Canvas grade calculator

How Canvas calculates your course grade

Instructure publishes Canvas’s grading code. The rules below come from that code and from Instructure’s own guides, and each one links to its source.

Current grade and total grade

Canvas works out two grades. The current grade counts only assignments that have been graded. The total grade counts every assignment, so anything still ungraded counts as zero points earned out of its points possible. Your Grades page shows the current grade while “Calculate based only on graded assignments” is ticked, and Canvas ticks it by default. Untick it to see the total.

Sources: What are What-If Grades? and How do I approximate my assignment scores using the What-If Grades feature?

Weighted assignment groups

In a weighted course, Canvas turns each group into a percentage (points earned divided by points possible in that group), multiplies it by the group’s weight, and adds the results. The weights do not have to add up to 100. If they add up to less than 100, Canvas scales the result up as though they did. If they add up to more than 100, it does not scale down, so the course total can pass 100%. Instructure’s own example is an extra credit group: weight it above zero near the end of the course and the total goes over 100%.

Source: How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups? and Canvas’s grading code for the scaling.

Groups with nothing graded are skipped

A group with nothing graded yet has no percentage, so in the current grade Canvas leaves it out and the other weights fill the space. That is why your grade can shift when the first score in a new group is posted. With the box unticked, the ungraded work comes back in as zeros.

Total points courses

If the course is not weighted, Canvas adds up every point you earned and divides by every point possible. Groups only organise the assignments, and any weights you see elsewhere are ignored. Instructure puts it this way: “By default, Canvas calculates the Total grade based on the points possible.”

Source: the same weight guide.

Excused and dropped work

Excused assignments leave both the points earned and the points possible. Dropped scores show in grey on your Grades page and do not count toward your total.

Source: How do I use the icons and colors in the Grades page?

Drop lowest and drop highest

With drop lowest set to 1, Canvas removes the one score that leaves the group with the best result. Instructure’s example shows what that means. A 50-point assignment scored 50, a 100-point assignment scored 65 and a 24-point assignment scored 12 add up to 127 of 174 points, 73%. Drop the lowest score and Canvas removes the 65 on the 100-point assignment, leaving 62 of 74 points, about 84%, even though the 12 of 24 is the lower percentage. Drop highest works the other way and removes the scores that leave the lowest result. A group never loses its last droppable score, so a rule that drops more than the group can spare drops fewer.

The checkbox matters here. With “graded only” ticked, Canvas can only drop graded scores. Unticked, an ungraded zero is the first thing it drops. Instructure notes that the checkbox “still affects individual assignments, such as if an assignment group contains a drop rule.”

One side effect shows up in total-points courses. When a drop rule makes Canvas keep a different set of scores, a higher score on one assignment can lower the course total. We ran one such gradebook through Canvas’s own grading code: raising a 6-point assignment from 53.5% to 53.6% moved the course total from 14.53% to 6.43%, because the 28-point assignment in the same group was then the one dropped. The work backward panel tells you when this happens.

Sources: How do I create rules for an assignment group? and What are What-If Grades?

Rounding and letter grades

Canvas rounds the course percentage to two decimals and then picks the highest letter whose cutoff is at or below that number. So 89.996 becomes 90.00, which is an A- on a scale where the A- starts at 90. Canvas’s built-in scale starts the A at 94%, the B at 84%, the C at 74% and the D at 64%, which differs from the 93, 83, 73 and 63 ladder that some schools use. Instructors can replace the scale, so use the one in your syllabus.

Sources: Canvas’s open-source grading scheme code and the University of Colorado Boulder’s Canvas grade schemes guide. For a school that uses the 93 ladder, see Miami University’s Canvas grading scheme guide.

A worked example

Five weighted groups, each worth 20%. Homework drops its lowest score. The final has not been taken yet.

Current grade: the four graded groups carry 80% of the weight. 0.2 × (90 + 80 + 90 + 82) = 68.4 points of course grade, scaled up by 100/80, gives 85.5%, a B on Canvas’s default scale. Total grade (box unticked): the final counts as 0 out of 100, the weights add to 100, and the grade is 68.4%, a D+. Neither number is wrong. They answer different questions.

What the final has to do: to finish at 87% (B+) it needs 92.98% or better once Canvas rounds. An A- (90%) is out of reach, because a perfect final gives 88.4%.

Open this example in the final grade calculator

Why your Canvas total might not match

If this calculator and your Grades page disagree, the cause is usually one of these. Most are things Canvas does before a score reaches the page, so a calculator cannot see them.

• Some grades are not posted yet. A score marked hidden (the visibility icon) does not count until your instructor posts it. Source: icons guide.
• A quiz is waiting for manual grading. In the current grade, Canvas leaves out a quiz that is still pending review. Source: Canvas’s grading code.
• Late and missing policies changed a score. Instructors can have Canvas take points off late work and give missing work a set grade automatically, so enter the score your Grades page shows. Source: What are Grades and the Gradebook?
• An assignment does not count. Some assignments are set to stay out of the final grade, and the Grades page marks them with a warning icon. Source: How do I view my grades in a current course?
• The course uses grading periods. Weighted grading periods add another layer of weighting that this calculator does not model. Source: the same Grades page guide.
• The instructor overrode the grade. Instructors can replace a calculated final grade with one they set. Source: How do I override a student’s final grade in the Gradebook?
• A group drops as many scores as it has point-bearing assignments and also holds an assignment worth zero points. In our tests Canvas’s own code gave unusual results for that mix, so this calculator warns instead of guessing.
• Your school uses a different letter scale. Pick the matching preset or enter your own cutoffs.
• The number sits right on a cutoff. Canvas rounds to two decimals first and compares after, so 89.996 passes a 90 cutoff and 89.994 does not.

How this calculator was checked

We tested it against Canvas’s own grading code. About 24,000 random gradebooks, weighted and total-points, with excused, ungraded and extra credit work and with drop rules, were calculated both ways, and the course grades agreed except for totals that land exactly on a half-cent and ties between equally good drop choices. Another 120,000 random groups, about 83,000 of them with drop rules, went through the code Canvas runs on its servers, again with no disagreements beyond those ties and the zero-point case above. The calculator also reproduces 39 hand-worked test cases. The checks were run on 16 October 2026 against the Canvas source dated 30 April 2026.

The same checks, with their logs, are kept with this site’s source. If Instructure changes how Canvas grades, this page needs rechecking; the date above is when it last was.

Canvas grade calculator FAQ

Also see the final grade calculator and the other free tools.