D&D 5e XP Calculator
Free encounter and level-up calculator for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Add your party, drop in monsters by Challenge Rating, and instantly see XP rewards, encounter difficulty, and sessions until level-up.
Calculator
How D&D 5e XP works
D&D 5th Edition awards experience points based on a monster's Challenge Rating (CR). Every CR maps to a fixed XP value — CR ¼ is 50 XP, CR 1 is 200 XP, CR 5 is 1,800 XP, all the way up to CR 30 at 155,000 XP. When the dust settles, you sum the XP for every monster the party defeated and split it evenly between the player characters.
That base award is what your players actually earn. The encounter multiplier you may have heard of (×1.5 for two monsters, ×2 for a small pack, etc.) only changes how the DM gauges difficulty — it never inflates the XP awarded. The calculator above shows both: the raw XP each player gets, and the adjusted-for-difficulty XP used to label the fight as easy, medium, hard, or deadly.
Level-up XP thresholds (2014 & 2024 5e)
The thresholds are identical in both rulesets, so this table works whether your group runs 2014 5e or the 2024 revision:
L1: 0 · L2: 300 · L3: 900 · L4: 2,700 · L5: 6,500 · L6: 14,000 · L7: 23,000 · L8: 34,000 · L9: 48,000 · L10: 64,000 · L11: 85,000 · L12: 100,000 · L13: 120,000 · L14: 140,000 · L15: 165,000 · L16: 195,000 · L17: 225,000 · L18: 265,000 · L19: 305,000 · L20: 355,000.
Encounter difficulty thresholds
For each PC, 5e defines four budgets — Easy, Medium, Hard, and Deadly. Sum them across the party and compare to the multiplied encounter XP. A combat that lands above the Deadly threshold can drop a character; one below Easy is mostly a warm-up. The calculator picks the right label automatically based on your party level and size.
Tips for awarding XP fairly
Split between PCs only. NPC allies, hirelings, and DMPC sidekicks should not dilute the share — that's the rule and it keeps the math clean.
Award for the whole encounter, not per kill. Hand out XP at the end of the fight, after the party has either won, fled, or talked their way out. Yes, talking out of a fight is worth full XP — that's explicit in the DMG.
Milestone leveling is fine too. Many tables skip XP entirely and level up at story beats. The calculator still works as a planning tool: figure out how "loaded" each session needs to be in narrative beats to feel like a level.
Why we built this
We're the team behind CheckMate, a multiplayer habit RPG where you team up with friends to fight bosses by checking off real-life habits. We built this XP calculator because we kept reaching for one during our own home games and the existing tools either felt stuck in 2010 or required a login. This one runs in your browser, mobile-friendly, no tracking, no signup. Bookmark it.
FAQ
How is XP calculated in D&D 5e?
Each monster has a fixed XP value tied to its CR. Add them up, then divide by the number of player characters. The encounter multiplier is only used to gauge difficulty — never to inflate the XP awarded.
What XP do I need to level up?
The thresholds above show every level. The calculator displays the exact gap from your current XP to the next level, plus an estimate of how many sessions remain at your average XP-per-session rate.
What is the encounter multiplier?
1 monster ×1, 2 monsters ×1.5, 3–6 ×2, 7–10 ×2.5, 11–14 ×3, 15+ ×4. The calculator applies this automatically based on the monster count you enter.
Does this work for 2024 5e?
Yes. The XP-per-CR table and level thresholds are unchanged in the 2024 revision.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes. The calculator is fully responsive — most DMs we know use it from a phone at the table.