Austria Grading System Explained
1–5 Scale (inverted, same as Germany) · pass mark 4
How do grades from Austria convert to US GPA?
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.
⚠️ Austrian grades are INVERTED — 1 is BEST, 5 is Fail. Same system as Germany.
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 Austria grading system work?
Austrian universities use a 1–5 inverted scale identical to Germany. 1 is the best grade, 4 is minimum pass, 5 is fail.
Austrian universities use a five-point scale that runs the same direction as Germany's: 1 is Sehr gut (very good), 2 Gut, 3 Befriedigend, 4 Genügend (sufficient, the minimum pass) and 5 Nicht genügend (fail).
Unlike Germany, Austrian grades are whole numbers — there is no 1.3 or 2.7 — so the scale is coarser and a single grade covers a wider band of performance.
Overall degree results are often expressed as passed with distinction (mit Auszeichnung bestanden) rather than as a calculated average.
⚠️ Austrian grades are INVERTED — 1 is BEST, 5 is Fail. Same system as Germany.
What does each grade mean in Austria?
| Range | Classification | ≈ US GPA |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sehr Gut (Very Good) | 4.0 |
| 2 | Gut (Good) | 3.3 |
| 3 | Befriedigend (Satisf.) | 2.7 |
| 4 | Genügend (Sufficient) | 2.0 |
| 5 | Nicht Genügend (Fail) | — |
What does a good grade actually look like in Austria?
The inverted, whole-number scale is the thing to state plainly on any application: a 1 is the best possible grade and a 4 is a bare pass, which is counterintuitive to anyone from a percentage system and produces exactly the wrong impression if left unexplained. Because there are only four passing values, an Austrian transcript carries less fine-grained information than a German one, and "mit Auszeichnung" is consequently the strongest signal available — worth stating explicitly where you have it.
How do WES and other evaluators read grades from Austria?
Austrian 1 (Sehr Gut) → 4.0 GPA. Treated equivalently to German credentials by WES.
Credential-evaluator source: Scholaro — Austria inverted 1–5 scale (credential-evaluation database) · cross-checked against Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung, Austria · grading data verified 2026-07-24 · how we convert · report an error
What do people get wrong about grades from Austria?
- Reading the scale the wrong way round. A 1 is excellent and a 4 is the minimum pass, the opposite of the percentage instinct.
- Expecting decimal precision. Austrian grades are whole numbers, so there is no equivalent of a German 1.3.
- Omitting mit Auszeichnung. On a four-value scale it is the main way to distinguish an outstanding degree from a good one.
What grade do you need to study abroad from Austria?
Each destination below publishes its own typical entry requirement for a taught master's — a one-to-two-year postgraduate degree made mostly of classes. The last column restates that bar in Austria's own grading terms, so you can hold it against your actual transcript instead of converting in your head.
The last column is a double conversion — the destination's bar onto the US 4.0 scale and then onto Austria's, so its uncertainty is wider than a single conversion and it is shown as a range for that reason. Treat it as orientation, and check the course page for the bar that actually binds. How this is worked out.
Only destinations whose entry requirement we have read and cited appear here. Several countries publish no numeric bar at all — France admits on the dossier, Japan by entrance examination — and others we simply have not researched yet. An absent row never means “no requirement”.
The last column links the organisations that maintain each country's programme data — we hold none of it ourselves, and none of them can tell you whether you will be admitted. Several countries have no single national directory for postgraduate study at all: master's applications go straight to the university, so the course page is the authoritative source.
How do grades from Austria compare, side by side?
Each of these sets Austria against one destination in detail — the two grading cultures, the traps specific to that direction, and the converter preset for the route:
- Austria vs United States grading system
- Austria vs United Kingdom grading system
- Austria vs Canada grading system
- Austria vs Germany grading system
- Austria vs Australia grading system
Applying to the US or Canada? Read the WES credential evaluation guide before you order — choosing the wrong report type is the most common (and costly) mistake.
What do these grading terms mean?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Frequently asked questions
Is a good grade in Austria still good abroad?
The inverted, whole-number scale is the thing to state plainly on any application: a 1 is the best possible grade and a 4 is a bare pass, which is counterintuitive to anyone from a percentage system and produces exactly the wrong impression if left unexplained. Because there are only four passing values, an Austrian transcript carries less fine-grained information than a German one, and "mit Auszeichnung" is consequently the strongest signal available — worth stating explicitly where you have it.
What grade do you need to study abroad from Austria?
It depends on the destination, and the spread is wide. Stated on Austria's own scale, the typical taught-master's bar works out at roughly: Australia 3–4 / 5, Netherlands 3–4 / 5, New Zealand 3–4 / 5. Across the 12 destinations whose entry requirements we have read and cited, the lowest bar is Australia at about 3–4 / 5. These are typical requirements, not guarantees — selective programmes ask for more, and each figure is a conversion, so treat it as orientation and check the course page.
Can you study abroad with a low grade from Austria?
Often yes, but be specific rather than hopeful about it. The lowest published bar among the destinations we hold data for is Australia at roughly 3–4 / 5 on Austria's scale, so a result below that clears no destination on our list on grades alone. Below the bar the route is not closed — conversion, qualifying and pre-master's programmes exist in most countries and are designed for exactly this — but expect to need one, and expect grades to matter more where the programme is competitive. Convert your own grade above to see which bars it actually clears.