Percentage to Letter Grade Converter: One Score or a Whole List

Percentage to letter grade: the quick answer

To change a percentage to a letter grade, compare it with your grading scale and take the first grade, counting down from the top, whose minimum is at or below your percentage. On the standard example scale, 90% or more is an A, 80% to under 90% is a B, 70% to under 80% is a C, 60% to under 70% is a D, and anything lower is an F. A percentage exactly on a cutoff earns that grade, so 90% is an A.

How the percentage to letter grade conversion works

A grading scale is a list of cutoffs. Starting at the top, the first grade whose minimum is at or below your percentage is the one you earn. On the standard example scale the cutoffs are 90, 80, 70 and 60, so 85% is a B and 59.99% is an F. Because the minimum itself counts, exactly 90% is an A, not a B.

The percentage to letter grade converter compares your number to each cutoff exactly, using the digits you typed. A score of 89.9999 is a B, and it never gets nudged up by a rounding error inside the calculator.

Percentage to letter grade rounding: why 89.5% can be a B

Many people expect 89.5% to become an A because it rounds to 90%. Whether it does depends on your teacher. By default this calculator grades the exact value, so 89.5% is a B, and it tells you when the displayed number would round across a cutoff. If your teacher rounds first, switch on Round before grading in Settings and choose how many decimal places. With 0 decimals, 89.5% then rounds to 90% and earns an A.

Percentage to letter grade for a whole list

Choose A list of percentages and paste scores separated by commas, spaces or new lines. You get every percentage with its letter, plus how many of each grade appeared and the lowest and highest values. This is handy for checking a column of scores copied from a spreadsheet. For grading a full class with names, the class grade calculator keeps a score sheet in your browser.

Percentage to letter grade examples

The example scales are: standard A 90, B 80, C 70, D 60, F 0; plus/minus A+ 97, A 93, A- 90, B+ 87, B 83, B- 80, C+ 77, C 73, C- 70, D+ 67, D 63, D- 60, F 0. They are examples, not universal rules. Choose Custom to enter your own, or design and print a chart with the grading scale calculator.

Sources and further reading

Grading scales vary by school and country, so check your own syllabus first. For background, see Grading in education and Percentage on Wikipedia.

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