Portugal vs United States Grading System
Enter your grade to convert between 0–20 Scale (10 to pass) and GPA (4.0 Scale)
A Bachelor's / first-degree grade — for graduate (Master's) admission or employment
Got a school-leaving qualification instead — A-levels, Class 12, WASSCE, the Abitur? Here's what actually happens to those.
Hover or tap a band to see what it means.
Hover or tap a band to see what it means.
Enter a grade above to see what it means in the United States
You'll get the classification it corresponds to, the range it falls in rather than a single false-precise number, and how firm that answer is.
How does the Portugal grading system work?
Portuguese universities use a 0–20 scale inherited from the French tradition. Pass mark is 10. Grades of 18–20 are rarely awarded.
Credential-evaluator source: Scholaro — Portugal grading system (credential-evaluation database) · cross-checked against Direção-Geral do Ensino Superior (DGES), Portugal · grading data verified 2026-07-24 · how we convert · report an error
How does the United States grading system work?
US universities use a 4.0 GPA scale as a credit-weighted average. A=4.0, B=3.0, C=2.0, D=1.0, F=0. Plus/minus grades (A-=3.7, B+=3.3) are common.
Credential-evaluator source: Nuffic — US grading system (4.0 GPA scale) · cross-checked against National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) · grading data verified 2026-07-24 · how we convert · report an error
Do Portugal and the United States mark to the same standard?
No — and it is the difference in marking culture, not the arithmetic, that makes a direct comparison mislead. Here is how each country actually uses its own scale.
What a good grade means in Portugal
As with other 20-point systems, the top of the Portuguese scale is barely used: marks above 17 are uncommon and 20 is effectively unattainable, so a 15 or 16 represents a strong degree rather than the mediocre 75–80% it resembles when converted arithmetically. The honours labels at 18 and above are worth stating on an application precisely because the number alone does not communicate how rare they are.
What a good grade means in the United States
US marking is generous by international standards, and this is the mirror image of the trap that catches Indian and Chinese applicants. A US 3.5 is a good but unremarkable result, held by a large share of graduates from selective institutions — it is not equivalent to a British 3.5-out-of-4-style elite performance. Applying to the UK, an American should expect their GPA to translate to a lower-sounding percentage than instinct suggests, and that is normal rather than a downgrade.
Will a grade from Portugal get you into the United States?
United States universities typically ask for 3.00 / 4 for a taught master's — a one-to-two-year postgraduate degree made mostly of classes. On Portugal's scale that is roughly 13.6–14.3 / 20 (Bom (Good)). US graduate schools publish a 3.0 minimum near-universally. The competitive figure is the average GPA of admitted applicants across all graduate programmes at UNC Chapel Hill (gradschool.unc.edu/admissions/averagescores/) — a reference point, not a cut-off. Programmes set their own bars above the school minimum, and applicants below 3.0 are usually invited to contact the programme rather than turned away.
UC Riverside Graduate Division — admission requirements · checked 2026-07-24 · the figure in your own terms is a double conversion, so it is a range. how this is worked out
Muito Bom (18–20) → approximately 4.0 GPA.
What goes wrong converting grades from Portugal to the United States?
The pass marks differ — 10.0 in Portugal against 1.00 in the United States — so the two scales have different usable ranges and the middle of one is not the middle of the other.
Mistakes specific to Portugal grades
- Converting a 20-point mark to a percentage by multiplying by five. A 15/20 is a good Portuguese degree; "75%" reads as unremarkable in the US.
- Expecting the top of the scale to be reachable. Above 18 is very rare, which compresses the meaningful range considerably.
- Omitting the honours designation where you hold one — it is quota-like in practice and communicates more than the mark.
What should you do next, applying from Portugal to the United States?
- Check the course, not the country. Entry requirements are set per programme and revised every cycle. The 3.00 / 4 above is the typical bar, not a guarantee — selective courses ask for more.
- Budget for a credential evaluation. Most United States universities require your transcript assessed by an approved service before they will consider it — roughly $200 and 4–7 weeks. Our WES guide explains which report to order, since choosing the wrong one means paying twice.
- Get your documents moving early. Universities normally require your transcript sent directly by your institution rather than as a copy from you, which takes longer than most applicants expect.
- Read both systems in full. How Portugal grading works · How United States grading works
Where to search for postgraduate courses in the United States
There is no federal directory of US graduate programmes — College Navigator indexes institutions rather than graduate admissions, so each department's own page is the only authoritative source. This is also why US graduate requirements vary so widely between departments of the same university.
What do these grading terms mean?
- Percentage scale
- A 0–100 marking scale — but the numbers are not comparable across countries: 70% is an outstanding result in the UK and a modest one in India.
- GPA (Grade Point Average)
- The US way of expressing an overall grade, on a 0–4.0 scale where 4.0 is the top — so a 4.0 is roughly what a 90–100% or a First Class would be elsewhere.
- Grade compression
- Where a marking culture rarely uses the top of its own scale, so the highest grades anyone actually earns sit well below the theoretical maximum.
- Credits / credit hours
- A measure of how much a subject counts toward your degree — bigger subjects carry more credits and pull your average further.
- Transcript
- The official document from your university listing every subject you took and the grade you got — not the same as your degree certificate, and universities abroad want both.
- Degree classification
- A named band your final result falls into — First Class, 2:1, Distinction — used across the UK, Ireland, Nigeria, India and much of the Commonwealth instead of a single number.
Frequently asked questions
What is a 18.0 from Portugal on the United States' scale?
Approximately 3.90–4.00 / 4 — A. That is a range rather than a single number because grade conversion is an estimate, and the range widens where either country's data is less certain. Enter your own grade in the converter above for your figure.
Can you study a master's in the United States with a degree from Portugal?
Yes — universities in the United States typically ask for 3.00 / 4 on their own scale. On Portugal's scale that is roughly 13.6–14.3 / 20 (Bom (Good)). US graduate schools publish a 3.0 minimum near-universally. The competitive figure is the average GPA of admitted applicants across all graduate programmes at UNC Chapel Hill (gradschool.unc.edu/admissions/averagescores/) — a reference point, not a cut-off. Programmes set their own bars above the school minimum, and applicants below 3.0 are usually invited to contact the programme rather than turned away. Published by UC Riverside Graduate Division — admission requirements, checked 2026-07-24.
What grade do you need in Portugal for a master's in the United States?
About 13.6–14.3 / 20 — Bom (Good). That is the United States' published bar of 3.00 / 4 restated on Portugal's scale, so it is a conversion of a conversion and is shown as a range for that reason. Competitive courses ask above the published minimum, so treat it as the floor rather than the target.