France grades out of twenty, ten is a pass, and nobody in a French classroom has ever said the word GPA. Then you apply somewhere else, or transfer, or fill in a form that asks for a 4.0 scale, and you have to translate a system that does not sit evenly on top of the other one.
Enter the French grade and it gives you the US 4.0 equivalent. The whole conversion is eight values wide, because that is all the map holds, and anything outside them comes back as an error rather than a made-up answer.
One honest detail: 15 out of 20 is a perfectly normal French grade and this tool will not accept it. Fifteen rounds to fifteen, fifteen is not on the list, and you get told to pick 0, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 or 20. You have to round it yourself, either way.
Convert your French grade (0–20 scale) to a US 4.0 GPA equivalent.
The whole conversion
Eight steps, no interpolation between them:
| French grade | US GPA | How it reads in France |
|---|---|---|
| 20/20 | 4.0 | Perfect, almost never awarded |
| 18/20 | 3.7 | Excellent |
| 16/20 | 3.3 | Très bien |
| 14/20 | 3.0 | Bien |
| 12/20 | 2.7 | Assez bien |
| 10/20 | 2.0 | Pass, the minimum |
| 8/20 | 1.0 | Below the pass line |
| 0/20 | 0.0 | Fail |
The mentions are the labels French degrees actually use: assez bien from 12, bien from 14, très bien from 16. They sit a little to the left of where an American reader would put the same grades, which is the part worth thinking about before you send anything off.
Watch the rounding too. The tool rounds your entry to the nearest whole number first and then checks it against the list, so 13.6 becomes 14 and gives you 3.0, while 13.4 becomes 13 and gives you an error. Decimal entries are allowed in the box, they just have to land on one of the eight after the rounding.
Where the mapping is not really honest
Ten out of twenty is a pass and nothing more, and it maps to 2.0. In a US transcript a 2.0 reads as a solid C rather than as scraped-through, so the bottom of this table flatters the grade slightly. Twelve out of twenty becomes 2.7, which is a B minus for a mark that a French student would describe as unremarkable.
The middle is the same problem in the other direction. Sixteen is a strong grade in France and a 3.3 here is only a B plus, so a student with a lot of seize et demi on the transcript can look worse on paper than they were in the room. This is the cost of having eight slots instead of a continuous scale, and there is no way around it with a table this short.
There is also a European layer that this does not touch. French universities commonly report ECTS alongside the marks, and ECTS is about credits and workload rather than achievement, so a grade of 14 and a grade of 6 ECTS are two different statements. If a form asks for ECTS, this converter is the wrong tool for it.
When this is good enough
For a quick sanity check, a spreadsheet, or an early conversation about where you stand, the eight steps are plenty. Enter the grade, read the GPA, and you know roughly which side of 3.0 you are on.
For an actual application, an official evaluation is what counts. Institutions such as WES and ECE produce credential evaluations, and the receiving university’s own admissions office will tell you which conversion it accepts, if any. They have rules about the transcript, the grading scale and the institution, and a table on a webpage is not that.
Get the grade off the document rather than from memory, too. French transcripts often show the mark, the mention and the coordinate in the same column, and mixing them up is how a 14 turns into a 4.0 in somebody’s head. The printed number wins, the same as always.
Other tools
- future self reminder — for the form you are filling in now that the exchange committee reads next term
- GCSE grade boundaries — the British version of the same problem, letters instead of twenties
- Germany grade converter — the neighbouring scale, 1 being best and 5 being the exit
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a good grade in France?
Sixteen or above is strong and gets a très bien mention. Fourteen to sixteen is bien and is a perfectly respectable result. Ten is a pass and not much more than that, and anything under ten is a fail rather than a near miss.
Why can I not enter 15 or 13?
Because the map only holds the eight even values, and the tool checks your rounded number against those eight. Fifteen rounds to fifteen and gets rejected. Round it yourself to 14 or 16, and be aware the two answers are a full 0.3 of GPA apart.
Does the converter accept decimals?
Yes, they are rounded to the nearest whole number first. A 14.4 gives you 14 and a 3.0, while a 14.6 rounds to 15 and errors out. If you have a decimal grade on the transcript, round it deliberately before you type it in rather than letting the box decide.
Is 10 out of 20 really a 2.0?
That is what this table says, and it is the weakest row in it. Ten is the French pass line, and a 2.0 in the US reads as an ordinary C rather than as a bare pass. For anything formal, expect the evaluator to look at the whole transcript rather than one number.
Can I use this for university admissions?
Only for a rough idea of where you stand. Admissions offices use their own conversion or an official credential evaluation, and they will tell you which. Use this to compare, not to submit.