Marks and GradesSGPA and CGPA: how they are calculated
In the credit system used by Indian universities, your result for a semester is an SGPA and your result so far is a CGPA. Both are averages of grade points, weighted by credits.
The method below is the one recommended in the University Grants Commission's "Guidelines on Adoption of Choice Based Credit System", which we read on 12 November 2026. Most universities follow it, with their own grade letters.
The words
- Credit: a measure of the size of a course. In the UGC guidelines one credit is one hour of teaching, or two hours of practical work, a week.
- Grade point: the number attached to a letter grade on a 10-point scale.
- Credit point: grade point × credits for a course.
- SGPA, Semester Grade Point Average: total credit points of a semester ÷ total credits of that semester.
- CGPA, Cumulative Grade Point Average: the same over all semesters.
SGPA
SGPA = Σ (credits × grade point) ÷ Σ credits
This is the UGC's own illustration:
| Course | Credits | Grade | Grade point | Credit points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Course 1 | 3 | A | 8 | 24 |
| Course 2 | 4 | B+ | 7 | 28 |
| Course 3 | 3 | B | 6 | 18 |
| Course 4 | 3 | O | 10 | 30 |
| Course 5 | 3 | C | 5 | 15 |
| Course 6 | 4 | B | 6 | 24 |
| Total | 20 | 139 |
SGPA = 139 ÷ 20 = 6.95.
CGPA
CGPA = Σ (credits of semester × SGPA of semester) ÷ Σ credits
The UGC illustration takes six semesters with 20, 22, 25, 26, 26 and 25 credits and SGPAs of 6.9, 7.8, 5.6, 6.0, 6.3 and 8.0. Multiplying and adding gives 969.4 credit points over 144 credits, and CGPA = 6.73.
CGPA is not the plain average of SGPAs
A semester with more credits counts for more. In the illustration the plain average of the six SGPAs is 6.77, while the true CGPA is 6.73. The gap is small here and larger when semesters differ a lot in credits. Always weight by credits.
Rounding
The guidelines say SGPA and CGPA shall be rounded off to two decimal places and reported in the transcripts.
What does not count
For non-credit courses the guidelines say "Satisfactory" or "Unsatisfactory" is shown in place of a letter grade, and these are not counted in SGPA or CGPA. How failed and repeated courses are counted is set by each university; VTU's regulations, for example, define CGPA over all courses excluding those with F grades until that semester.
Different universities, different letters
The UGC recommends O, A+, A, B+, B, C, P and F. Universities choose their own. VTU uses S, A, B, C, D, E and F with grade points 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4 and 0. Anna University uses O, A+, A, B+, B and C with 10 down to 5, and U for reappearance. The arithmetic is the same whatever the letters. See the 10-point grade scale.
The SGPA and CGPA calculator does both steps and shows the working.
Check with your board or university. The rules quoted on this site were read in the official documents on 12 November 2026. Boards and universities revise them, and yours may differ. For anything that decides an admission or a job, use the rule printed on your own mark sheet or in your institution's regulations. This is an independent site.