earned out of points possible, and this tool returns the matching letter grade, its grade points on a 4.0 scale, and how far you are from the next letter up. It is meant for students checking a report card, parents reading a portal, and teachers who want to sanity-check a gradebook export.
There is no single official grading scale. Every school, district, college and often every instructor sets their own cutoffs, so the tool starts from a common US 10-point scale with plus and minus grades and lets you edit every cutoff and grade-point value. Two other common patterns are built in: a letters-only 10-point scale and a stricter 7-point scale of the kind some districts use. Always compare the result with the scale printed in your syllabus or student handbook.
The formula
- points earned
- Your raw score on the test, assignment or course
- points possible
- The maximum available, not counting extra credit
- cutoff
- The lowest percentage that earns a letter; on the default scale B starts at 83 and B+ at 87
- ⌈ ⌉
- Round up to a whole point, because a partial point cannot be earned on most assignments
A grading scale is a lookup table. The tool sorts the cutoffs from highest to lowest and picks the first one your percentage meets or beats. The default table uses A from 93, A- from 90, B+ from 87, B from 83, B- from 80 and so on down to D- at 60, with A+ starting at 97. Grade points follow a common 4.0 convention in which A and A+ are both 4.0, each minus subtracts 0.3 and each plus adds 0.3, although some colleges award 4.3 for an A+.
The comparison uses your exact percentage, so 89.99% is a B+ and not an A-. Many teachers round to the nearest whole percent before assigning a letter, which would turn 89.5% into 90%. Because that is a local policy rather than a rule, rounding is an option you switch on, not the default.
Worked example
Jordan finished a biology course with 438 points out of 520 possible. The syllabus uses the 10-point plus/minus scale. Jordan wants the letter grade and to know how close the B+ was.
- 1 Convert to a percentage: 438 ÷ 520 × 100 = 84.23%.
- 2 Find the band: 84.23 is at least 83 (the B cutoff) but below 87 (the B+ cutoff), so the grade is a B, worth 3.0 grade points.
- 3 Find the B+ threshold in points: 87% of 520 = 0.87 × 520 = 452.4, which rounds up to 453 points.
- 4 Subtract: 453 − 438 = 15 more points would have been needed, a gap of 2.77 percentage points.
Result: Jordan earned a B (3.0) with 84.23%, 15 points short of a B+ on this scale.
Before you rely on the result
- Schools set their own scales, so the default cutoffs here are only a common pattern. Your syllabus, handbook or registrar is the authority on what letter you actually receive.
- A course grade often comes from weighted categories; convert those to an overall percentage with a weighted grade calculation before looking up the letter.
- Letter grades and grade points do not translate directly between countries or between US systems that use different scales, so do not use this to convert transcripts for applications.
Frequently asked questions
Is 89.5% an A or a B?
On a straight reading of a 90% cutoff it is a B+ (or a B on a letters-only scale), because 89.5 is less than 90. Many instructors round to the nearest whole percent first, which makes it an A-. Check your syllabus for a rounding policy, and switch on the rounding option here if your teacher uses one.
Is an A+ worth 4.0 or 4.3?
It depends on the institution. Many US high schools and colleges cap the scale at 4.0, so A and A+ earn the same points. Some universities award 4.3 for an A+. Edit the grade-point value in the table to match your school before using the result in a GPA calculation.
What is a 7-point grading scale?
It is a stricter scale in which each letter covers about seven or eight percentage points instead of ten: commonly A from 93, B from 85, C from 77 and D from 70, with anything below 70 failing. A 92% that would be an A- on the 10-point scale is only a B here.
Can I make a pass/fail or custom scale?
Yes. Rename the letters, change any cutoff, delete rows or add new ones. A two-row table with Pass at 60 and Fail at 0 works, and so does a scale with Distinction and Merit bands. The tool warns you if two rows share a cutoff or if no row starts at zero.
Sources
- College Board BigFuture: How to Calculate Your GPA on a 4.0 Scale (percent ranges and grade points) (bigfuture.collegeboard.org)
- UC Berkeley Office of the Registrar: Grade definitions (A+ and A both 4.0, A- 3.7) (registrar.berkeley.edu)