A percentage becomes a grade point in two steps: the percentage becomes a letter, and the letter becomes a grade point. Both steps belong to an institution. The University of Toronto publishes both in one table, so a 91 per cent there is an A+ and 4.0. At an institution that publishes no percentage bands, the same 91 has no published grade point at all.
Where the bands are published
Toronto prints them in full: 90 to 100 per cent is A+ at 4.0, 85 to 89 is A at 4.0, 80 to 84 is A- at 3.7, 77 to 79 is B+ at 3.3, 73 to 76 is B at 3.0, 70 to 72 is B- at 2.7. A 91 per cent is therefore an A+ and 4.0 at Toronto. That is the answer for a Toronto transcript and for nobody else's.
Where they are not
Most American registrars publish a letter and a grade point and stop, because the percentage that produced the letter was set by the instructor in that course. A 90 per cent in one class and a 90 per cent in another need not be the same letter, so no institution-wide band exists to publish. Any table that supplies one is filling a gap the institution deliberately left.
Percent to GPA where no band is published: what to do instead
For a single course, the syllabus states the mapping the instructor used, and that is a real source with a date on it. For an application, the receiving institution publishes the conversion it will apply. For a formal equivalency, a recognized credential evaluator issues a statement an institution will accept. In every case the authority is named, which is what a general conversion table cannot offer.
Questions people ask about percentage to GPA
What is a 90 per cent as a GPA?
At the University of Toronto, 90 per cent falls in the A+ band and is 4.0. At an institution that publishes no percentage bands there is no published answer, because the percentage-to-letter step belongs to the individual course.
Is 92 per cent a 4.0?
Only where the institution's published bands put it there. Toronto's A+ band starts at 90, so a 92 is 4.0 on that scale. Elsewhere the letter for a 92 is the instructor's to set.
Why is there no standard percentage to GPA table?
Because the percentage that produces a letter is set course by course rather than institution-wide, and most registrars publish only the letter and the grade point. A standard table would be asserting something nobody published.
What is a 89 gpa, and what is a 85 gpa in the same band?
At Toronto, the one institution on this shelf that publishes percentage bands in full, both sit in the same band: 85 to 89 per cent is an A and 4.0. So an 89 and an 85 convert identically there, which is itself the warning. That band is Toronto's own and applies to a Toronto transcript; most American registrars publish a letter and a grade point and stop, because the percentage that produced the letter was set by the instructor in that course, so an 85 in one class and an 85 in another need not be the same letter at all.