Pass/Fail Calculator
Put in your GPA, the course, and the grade you think you're heading for. You get the GPA you'd finish with each way — letter grade or P — and the grade the letter has to beat before it's worth more than the P.
It isn't the grade that earns a P. It's your own GPA.
Your transcript, and the course you're deciding about
Two numbers off your transcript, the course itself, and your school's two pass/fail rules. Both rules are published by your registrar, and both change the answer.
What each choice leaves you with
Pass/fail is worth it here. The grade you expect passes, and taking it as a letter would pull your GPA from 3.10 down to 3.05. The P leaves it where it is and still earns the 3 credits. The grade a letter has to beat is your own GPA — 3.10 — not the grade that earns a P.
| Grade | Pts | As a letter | Pass/fail | Credit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A+ | 4.0 | 3.16 | 3.10 | 3 |
| A | 4.0 | 3.16 | 3.10 | 3 |
| A- | 3.7 | 3.14 | 3.10 | 3 |
| B+ | 3.3 | 3.11 | 3.10 | 3 |
| B | 3.0 | 3.09 | 3.10 | 3 |
| B- | 2.7 | 3.07 | 3.10 | 3 |
| C+ | 2.3 | 3.05 | 3.10 | 3 |
| C | 2.0 | 3.03 | 3.10 | 3 |
| C- | 1.7 | 3.01 | 3.10 | 3 |
| D+no P | 1.3 | 2.98 | 2.98 | 3 |
| Dno P | 1.0 | 2.96 | 2.96 | 3 |
| D-no P | 0.7 | 2.94 | 2.94 | 3 |
| Fno P | 0.0 | 2.89 | 2.89 | none |
Read down the two GPA columns. They cross exactly once, at your own GPA — above that line the letter grade is worth more than the P, and below it the P is worth more than the letter. The pass threshold decides something else entirely: whether you get a P at all.
Credits are the other half of this. A P earns its credits toward graduation and toward the completion rate your financial aid is checked against; a No Pass earns none while still counting as credits attempted, which pushes that rate down twice over. The Academic Standing Calculator is where that test is worked out.
Informational only — not academic advice. Pass/fail rules are institutional and restrictive in ways this page can't know: schools cap how many pass/fail courses count toward a degree, bar them from major, general education and prerequisite requirements, require a minimum GPA or class standing to elect at all, and set an election deadline that is usually earlier than the withdrawal deadline — and at most schools the choice cannot be reversed once it passes. Graduate and professional programs frequently discount or recalculate a P. Check your registrar's published policy and talk to your academic advisor before electing. Nothing you type here leaves your browser.
How this is calculated
A P is not a grade. It earns the course's credit and contributes no quality points, so it never enters the average at all — which means the GPA you carry after a P is exactly the GPA you carried before it. There is no arithmetic on that side of the comparison. All the work is on the other side.
Quality points you have now= GPA × graded credits
Taking the letter grade= (points + grade × credits) ÷ (graded + credits)
Taking the P= points ÷ graded — unchanged
The grade a letter has to beat
Because the P holds your GPA still, the letter grade is worth more than the P whenever it lands above your current GPA, and worth less whenever it lands below. That single line is the whole decision, and it has nothing to do with the grade that earns a P — a fact worth stating twice, because the pass threshold is the number students reach for and it answers a different question: whether you get a P at all.
The worked example this page loads with
A student with a 3.10 across 42 graded credits, taking a 3-credit course they expect to finish with a C+. Their 3.10 across 42 credits is 130.2 quality points.
As a letter grade, the C+ adds 6.9 quality points and 3 graded credits: 137.1 over 45, a 3.05. As a P it adds neither, and they stay on 3.10 while still banking the 3 credits. So the election is worth 0.05 of GPA — not much, and exactly the size of thing these decisions usually turn on. Had they expected a B+ instead, the letter grade would have taken them to 3.11 and the P would have thrown that away.
Where the schools actually disagree
Not on the P — every school cited here treats it the same way. They disagree about what happens when you miss it, and the disagreement is total. Maryland converts A+ through C− to a P and says of the rest that the grades “D+, D, D−, and F will remain as given”, computed in the average like any other. So at Maryland, electing pass/fail on a course you then get a D in changed nothing whatsoever — you carry the D, in your GPA, exactly as if you had never elected.
Berkeley sets the same C− threshold and does the opposite below it: the grade becomes NP, which is “not included in grade-point computation.” Your GPA is genuinely protected — and you earn no units, so the course is one you will be taking again. One rule offers no protection; the other offers protection and charges the credit for it. The tool asks which is yours rather than picking one.
What it assumes
- A P contributes no grade points. This is near-universal and it is what makes the P side of the comparison a straight line. A small number of institutions record a passing mark that does carry grade points; if yours does, this page is the wrong tool and the Cumulative GPA Calculator is the right one.
- A failing letter grade below the threshold still earns credit where it counts in the GPA. Under Maryland's rule a D is a poor grade, not an unearned one — the credit is yours. Only an F, or a No Pass, earns nothing.
- The scale is your school's. Whether an A+ is worth 4.0 or 4.3, and whether your school uses plus/minus grades at all, changes every figure on this page. Pick the scale that matches your transcript, or type grade points directly instead of a letter.
- One course at a time. The election is made per course, so the tool answers per course. For a whole term, the Cumulative GPA Calculator takes a list.
Where this stops being right
- Eligibility is heavily restricted, and this page knows none of it. Maryland requires 30 completed credits and a 2.0 GPA before you may elect at all, allows “only one course per semester,” caps the whole career at 12 credits, and restricts the option to electives — a pass/fail course “may not be college, major, field of concentration, or general education program requirements.” Berkeley bars students on academic probation from electing. Every one of those can make the arithmetic on this page irrelevant.
- The deadline is earlier than you think, and the choice is usually final. Maryland allows the grading option to be changed “only during the schedule adjustment period,” which is the start of term — well before you know what grade you are heading for. Other schools run it to the withdrawal deadline. Either way it is a decision made on a prediction, which is why this tool takes the grade you expect and prints every other grade beside it.
- A P is read, not just counted. Graduate, professional and transfer admissions frequently discount a P, ask for the underlying grade, or recalculate a GPA without those credits. A transcript full of them is a signal regardless of what your GPA says.
- Fewer graded credits cuts both ways later. Every credit taken pass/fail is a credit that can never help pull a low GPA up, because it is not in the denominator. Working out how far a GPA can still move is the Target GPA Calculator's job.
- Your registrar's record governs. This page computes what your school's stated rules imply. It does not know your school's rules, your degree requirements, or whether you are eligible to elect.
Sources
The arithmetic is a weighted average and needs no authority. What needs citing is the claim the page is built on: that a P is excluded from the GPA everywhere, that the grade earning one differs by institution, and that schools disagree completely about the attempt that misses it.
University of Maryland Office of the University Registrar, Pass-Fail Grading: “The grades A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, or C- will automatically be converted by the Office of the University Registrar to the mark of P on the student's permanent record,” a passed course “will count as hours in the student's record but will not be computed in the grade point average,” and — the sentence this page is built around — “the grades D+, D, D-, and F will remain as given,” with a failed course “computed both in the overall average and the semester average.” Also the eligibility bar (30 credits, 2.0 GPA), the limits (one course per semester, 12 credits per career), the electives-only restriction, and the schedule-adjustment deadline.
University of California, Berkeley, Office of the Registrar, Grades & Grading: Passed (P) is defined as “C- or better; assigned to undergraduates only; not included in grade-point computation,” and Not Passed (NP) as “below C-; assigned to undergraduates only; not included in grade-point computation” — earning no units. Students on academic probation may not elect the option. The same threshold as Maryland, and the opposite consequence for missing it.
Tufts University Office of the Registrar, Pass/Fail Option: a D− or better earns a pass, and “a failing grade is averaged into your grade point average.” A full letter lower than Maryland's and Berkeley's threshold, which is why the pass threshold on this page is an input rather than a constant. Limits vary by school within the university — engineering students “may take a maximum of 8 pass/fail courses toward the total number of credits required for graduation.”
These are published, verifiable examples of the rules in use, not policies governing your transcript. Your own registrar publishes the ones that do.
Last reviewed: August 2026
Frequently asked questions
Does a pass/fail class affect your GPA?
A P does not. It earns the course's credit and contributes no grade points, so it is invisible to the average — Maryland puts it plainly: a course passed under the option "will count as hours in the student's record but will not be computed in the grade point average". That cuts both ways, which is the part people miss. A P cannot lower your GPA and it cannot raise it either, so electing pass/fail on a course you would have done well in throws away a gain you had already earned. The failing side is where schools genuinely differ. At Maryland the grades D+, D, D- and F "will remain as given" and a failed course "will be computed both in the overall average and the semester average" — so pass/fail offered no protection at all. At Berkeley the same shortfall is recorded as NP, which is "not included in grade-point computation", but earns no units either.
What grade do you need to pass a pass/fail class?
Your school sets it and the two common settings are a full letter apart. Maryland converts A+ through C- to a P and leaves anything below as the grade it was. Berkeley requires "C- or better" for a Pass and records below that as Not Passed. Tufts and the University of Colorado Denver set the line at D- instead, so a D that earns credit at Tufts is a failure at Maryland. This is the single input most worth looking up before you elect: it is one sentence on your registrar's pass/fail page, and getting it wrong is how a student ends up with no credit for a course they thought they had passed. Enter your own threshold in the tool rather than trusting a default.
Should I take a class pass/fail?
Arithmetically, the line is your own cumulative GPA — not the grade that earns a P. A P leaves your average exactly where it is, so any grade above your GPA is a gain you are giving up and any grade below it is damage you are avoiding. A student carrying a 3.10 who expects a C+ protects about 0.05 of GPA by electing; the same student expecting a B+ gives up about the same amount. The non-arithmetic half matters more and this page cannot compute it: whether the course counts toward your major or general education requirements, whether the credits count toward a degree at all, how many pass/fail courses your school allows, and how the programs you apply to later read a P. Ask an academic advisor, not a calculator, about those.
Do pass/fail classes count toward financial aid?
The credits count, and that is a separate test from your GPA. Every school checks satisfactory academic progress on three things — grade point average, completion rate, and a cap on total credits attempted — and pass/fail touches all three differently. A P earns its credits, so it counts as both attempted and completed and leaves your completion rate unharmed. A No Pass or a failure earns nothing while still counting as attempted, so it pushes that rate down on both sides of the fraction at once. Meanwhile the GPA test still runs on your letter-graded courses only, which means a term taken heavily pass/fail can leave a low GPA harder to pull up later, since fewer graded credits are entering the average. Work the credit side out on the Academic Standing Calculator.
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