Passer Rating Calculator: How NFL Passer Rating Works

A passer rating calculator turns five numbers from a box score (completions, attempts, passing yards, touchdown passes and interceptions) into the NFL's official passer rating, a single score that runs from 0 to 158.3. The formula grades a quarterback on four rates per pass attempt, caps each one between 0 and 2.375, adds them up, divides by 6 and multiplies by 100.

That is the whole idea, but the details explain a lot: why 158.3 is "perfect," why a 100 rating used to be rare and now is not, and why ESPN built a different number called QBR. Below we walk through the formula by hand with a fully worked example, then you can plug your own numbers into the calculator. If you are new to the sport, our American football for beginners guide covers downs, scoring and positions first.

What is passer rating

Passer rating (often called quarterback rating or QB rating on broadcasts) is the statistic the NFL uses to rank its passers. The league adopted it in 1973, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, after a statistical committee looked for a fairer way to name a passing leader than ranking players by a single number like yards or touchdowns.

The rating only looks at passing, and only at four things, each measured per pass attempt:

• Completion percentage: how often a pass is caught by a teammate
• Yards per attempt: how far the offense moves for every throw, catches and misses included
• Touchdown percentage: how often a throw ends in a touchdown
• Interception percentage: how often a throw ends with the defense taking the ball

Because everything is divided by attempts, a quarterback who throws 15 times in a game and one who throws 50 times can be compared on the same scale. That is also why the rating can swing wildly in small samples and settles down over a full season.

How is passer rating calculated

The official NFL formula builds four separate scores, which we will call A, B, C and D. In each line, ATT means pass attempts:

• A (completions) = (completions / ATT minus 0.3) x 5
• B (yards) = (yards / ATT minus 3) x 0.25
• C (touchdowns) = (touchdowns / ATT) x 20
• D (interceptions) = 2.375 minus (interceptions / ATT x 25)

Each of the four results is then limited to a range of 0 to 2.375. If a number comes out negative, it counts as 0. If it comes out above 2.375, it counts as 2.375. Finally:

Passer rating = (A + B + C + D) / 6 x 100

The Hall of Fame's own explanation writes the same steps with percentages instead of decimals (subtract 30 from the completion percentage and multiply by 0.05, multiply the touchdown percentage by 0.2, and so on). The math is identical; only the bookkeeping differs.

Why every piece is capped at 2.375

The caps stop one huge number from carrying the whole rating. A quarterback who averages 20 yards per attempt in a game does not get unlimited credit for it; the yardage piece simply maxes out. Since each of the four pieces tops out at 2.375, the highest possible sum is 4 x 2.375 = 9.5, and 9.5 / 6 x 100 = 158.33, which is printed as 158.3. The lowest possible sum is 0, so the floor is a rating of 0.0.

The odd-looking constants come from the 1960 to 1970 pro passing data the committee used to set its standards. Subtracting 0.3 from the completion rate, for example, means a passer who completes only 30 percent of his throws earns nothing for completions.

Worked example: 22 of 33 for 265 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT

Take a hypothetical quarterback with a solid but ordinary afternoon: 22 completions on 33 attempts for 265 yards, 2 touchdown passes and 1 interception. Here is each step, with every component rounded to 4 decimals.

Step 1, completions. 22 / 33 = 0.6667. Subtract 0.3 to get 0.3667, then multiply by 5. A = 1.8333

Step 2, yards per attempt. 265 / 33 = 8.0303 yards per attempt. Subtract 3 to get 5.0303, then multiply by 0.25. B = 1.2576

Step 3, touchdowns. 2 / 33 = 0.0606, a touchdown rate of about 6.1 percent. Multiply by 20. C = 1.2121

Step 4, interceptions. 1 / 33 = 0.0303. Multiply by 25 to get 0.7576, then subtract that from 2.375. D = 1.6174

All four numbers fall between 0 and 2.375, so no cap applies. Now add them:

• 1.8333 + 1.2576 + 1.2121 + 1.6174 = 5.9204
• 5.9204 / 6 = 0.9867
• 0.9867 x 100 = 98.67, which rounds to a passer rating of 98.7

Notice where the points came from. Completions and the low interception rate did most of the work, while the yardage score was the weakest of the four even at a healthy 8.0 yards per attempt. Swap that one interception for an incompletion and D jumps to the 2.375 maximum, lifting the rating to about 111.3. A single turnover is worth roughly 12.6 rating points in a game with 33 attempts.

Enter completions, attempts, passing yards, touchdowns and interceptions below to get the passer rating, along with the completion percentage and yards per attempt. Try the example above first; it should return 98.7.

What is a perfect passer rating

A perfect passer rating is 158.3, and it requires all four components to hit the 2.375 cap at the same time. Working the formula backward, those caps are reached at these thresholds, which the Pro Football Hall of Fame lists as well:

• Completion percentage of at least 77.5 percent
• At least 12.5 yards per attempt
• A touchdown on at least 11.875 percent of attempts
• Zero interceptions

Going beyond a threshold adds nothing. Completing 95 percent of your passes earns the same completion score as 77.5 percent, and five touchdowns on 20 attempts score the same as three. A hypothetical line that just clears every bar: 16 of 20 (80 percent) for 250 yards (12.5 per attempt), 3 touchdowns (15 percent) and no interceptions. Run it through the formula and every piece lands on 2.375, for 158.3.

The bottom end works the same way. A rating of 0.0 needs, at best, a completion rate of 30 percent or lower, 3.0 yards per attempt or less, no touchdowns and an interception on at least 9.5 percent of throws.

What is a good passer rating

There is no official grade scale, so the honest answer is to compare against the league. League-wide ratings have climbed steadily since the formula was adopted in 1973, so a rating only means something next to the ratings of the same era.

For a current benchmark, we added up every team's passing totals from NFL.com's 2025 regular-season team stats: 11,217 completions on 17,439 attempts for 122,413 yards, 811 touchdowns and 380 interceptions. Put through the formula, the league as a whole rated about 91.4 in 2025, on a 64.3 percent completion rate and 7.0 yards per attempt. Team passer ratings that season ranged from 70.0 (Cleveland Browns) to 113.0 (New England Patriots).

Using that 2025 league figure as the anchor, a rough reading of a full season looks like this:

• Below about 80: a clear struggle compared with the rest of the league
• Around 90: roughly league average
• About 100 or higher: very good
• 110 or higher: a season that usually leads or nearly leads the league

Treat those bands as our rule of thumb, not an NFL definition. Single games swing far more widely, so a 120 one week and a 70 the next is normal for the same quarterback.

How many attempts you need to qualify

Season leaderboards only include passers with enough volume. The standard used for the NFL's passing leaders since 1978, as documented by Pro Football Reference, is 14 pass attempts per team game. In a 17-game season that works out to 14 x 17 = 238 attempts. Before 1976 the bar was 10 attempts per team game, and in 1976 and 1977 it was 12.

The minimum is tied to team games, not games the quarterback played, so a starter who misses a month can fall off the list even with a great rating. Postseason games are kept separate from regular-season totals; our explainer on how many teams make the NFL playoffs covers that part of the calendar.

NCAA passer efficiency rating

College football uses a different formula with a different scale, so a college number cannot be compared directly with an NFL passer rating. The NCAA Football Statisticians' Manual calls it pass efficiency and defines it as:

Pass efficiency = (8.4 x yards + 330 x touchdowns + 100 x completions minus 200 x interceptions) / attempts

The manual describes the same thing in words: multiply yards per attempt by 8.4, add the completion percentage, add the touchdown percentage times 3.3, and subtract the interception percentage times 2. It notes that the multipliers were chosen to make 100.0 the rating of an average quarterback or team.

Two big differences from the NFL version:

• No caps. The NCAA formula does not limit any of its pieces, so the scale runs from a theoretical minus 731.6 up to 1,261.6.
• Different qualifying rule. To be ranked nationally, a passer must average at least 15 pass attempts per game played, according to the manual.

Our same hypothetical line of 22 of 33 for 265 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception works out to (2,226 + 660 + 2,200 minus 200) / 33 = 4,886 / 33 = 148.06 in the NCAA formula, against 98.7 in the NFL formula.

Passer rating vs QBR

ESPN's Total QBR, introduced in 2011, answers a different question. Passer rating is a public, fixed formula built from five box-score numbers. QBR is built from play-by-play data and asks how much each play changed the team's expected points, then converts that to a 0 to 100 scale where 50 is average.

The practical differences:

• Scale: passer rating runs from 0 to 158.3; QBR runs from 0 to 100.
• Inputs: passer rating counts only passing; QBR also credits or charges the quarterback for rushes, scrambles, sacks, fumbles and penalties he is responsible for.
• Context: QBR weighs situations, discounting plays in lopsided "garbage time" and adjusting for the strength of the opposing defense. Passer rating treats a 10-yard completion on third and 15 the same as one on third and 5.
• Transparency: anyone can compute passer rating with a pencil, which is why a calculator works. ESPN has never published the full QBR formula, so you cannot reproduce it at home.

Neither is "right." Passer rating is the official NFL stat and the one in the record books; QBR is an analytics measure that tries to capture what the box score misses.

What passer rating leaves out

Because it uses only five numbers, passer rating has blind spots that are worth keeping in mind before you lean on it:

• Sacks do not count. A sack is not a pass attempt in the formula, so a quarterback who holds the ball and takes eight sacks can post a fine rating.
• Rushing is ignored. Scrambles for first downs and rushing touchdowns add nothing.
• Drops look like the passer's fault. A dropped ball is simply an incompletion, and a pass that bounces off a receiver's hands into a defender's arms is a full interception.
• Yards after the catch count fully. A 3-yard screen that a receiver turns into a 70-yard score is credited to the passer just like a deep throw.
• Fumbles, game situation and the score are invisible.

That last point matters for fans who play fantasy. Fantasy scoring rewards yards, touchdowns and often rushing, not rating, so a quarterback with a modest rating can still be a useful fantasy starter. Our guide to how fantasy football works explains how those points are counted.

Passer rating quick reference

Keep this handy next to the calculator:

• Formula: four components (completions, yards, touchdowns, interceptions per attempt), each capped from 0 to 2.375, summed, divided by 6, times 100
• Range: 0.0 to 158.3
• Perfect game thresholds: 77.5 percent completions, 12.5 yards per attempt, 11.875 percent touchdowns, no interceptions
• League benchmark: about 91.4 for the whole league in the 2025 regular season (our calculation from NFL.com team totals)
• NFL single-season record: 122.5, Aaron Rodgers, 2011
• Season leaderboard minimum: 14 attempts per team game, or 238 in a 17-game season
• NCAA pass efficiency: (8.4 x yards + 330 x TD + 100 x completions minus 200 x INT) / attempts, no caps, 15 attempts per game to rank
• ESPN QBR: 0 to 100, 50 is average, includes rushing, sacks and game context, formula not public