Wilks Calculator (2020 Coefficients)

A Wilks score turns your powerlifting total into a number that can be compared across bodyweights: total × a coefficient that depends on how much you weigh and whether you are male or female. Enter your bodyweight and the three lifts — the calculator uses kilograms, so 176 lb is 80 kg.

Worked example

An 80 kg man (176 lb) with a squat of 140 kg (309 lb), a bench of 100 kg (220 lb) and a deadlift of 160 kg (353 lb) has a total of 400 kg / 882 lb. Run through the 2020 coefficients:

• coefficient = 600 ÷ (47.4618 + 8.4721x + 0.0737x² − 0.0013958x³ + 0.0000070767x⁴ − 0.0000000120804x⁵), with x = 80
• the polynomial comes to 732.48, so the coefficient is 600 ÷ 732.48 = 0.8191
• Wilks 2020 score = 400 × 0.8191 = 327.7

Same lifter, same total, run through the original Wilks polynomial: 273.1. Nothing about him changed.

Why the two versions differ by so much

The 2020 update did two separate things, and only one of them is about fairness.

The first is a pure change of scale. The original formula divides 500 by its polynomial; the 2020 version divides 600. That alone lifts every score by about a fifth, and it is why the new numbers are not a drop-in replacement — the reference implementation used by OpenPowerlifting treats Wilks2020 as a distinct formula for exactly this reason, and keeps calculating the old one for historical results.

The second is a change of shape. Indexing every formula to an 80 kg lifter with the same 500 kg total makes the difference visible:

Bodyweight	Wilks (original)	Wilks 2020	DOTS	IPF GL
45 kg	168.9	153.4	160.9	135.7
60 kg	124.9	121.7	122.4	116.3
80 kg	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
100 kg	89.1	89.0	89.3	89.6
140 kg	81.9	79.9	79.5	77.3
160 kg	80.3	77.7	76.7	73.5

Between roughly 70 and 120 kg all four agree within a point or two. Outside that range they pull apart, and the 2020 coefficients hand less of an advantage to very light lifters than the original did. The Wilks versus DOTS comparison goes through that divergence in detail.

One caveat about provenance worth knowing: the 2020 coefficients were published as tables rather than as a stable, documented formula, and the version circulating today came to the open-source implementers via the USPA from Robert Wilks himself, after the earlier published tables no longer matched. Treat the score as useful and the paper trail as thin.

Where Wilks actually stands in 2026

Nowhere official, in the two places most American lifters compete.

• USA Powerlifting scores DOTS. Its 2026 rulebook names DOTS as the tiebreak and ranking formula, and notes that a replacement was approved for development in 2024 but that DOTS remains in use until one is adopted.
• The IPF has used GL Points since 1 May 2020. Powerlifting America is the IPF’s US member federation, so that is the scale that governs an IPF-pathway meet. The IPF GL Points page covers that formula and how its scale is anchored.

Wilks persists because it is the number a generation of lifters learned to quote. That is a real reason to keep calculating it, and not a reason to treat it as a standard.

For the simplest version of the same question, see the relative strength calculator, and to see where a score lands against elite performance, the strength standards chart. If you have not added up your three lifts yet, start at the powerlifting total calculator.

This content is informational and does not replace coaching or medical advice.