Wilks Calculator: Original Wilks and Wilks 2020 Scores

How this Wilks calculator works

This Wilks calculator turns a powerlifting total and a bodyweight into points, so lifters of different bodyweights can be compared. Choose male or female, enter your bodyweight and your total, and pick kg or lb. The main result is the original Wilks score. Wilks 2020, the updated version, is shown under it as a separate number with its own label.

Your total is the sum of your best squat, bench press, and deadlift. Powerlifting Australia and World Powerlifting also apply the formula to any one lift, so a single lift is scored the same way. Every result is worked out in kilograms. If you enter pounds, bodyweight and total are both converted first, at 1 lb = 0.45359237 kg.

The original Wilks formula

The original Wilks formula, from 1995, divides 500 by a fifth-degree polynomial of bodyweight and multiplies the result by the total:

Wilks = total × 500 ÷ (a + b·x + c·x² + d·x³ + e·x⁴ + f·x⁵), where x is bodyweight in kg and the total is in kg. The part 500 ÷ (…) is the Wilks coefficient for that bodyweight.

Men: a = −216.0475144, b = 16.2606339, c = −0.002388645, d = −0.00113732, e = 0.00000701863, f = −0.00000001291.

Women: a = 594.31747775582, b = −27.23842536447, c = 0.82112226871, d = −0.00930733913, e = 0.00004731582, f = −0.00000009054.

The women’s f term has seven zeros after the decimal point. An earlier revision of a 2020 report that lists these coefficients prints it with one zero fewer, and that value makes the formula go negative at ordinary bodyweights. This calculator uses −0.00000009054, which matches the official Powerlifting Australia tables.

Wilks 2020 (Wilks Formula 2)

Wilks 2020, also called Wilks Formula 2, was released by Powerlifting Australia on 28 February 2020. It keeps the same shape with new coefficients and uses 600 in place of 500:

Wilks 2020 = total × 600 ÷ (a + b·x + c·x² + d·x³ + e·x⁴ + f·x⁵)

Men: a = 47.4617885411949, b = 8.47206137941125, c = 0.073694103462609, d = −0.00139583381094385, e = 0.00000707665973070743, f = −0.0000000120804336482315.

Women: a = −125.425539779509, b = 13.7121941940668, c = −0.0330725063103405, d = −0.0010504000506583, e = 0.00000938773881462799, f = −0.000000023334613884954.

Because the numerator and the coefficients differ, the two versions are different scales. A score on one cannot be compared with a score on the other, so this page never subtracts one from the other or ranks one against the other.

Wilks calculator examples

A man weighing 90 kg with a 600 kg total scores 600 × 500 ÷ 783.2153 = 383.04 original Wilks points. On its own scale, his Wilks 2020 score is 460.20.

A woman weighing 60 kg with a 350 kg total scores 390.21 original Wilks points and 461.66 Wilks 2020 points.

In pounds, a 200 lb man with a 1,300 lb total converts to 90.72 kg and 589.67 kg, for 374.94 original points and 450.43 Wilks 2020 points. A 132 lb woman with a 700 lb total scores 354.57 original points and 419.39 Wilks 2020 points.

Bodyweight ranges for each formula

Both polynomials stop behaving sensibly at very low and very high bodyweights, so each score has a range. The original Wilks covers 40 to 201.9 kg for men and 40 to 154.53 kg for women. Wilks 2020 covers 40 to 200.95 kg for men and 40 to 150.95 kg for women, the ends of the official Powerlifting Australia tables.

Outside a range, the page shows a short message in place of that score. The Wilks 2020 ranges sit inside the original ranges, so a man at 201 kg or a woman at 152 kg still gets an original score, with a message in place of the Wilks 2020 number. The original upper limits of 201.9 and 154.53 kg are a common convention near the top of each curve, not limits published with the formula.

Kilograms, pounds, and rounding

The coefficients are defined in kilograms, so pounds never go into the formula directly. Bodyweight and total are both converted at exactly 1 lb = 0.45359237 kg, and the conversion is shown with the result. Switching between kg and lb converts the numbers you typed, rounded to two decimals, so 90 kg becomes 198.42 lb. That rounding can move a score by 0.01.

Every step keeps full precision. Scores are shown to two decimals, as on the Powerlifting Australia and World Powerlifting calculators, and a score exactly halfway rounds up. Coefficients are shown to four decimals, as in the official tables.

Which federations use Wilks

The IPF has used IPF GL points since 1 May 2020. USAPL and USPA use DOTS. Powerlifting Australia and World Powerlifting use Wilks 2020. This page calculates the original Wilks and Wilks 2020 only, so check the rulebook of the federation you compete in for the formula it uses.

What a Wilks score does not tell you

A Wilks score compares totals across bodyweights. It does not adjust for age or equipment, and it does not grade the total. Original Wilks scores still appear in older meet results, while Wilks 2020 is the version Powerlifting Australia and World Powerlifting use today.

Wilks scores lifts you completed. To estimate a one-rep max from a set of several repetitions instead, use the one-rep max calculator.

Sources

Kopayev O, Onyshchenko B, Stetsenko A. Evaluation of Wilks, Wilks-2, DOTS, IPF and GOODLIFT formulas for calculating relative scores in IPF powerlifting competitions. March 2020, corrected revision, Appendix 1.

Powerlifting Australia. Wilks Formula, with the Wilks 2020 coefficient tables. Wilks Formula 2 Released, 28 February 2020. Original Wilks tables, archived 21 November 2019.

World Powerlifting. Wilks Formula Calculator.

Federation use: IPF GL Formula page and announcement, points valid from 1 May 2020. USAPL Rulebook v2025.2. USPA Rulebook, 24 March 2025.

Sources last checked: 9 October 2026.

Frequently asked questions