ACT to SAT Conversion (2026): The Official Charts, and the Margin They Carry

Last updated: September 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.

This page reproduces all six official concordance tables, in both directions, exactly as ACT publishes them and as the College Board publishes the same files. It also does the part most conversion pages skip: explaining what the tables were built from, how much error they carry, and the four things ACT and the College Board explicitly tell you not to do with a converted score.

ACT to SAT conversion chart (Table A2)

This is the table most people want. Find your ACT Composite in the left column; the middle column is the single SAT Total to use when you need one number, and the right column is the SAT range that concords to that ACT score.

Source: ACT/College Board 2018 concordance, Table A2. ACT publishes no concorded value below a Composite of 9.

Two details worth noticing before you use it. The middle column is not the midpoint of the range: on 14 of the 28 rows the single-point value sits off-centre, because the concordance follows the score distribution rather than the arithmetic. And the bands are not a constant width — a 32 concords to a 20-point SAT band (1420–1440), while a 27 concords to a wider 30-point band (1260–1290). Where your score falls changes how precisely it converts.

SAT to ACT conversion chart (Table A1)

The reverse direction. Find your SAT Total on the left of either pair; the ACT Composite is beside it. Starred SAT values are the ones ACT designates “when a single score point comparison is needed” — they are the entries that make the chart reversible.

Source: ACT/College Board 2018 concordance, Table A1. Read down the first pair of columns, then the second. * = use this SAT score for a single-point comparison.

We checked every row of both tables against each other: all 28 ACT scores round-trip. Convert a 29 to a 1340 and convert the 1340 back, and you land on 29 again. That is by design — the starred SAT values exist precisely so the two directions agree — but it is worth knowing, because it means you cannot game a better number by converting twice.

What the conversion actually costs you in accuracy

This is the section most conversion charts leave out, and it is published in ACT and the College Board’s own Guide to the 2018 ACT/SAT Concordance (PDF). The tables come with stated error intervals, and they are not small.

Source: Guide to the 2018 ACT/SAT Concordance, “Additional Notes and Technical Specifications” (PDF).

Read that against the chart above and the practical meaning is blunt. A 30 ACT concords to 1370, but ±80 points spans roughly 1290 to 1450 — which on the same chart is anywhere from a 27 to a 33. That is not a flaw in the table; ACT says plainly that “a concorded score is not a perfect prediction of how a student would perform on the other test.” It is a reason to treat a converted score as a rough position, and to sit the other test yourself if the decision actually matters.

Common conversions, answered directly

The scores people look up most, straight from Tables A1 and A2. Each ACT answer carries the concorded SAT range alongside the single-point value.

Two of these come up constantly and are worth stating in a sentence each. A 32 on the ACT is a 1430 SAT, in a band of 1420–1440. A 1300 SAT is a 28 on the ACT. Both are inside the error interval above, so treat them as the centre of a range rather than a verdict.

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Section conversions: SAT Math and ACT Math (Tables B1 and B2)

Section scores concord separately, and they do not track the composite. ACT and the College Board agreed the two math tests are similar enough to justify a concordance only after checking the correlation: it came out at 0.885, against a stated threshold of 0.866 or higher.

Table B2. Source: act.org.

Table B1, SAT Math to ACT Math. * = single-point comparison value.

Section conversions: SAT Reading and Writing to ACT English + Reading (Tables C1 and C2)

This is the table people misread, because it does not convert to a 1–36 section score. The SAT reports one combined Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score; the ACT reports English and Reading separately. To compare them, the concordance uses the sum of your ACT English and Reading scores, which runs 2 to 72 — not an average, and not a 36-point scale. Add your two ACT section scores together before you look them up.

The correlation behind this one is 0.884, between SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and ACT Reading plus English combined.

Table C2. * = use this ACT score for a single-point comparison.

Table C1. Source: act.org. ERW = Evidence-Based Reading and Writing; ACT English + Reading runs 2–72.

Why the 2018 tables still apply to two tests that have both changed

This is the obvious question and it deserves a straight answer. ACT states it on the concordance page itself: “The most recent ACT / SAT concordance tables were released in 2018 and are not updated annually.” The guide goes further — the 2018 tables “are now the only official concordance tables and should be the single source of reference moving forward.” So yes, they are current, and colleges, scholarship programs and the NCAA still use them.

What has changed is both tests, and it is worth knowing exactly how, because it tells you how much weight the conversion can carry.

• The SAT in the study was the paper test. The guide’s own item-count table describes an SAT of 154 items across a Reading Test (52), a Writing and Language Test (44) and a Math Test (58). The digital SAT that replaced it in the United States in 2024 is a different test entirely — shorter, adaptive, and differently structured (we cover the current format in how long is the SAT).
• The ACT Composite in the study was a four-test average. The guide describes the Composite as “the average of the four ACT test scores (215 items total)” — English, Reading, Mathematics and Science — and footnotes that the Composite tables “were derived from concordances of the ACT sum score (i.e., the sum of the English, Reading, Mathematics and Science Tests).” Today, ACT states that your Composite is “the average of your English, math, and reading scores,” with Science optional.
• The section tables aged better than the composite one. Tables B and C concord Math to Math and SAT reading-and-writing to ACT English plus Reading — four sections that all still exist and still report on the same scales. The Science change does not touch them.

Neither ACT nor the College Board has published a revised concordance for the digital SAT or the enhanced ACT, and neither has withdrawn the 2018 one. The honest position is the one the tables themselves take: use them, they are official and universally accepted, and hold the result loosely — the published ±80-point interval was measured on the older tests, so it is a floor on the uncertainty rather than a ceiling.

How the concordance was built

Worth two minutes, because it explains what the number actually means.

• 589,753 students. The tables were produced from graduating seniors in the class of 2017 who sat both tests — the ACT from February 2016 and the SAT from March 2016, through June 2017. Where a student tested more than once, the two scores with the closest test dates were used.
• Equipercentile linking. The tables pair ACT and SAT scores that have the same percentile rank within that group. A concorded score is, in ACT’s words, the score “with the same rank within a group of students who take the tests at approximately the same time” — not a prediction of what you would score.
• Weighted to the full test-taking population. The sample was statistically weighted for demographics, school size, locale, region, public/private status, free-and-reduced-lunch share and high school GPA, and counterbalanced so that students who took the ACT first and the SAT first were represented evenly. International students and students testing with accommodations were included.
• Built with the NCAA. Researchers from the College Board and ACT developed the tables in collaboration with the NCAA Technical Advisory Board, which is part of why athletic eligibility decisions run on them.

Four things ACT and the College Board tell you not to do with a converted score

These are listed as limitations in the official guide. They are the most useful part of the document and the part that almost never makes it onto a conversion chart.

• Do not superscore across the two tests. The guide is unusually direct: “Combining scores from the ACT and the SAT in a single superscore is strongly discouraged.” Superscore within the SAT or within the ACT if a college allows it — never across them.
• Do not convert averages or ranges. “Users should avoid converting aggregate scores (e.g., mean, median, ranges) using concordance tables, as this could introduce additional sources of error.” A college’s published middle-50% ACT range is not safely convertible into an SAT range; look up the college’s actual SAT range instead.
• Do not decide on a concorded score alone. The guide asks admission professionals to “use multiple reliable and valid measures.” The same applies to you deciding which test to sit.
• Do not treat it as a prediction of your other score. Concordance places you in a rank, not on a second scorecard. A real practice test on the other format tells you far more than a table row.

Using your converted score to decide which test to keep

The reason most people convert a score is to answer a downstream question: which test should I submit, or which should I sit again? The conversion narrows that decision but does not settle it, because of the error interval above. Three steps that do settle it:

• Convert, then compare against your actual college list — not against the national average. Look up the middle-50% range your target colleges publish for the test you intend to send, and compare like with like rather than converting their range.
• If the two converted scores land within the error band, the tests are telling you the same thing. An ACT that concords within roughly 80 points of your SAT is a tie. Pick on format: our SAT vs ACT comparison covers the structural differences that actually make one easier for a given student.
• If one is clearly higher, retake that one. Section-level conversion is the useful tool here: run Tables B and C to find which section is dragging the composite, and put the study time there.

If the answer is that you need to raise a score rather than choose between them, the two study guides we keep current are how to study for the SAT and ACT tips and strategy. On paid prep, the three courses we track for both tests are Magoosh, Kaplan and Prep Expert.

One warning that applies to every prep comparison: a score guarantee is per-test, even when the price is not. Magoosh charges the same on both — SAT and ACT are both $129 for Premium and $399 for Premium plus On-Demand Classes — but its score-improvement guarantee is +100 points on the SAT and +4 points on the ACT, because the scales are different. Kaplan does the opposite and varies the price instead: its SAT courses start at $799 list while its ACT courses start at $649, with 15% off via the code shown on its own page. Read live on 11 September 2026. Check the page for the test you are actually sitting rather than carrying a figure across.

A caution about those vendor pages, because it caught us out. Magoosh’s plans pages end in a feature-comparison table whose four price columns are four different companies — Magoosh alongside Kaplan or Acely, Princeton Review and PrepScholar — not four Magoosh tiers. Read the column headers before quoting a range from it. The prices that are actually Magoosh’s are the two on the plan cards higher up the page.

Free official practice from the College Board and ACT is genuinely good and costs nothing. If you are converting a score to decide whether to try the other test, sit that test’s free official practice test before you spend anything — it answers the question more directly than any conversion table can.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an official ACT to SAT conversion?

Yes. The 2018 ACT/SAT concordance, published jointly by ACT and the College Board, is the only official one. Both organisations host the same tables and the same guide, and the 2018 tables replaced the 2016 set. Any chart that does not match the tables on this page is either older or unofficial.

How accurate is an ACT to SAT conversion?

Less precise than most charts imply. ACT and the College Board publish a standard error of about ±80 SAT points when converting an ACT Composite to an SAT Total, and about ±2 ACT points in the other direction. A 30 ACT concords to 1370, but the error interval spans roughly 1290 to 1450. Treat the result as a band.

What is a 30 ACT on the SAT?

A 30 ACT Composite concords to an SAT Total of 1370, within a concorded range of 1360–1380. Going the other way, an SAT Total of 1370 concords back to a 30.

What is a 1400 SAT in ACT terms?

An SAT Total of 1400 concords to an ACT Composite of 31. The reverse table gives a 31 ACT a concorded SAT of 1400, in a range of 1390–1410.

Do the 2018 tables still work for the digital SAT and the enhanced ACT?

They are still the official tables — ACT states on its own page that the 2018 concordance is the most recent and is “not updated annually,” and no replacement has been published. But they were built on a paper SAT of 154 items and on an ACT Composite that averaged four tests including Science. Today’s Composite is the average of English, math and reading, with Science optional. Use the tables, and allow for at least the stated error.

Can I superscore across the SAT and ACT?

No. The official guide says that “combining scores from the ACT and the SAT in a single superscore is strongly discouraged” and calls it an imprecise way to judge whether a student meets an academic threshold. Superscore within one test if the college allows it, never across both.

Can I convert a college’s average ACT score into an SAT score?

You should not. The guide says to avoid converting aggregate scores such as means, medians and ranges, because it introduces extra error. Colleges publish their ranges for both tests — look up the one you plan to submit.

Why does the ACT English + Reading table run to 72 instead of 36?

Because the SAT reports Reading and Writing as one score while the ACT reports English and Reading separately. To concord them, the tables use the sum of your ACT English and Reading section scores, which runs from 2 to 72. Add the two ACT sections together before looking the value up — do not average them.

Related guides

• SAT vs ACT — which test to sit, on structure rather than score.
• What is a good SAT score? — the College Board benchmarks and percentiles behind the number.
• What is a good ACT score? — ACT’s readiness benchmarks, section by section.
• How to study for the SAT — the practice-test-first plan, on College Board’s own score-gain data.
• ACT tips and tricks — section-by-section strategy for the enhanced ACT.
• ACT test dates 2026–2027 — every national and international date, with deadlines and fees.
• How long is the SAT? and how long is the ACT? — current timings for both tests.

Compare ACT prep options →