Most GPA calculators assume the American 4.0 scale. Yours might be a 7-point scale, a 10-point CGPA, an inverted 1.0-to-5.0, or not a GPA at all. Pick your system - and where universities genuinely disagree with each other, pick yours.
Grading is not a shared standard - it is a set of local conventions that happen to use similar-looking numbers. A 2.0 is a solid pass in America and a very good result in Germany, where the scale runs the other way. A 12 out of 20 in France is genuinely good, not a near-fail. The UK does not use GPA at all: it awards a degree classification built from a credit-weighted average of your final years.
Canada is the clearest case. Depending on the university you might be graded on a 4.0 scale, a 4.33 scale, a 9-point scale, a 12-point scale, or a straight percentage - all at once, in the same country. York University's own Academic Calendar sets out a 9-point scale where A+ = 9 and notes that the percentages often quoted alongside it "are not part of the official grading scheme and are meant only to be used as guidelines." McMaster and Wilfrid Laurier run 12-point scales. Waterloo reports percentages.
India has the same problem in a different form. The UGC's 10-point scale is a recommendation rather than a mandate, and universities convert CGPA to percentage using different formulas: Anna University multiplies by 10, VTU subtracts 0.75 first, Mumbai University uses a different formula again. On an 8.0 CGPA those choices produce answers several percentage points apart - enough to cross a classification boundary. The familiar CGPA x 9.5 rule is a CBSE Class 10 convention, not a universal one, and applying it to a university CGPA gives a number your registrar would not recognise.
That is why this tool asks which institution you are at, rather than quietly picking one convention and hoping.
This calculator deliberately does not hand you a confident "your 8.2 CGPA equals a 3.6 US GPA" number. Not because it would be hard to compute, but because the organisations whose job this actually is decline to make that claim themselves.
The UK's national recognition body, UK ENIC, goes further: its official Statement of Comparability compares the level of a qualification and explicitly does not comment on grades at all. If the body whose entire remit is recognising foreign qualifications will not convert a grade, a calculator claiming to do it precisely is overselling.
If you need a conversion that an admissions office or immigration authority will accept, that comes from an accredited credential evaluation - WES, UK ENIC, or uni-assist for Germany - working from your original transcript and your registrar's grading key. What a calculator can honestly give you is your GPA on your own system, correctly computed, which is the number your transcript will actually show.
| System | Scale | Top result | Pass |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 4.0 (some 4.3) | A / A+ = 4.0 | D = 1.0 |
| Canada | 4.0 / 4.33 / 9 / 12 / % | varies by university | varies |
| Australia | 7-point | High Distinction = 7 | Pass = 4 (50%) |
| United Kingdom | classification, not GPA | First Class (70%+) | Third (40%) |
| India | 10-point CGPA | O (Outstanding) = 10 | P = 4 |
| Germany | 1.0-5.0, inverted | 1.0 (sehr gut) | 4.0 (ausreichend) |
| France | 0-20 | 16+ (tres bien) | 10/20 |
| Netherlands | 1-10 | 9-10 (very rare) | 5.5-6 |
| China | percentage, 0-100 | 90+ (excellent) | 60 |
| Japan | S/A/B/C/F | S = 4.0-4.3 | C (60%) |
Related: the grade calculator works out what you need on a final exam to hit a target, and the percentage calculator handles the arithmetic behind weighted averages.