A-level to IB Converter, by Where Grades Rank

What this isA working equivalence from published results, not an admissions rule. A university's offer is written in its own terms, usually grades or UCAS points.

How the match is made

Most converters stretch one scale over the other. This one asks a different question: how rare was the grade? In summer 2026, JCQ counted 906,425 A-level entries across the UK, and 97.5% of them passed with an E or better. In May 2026 the IB awarded 783,229 subject grades, and 97.2% were a 2 or better. Rank each passing grade within its own table and it covers a slice, from the top down. The match is the grade holding the same slice on the other side.

That is the method the ECTS Users' Guide 2015 sets out for converting grades in European higher education: a table of the passing grades actually awarded, with cumulative percentages, compared with the same table from the other system. The guide expects the slices to overlap, and these do. Where a slice straddles two grades, this page says how it splits instead of rounding it away.

The whole table, both ways

A-level	Where it ranked among passing entries	Same slice in the IB
A*	top 9.9%	7 (86%), 6 (14%)
A	9.9% to 29.2%	all 6
B	29.2% to 57.2%	5 (95%), 6 (5%)
C	57.2% to 80.4%	4 (93%), 5 (7%)
D	80.4% to 93.9%	3 (82%), 4 (18%)
E	bottom 6.1%	2 (71%), 3 (29%)

IB	Where it ranked among passing grades	Same slice at A-level
7	top 8.4%	all A*
6	8.4% to 30.5%	A (88%), A* (6%), B (6%)
5	30.5% to 59.0%	B (94%), C (6%)
4	59.0% to 82.8%	C (90%), D (10%)
3	82.8% to 95.7%	D (86%), E (14%)
2	bottom 4.3%	all E

What a rank can and cannot tell you

It compares positions, not people. An IB 6 sat in the top 30.5% of passing IB subject grades, and the IB cohort is not the A-level cohort. Schools, countries and entry policies differ, so matching ranks says how rare a grade was where it was earned, not that two students would score the same on one paper.

The IB table mixes Higher and Standard Level. The IB publishes this distribution with both levels together, while UCAS values them differently, so an HL 6 and an SL 6 land in the same slice here. All subjects are pooled on both sides, and subjects differ a lot. The IB figures are provisional, published before re-marks. And this is one year of results; next year's tables will move a little.

Where the numbers come from

A-level: JCQ, A level results by subject, age, sex and country, 2026, the UK rows for all ages, published 13 August 2026. IB: the IB's provisional statistical bulletin for May 2026, the grade distribution by subject group on page 20. That PDF is made of images with no text in it, so its figures were read from a high-resolution render and checked two ways: the seven subject groups add up to the stated 783,229 exactly, and their weighted percentages reproduce the total row. Both files are kept, with their sizes and fingerprints, alongside this site's code.

For points rather than ranks, the UCAS points calculator applies the tariff, and the IB points calculator adds up the diploma and checks every failing condition.

Questions this page gets asked

What is an A in A-level equal to in IB?

By rank, a 6. In summer 2026 an A covered the top 9.9% to 29.2% of passing A-level entries, and that whole slice of passing IB subject grades in May 2026 was a 6.

What IB grade is the same as an A*?

Mostly a 7. The A* slice, the top 9.9% of passing A-level entries, lines up as 7 (86%), 6 (14%) among passing IB subject grades.

Is this how UCAS compares A-levels and the IB?

No. UCAS gives points from a fixed tariff: an A-level A* and an IB Higher Level 7 both earn 56, but a Higher Level 5 earns 32, the same as an A-level C. By rank, an IB 5 sits where an A-level B does. The tariff is a points scale UCAS sets; this page reports where grades actually fell among real results. They answer different questions, and a university writes its offer in its own terms, usually grades or tariff points.

Does it matter which subjects I took?

Yes. These figures pool every subject. A-level Further Mathematics gave an A* to 29.0% of entries in 2026, against 9.6% across all subjects, so a subject-by-subject table would move some answers.

Why are fails left out?

Because the method says so. The ECTS Users' Guide builds grade distribution tables from passing grades only. Here that means A* to E at A-level and 2 to 7 in the IB, where a grade 1 in any subject fails the diploma.

A-level to IB, by where the grade ranks