Grade Scale Converter

It is a rule of three: score ÷ current max × target max. An 85 out of 100 on a 4.0 scale is 85 ÷ 100 × 4 = 3.4. What stays fixed is the proportion — 85/100 and 3.4/4 both represent the same 85% of the possible points, just expressed against a different ceiling.

US schools mix a 100-point percentage scale, a 4.0 GPA scale, and sometimes a straight letter scale. Other countries use 20-point (common across much of Europe and Latin America), 10-point or 5-point scales. This converts any numeric scale to any other by proportion; for a percentage-to-letter grade specifically, use the letter grade calculator instead, since school letter cutoffs are set in bands, not a straight ratio.

The straight ratio this calculator uses is the mathematically transparent method — it never distorts the relative standing of the score — but it is not necessarily the exact method a specific institution uses when it officially converts a grade. Some schools convert via a fixed lookup table instead of a pure ratio: an A might be defined as exactly 4.0 regardless of whether the underlying percentage was 90% or 98%, which a straight rule-of-three conversion would treat as two different GPA values. When a conversion needs to be official — for a transcript, a scholarship application, a transfer of credit — the receiving institution's own published conversion table is the authority, and this calculator's proportional result is a close estimate to sanity-check it against, not a replacement for it.

Converting the score does not convert the passing threshold. A 60% (60/100) becomes 2.4 on a 4.0 scale, but the target scale may set its own passing point somewhere else entirely — a 4.0 GPA scale's typical passing floor (often around 1.0 or 2.0, or a D-equivalent, depending on the institution) does not sit at the same proportional spot as a 60% does on a percentage scale. When you switch scales, check the minimum required grade on the new scale directly rather than assuming the proportion carries the passing line over with it.

Grades earned at a foreign institution — a 20-point French or Brazilian scale, for instance — nearly always need conversion for a US transcript, and universities handling this professionally rarely use a simple ratio alone. Many rely on country-specific conversion guides (published by organizations like WES or NAFSA, or the receiving registrar's own office) that account for how grading norms actually differ between systems, not just their numeric ceilings — a 14/20 in a system where that score is considered strong does not always map cleanly to a straight-ratio 70%. Use this calculator for a quick estimate, but treat an official transfer-credit or study-abroad conversion as a question for the receiving institution's registrar.