Swiss Grade Calculator
Noten from 1 to 6 with 6 the best and 4.0 the pass, ECTS-weighted - your Schnitt, live.
Local onlyEvery calculation happens in this browser tab. Courses and grades are kept in your own browser so they survive a refresh. Nothing is uploaded, and the page keeps working offline.
Swiss universities grade from 1 to 6, with 6 the top grade and 4.0 the pass - and quarter-grades are normal, so a 4.75 or a 5.25 is an everyday mark at ETH, EPFL, and the cantonal universities. Your Notenschnitt is the ECTS-weighted average: grade times credits, divided by total credits, computed live below with the band shown (genügend from 4.0, gut from 5.0, sehr gut from 5.5).
The trap this page exists to defuse: Switzerland's scale runs in the opposite direction from Germany's 1.0-is-best system, so a Swiss 5.5 and a German 1.5 are both excellent - and a calculator built for one silently butchers the other. Cross-border applicants: always state the scale. One more Swiss particular: many Studienreglemente allow limited compensation of a failing grade by strong grades elsewhere, a rule that lives in your programme's regulations, not in any calculator.
The scale this page uses
| Bewertung | Minimum /6 |
|---|---|
| Sehr gut | 5.5 |
| Gut | 5.0 |
| Genügend (pass) | 4.0 |
| Ungenügend (fail) | 0.0 |
| Award class | Minimum GPA |
|---|---|
| Sehr gut (5.5+) | 5.50 |
| Gut (5.0+) | 5.00 |
| Genügend (4.0+) | 4.00 |
Swiss universities grade from 1 to 6 with 6 the best and 4.0 the pass - the exact opposite direction of neighbouring Germany's scale, a fact that confuses every cross-border application. Quarter and half grades like 4.75 are normal. How your average gets weighted and rounded is set by your own Studienreglement, and we have not read one, so ask your faculty rather than this page.
Second hand, not the issuing body. The Swiss figures here come from a third party, the University of Chile's admissions office, whose entry gives the 1 to 6 range and the 4 pass exactly. How your own average is weighted and rounded is set by your Studienreglement, and we have not read one, so ask your faculty rather than treating this page as final. The document we can show you is Universidad de Chile, table of reference scales for foreign secondary studies (2020), which reports the scale rather than setting it. Click for the document we hold. We read it on 3 October 2026. We have read grading documents from all over the world and could not find one that settles this. If you have a link to an official source, send it to us and we will read it and say so here.
Worked examples
A semester in quarter grades
5.25 in a 6-ECTS course, 4.75 in a 4-ECTS course and 5.5 in a 5-ECTS course. Each grade is multiplied by its ECTS and the total is divided by all 15: (5.25 × 6 + 4.75 × 4 + 5.5 × 5) ÷ 15 = 78 ÷ 15 = 5.20. On this scale higher is better, so 5.20 is a good result.
A 3.5 inside an exam block
At ETH Zurich several exams can form one examination block, and the block passes if its weighted average is at least 4.0. Take 3.5 and 4.5 in two 6-ECTS exams and 4.25 in an 8-ECTS one: (3.5 × 6 + 4.5 × 6 + 4.25 × 8) ÷ 20 = 82 ÷ 20 = 4.10. The 3.5 on its own is a fail, but the block as a whole passes. Your own Studienreglement says whether your courses are grouped this way.
Into the sehr gut range
5.75 and 5.5 in two 4-ECTS courses and 5.25 in a 2-ECTS one: (5.75 × 4 + 5.5 × 4 + 5.25 × 2) ÷ 10 = 55.5 ÷ 10 = 5.55. That clears 5.5, which the University of Bern calls sehr gut.
How this scale works
Swiss universities such as ETH Zurich and the University of Bern grade from 1 to 6. 6 is the best grade, 1 the lowest, and 4.0 is the pass, so a 5.5 is a very good result.
At ETH Zurich grades come in quarter steps (4.25, 4.5, 4.75 and so on). The University of Bern gives the passing grades names: 4 is ausreichend or genügend (sufficient), 4.5 befriedigend (satisfactory), 5 gut (good), 5.5 sehr gut (very good) and 6 ausgezeichnet (excellent). The bands this calculator shows follow those names.
An average is weighted by ECTS credits: multiply each grade by its ECTS, add them up, and divide by the total. One ECTS credit stands for about 30 hours of work, so a bigger course counts for more. Some courses are only pass or fail and have no grade to average. Each university's own regulations decide the details, such as how an average is rounded and whether a weak grade can be balanced by a stronger one.
Where these rules come from
Read from the institution's own rules, quoted below in their own words.
The scale and the weighted average. ETH Zurich says it "deploys a grading scale of 6.0 to 1.0, divided into quarter grades; 6.0 is the highest and 1.0 the lowest grade", that an assessment "is passed if it receives a grade of 4.0 or higher", and that "The result of an examination block is computed as the weighted average of the individual examination grades." It adds that "One credit corresponds to an average student workload of 30 hours." Source: ETH Zurich, Degrees, credits & grading system, legal basis.
The names of the grades. The University of Bern's study regulations for its Faculty of Human Sciences (Art. 41, as amended in 2014) grade passing work as "4 ausreichend/genügend", "4.5 befriedigend", "5 gut", "5.5 sehr gut" and "6 ausgezeichnet". Source: University of Bern, changes to the Phil.-hum. study regulations (PDF).
Checked on 2026-10-01 against the sources linked above.
Questions this calculator gets asked
How is the grade average calculated at Swiss universities?
Each course's Note (1-6) is multiplied by its ECTS credits, summed, and divided by total ECTS. This calculator runs that weighted Schnitt live - quarter-grades like 4.75 included.
What is a good grade in Switzerland?
5.0+ (gut) is genuinely good and 5.5+ (sehr gut) is excellent - Swiss examiners use the top of the scale sparingly, and a 6.0 average is essentially unheard of. A 4.5-5.0 Schnitt is a respectable degree.
Is 4.0 a pass in Switzerland?
Yes - 4.0 is the lowest passing mark (genügend), and anything below fails. Beware the German comparison: in Germany 4.0 is also the lowest pass, but there it is nearly the worst grade on the scale, while the scales run in opposite directions.
How do Swiss grades convert to GPA?
There is no official conversion, so quote your average with its scale and let the evaluator read it. If you want a number for shortlisting, the GPA converter places your grade between this scale's pass line and its ceiling and prints the arithmetic it used, which is a method you can check rather than a table we made up.
Can a failing grade be compensated?
Often, within limits - many Swiss Studienreglemente let one insufficient grade (commonly not below 3.5, ETH-style) be balanced by the weighted average staying at 4.0+. The exact rule is your programme regulation's, and it decides degrees.
Is this Swiss grade calculator free and private?
Yes. No sign-up, nothing uploaded - the Schnitt is computed in your browser and your Noten stay on your device.
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