Points Calculator World Aquatics
Convert times into AQUA points and find the qualifying time for every event.
Look up the AQUA points (World Aquatics), swimming's official performance index: enter a time to see how many points it is worth in each event, or a score to find the time you need.
How the calculation works
The former “FINA Points”, today World Aquatics Point Scoring (AQUA), puts results from different events, genders and pools on a single scale. Each event has a base time — the world record ratified for use in that edition of the table — and the swimmer's time is compared against it through a cubic curve. World-class performances land around 1000 points or more; the slower the time, the fewer the points.
Time → points
P = 1000 × (B ÷ T)³
B = base time, T = swum time (both in seconds)
The exact formula is applied and the result is truncated to a whole number. In the 2009 and earlier tables World Aquatics rounded instead, which can produce a 1-point difference in those versions.
Points → time
T = B × ∛(1000 ÷ P)
P = target score
The exact formula gives the first estimate; the time is then lowered hundredth by hundredth while it still yields the same score. The result is the slowest time that still delivers the requested points.
Example
Women's 100m freestyle in a 50m pool, AQUA 2026 table: the base time is 51.71. A swimmer who does 56.00 scores:
1000 × (51.71 ÷ 56.00)³ = 1000 × 0.78733… = 787 points
Swimming exactly the base time is worth 1000 points. Going faster than it goes past 1000, which is what happens when a world record falls during the season.
Base times for 1000 points
Base times are set every year from the latest world record ratified by World Aquatics, for every individual event and relay, split by gender and by pool. Each pool has its own table: in short course (25m) the cut-off date for ratifying records is 31 August, and in long course (50m), 31 December. The “World Aquatics Point Scoring 2023”, for instance, takes short course times up to 31/08/2024 and long course times up to 31/12/2023, and is published on the World Aquatics site within a month of the end of that window.
Because the base times change every season, the same time is worth different scores from one year to the next. That is why the table is selectable above, with every version since 2004. For the same reason, never mix short course with long course — the values will be completely different!
Things to watch out for
In the AQUA table, the score does not depend on age. A time is worth the same points for any athlete. Masters meets use their own table, by age group, and handicap swimming uses the World Para table (based on the Gompertz formula, by handicap class); neither is on this page yet. For relays the maths is the same, only applied to the team's total time and against a base time of its own. Mixed events have their own base times too, which is why they appear in a separate column.
The official tables published by World Aquatics are available for download at worldaquatics.com/swimming/points. This is the same scoring base used by SwimSystemApp in the results of the meets in our system, as well as by the Brazilian Aquatic Sports Confederation (CBDA) and by national federations around the world.