What XP table does this use?

It uses the official Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition experience table from the Player's Handbook: level 1 at 0 XP, level 2 at 300, level 3 at 900, up to level 20 at 355,000 XP. Your level is whatever band your total XP falls into.

How is percentage progress calculated?

It takes your XP above the current level's threshold and divides by the size of the band to the next level. At 1,200 XP (level 3 starts at 900, level 4 at 2,700) you are 300 of 1,800 through, or about 17 percent.

What happens at level 20?

Level 20 is the cap in standard 5e. Once you reach 355,000 XP there is no further level, so the tool shows you at the maximum level with no XP remaining to a next level. Epic boons are the usual way to progress beyond.

Does this work with milestone leveling?

Milestone leveling ignores XP entirely — the DM grants levels at story beats. This tracker is for tables using the XP variant. If your group uses milestones you will not be tracking the numbers this tool needs.

How is XP awarded in 5e?

Monsters and challenges have XP values that the DM divides among the party after an encounter. The exact awards are up to the DM and adventure. This tool only tracks the total you have banked against the leveling table.

Does the multiple-monster XP multiplier increase the XP we earn?

No. The multiplier (×1.5 for two monsters, ×2 for three to six, and so on) is used only when the DM estimates encounter difficulty. The party banks the monsters' base XP values, split among the characters. Awarding multiplied XP is a common mistake that makes parties level far too fast.

What is the D&D XP to Next Level Tracker?

Enter your current XP and level to see XP needed to reach the next level, your percentage progress through the current level, and the full PHB experience table. For D&D 5e players using XP advancement. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

D&D XP to Next Level Tracker

Name: D&D XP to Next Level Tracker
Creator: Gera Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

If your D&D 5e table tracks experience points, this tracker turns a raw XP total into something useful: your current level, how far you are through it, and exactly how much XP stands between you and the next level — backed by the official Player’s Handbook table.

How level and progress are derived

The PHB defines a fixed threshold for each level. Your level is the highest one whose threshold your total XP meets or exceeds:

level = max L such that XP >= threshold[L]
to next = threshold[L + 1] − XP
progress% = (XP − threshold[L]) / (threshold[L+1] − threshold[L]) × 100

The thresholds are 0, 300, 900, 2700, 6500, 14000, 23000, 34000, 48000, 64000, 85000, 100000, 120000, 140000, 165000, 195000, 225000, 265000, 305000, and 355000 XP for levels 1 through 20.

The full XP table at a glance

Level	XP needed	Band size
1	0	—
2	300	300
3	900	600
4	2,700	1,800
5	6,500	3,800
6	14,000	7,500
7	23,000	9,000
8	34,000	11,000
9	48,000	14,000
10	64,000	16,000
11–20	up to 355,000	widening

Notice how the band sizes roughly double every couple of levels. A party racing through early tiers can hit level 5 in a handful of sessions; reaching level 20 from level 15 demands over 130,000 additional XP.

Worked example

A character with 5,000 XP sits at level 4 (threshold 2,700; level 5 begins at 6,500). They are 2,300 of 3,800 through the band — about 61 percent — with 1,500 XP to go. That is roughly the reward from two typical adventuring days at that tier.

The four tiers of play and what the XP curve is doing

The thresholds are not arbitrary — they carve the game into its four official tiers, and the band sizes are tuned so each tier takes progressively longer:

Tier	Levels	XP span	Feel of play
1 — Local heroes	1–4	0 – 6,500	Fragile characters, fast levelling
2 — Heroes of the realm	5–10	6,500 – 85,000	The longest tier at most tables
3 — Masters of the realm	11–16	85,000 – 225,000	Regional stakes, slow levelling
4 — Masters of the world	17–20	225,000 – 355,000	Campaign endgame

Levels 1–2 are deliberately tiny bands (300 and 600 XP) so new characters survive past their most fragile stage quickly; most published adventures assume you clear them in a session or two. Tier 2 contains more than a fifth of the entire XP curve, which matches the common experience that campaigns “live” between levels 5 and 10.

XP mistakes that quietly break progression

Applying the encounter multiplier to awards. The DMG’s multiplier for multiple monsters (×1.5, ×2…) exists only to estimate difficulty when building the encounter. The XP the party actually banks is the monsters’ base XP values, unmultiplied. Awarding multiplied XP is the most common cause of runaway levelling.
Forgetting to split. Encounter XP is divided among the characters, not granted to each. A CR 5 creature (1,800 XP) gives a party of four 450 XP apiece.
Uneven attendance drift. Awarding XP only to present players creates level gaps that 5e’s bounded accuracy tolerates but doesn’t love; many tables award absent characters the same XP to keep the party in one band of this table.
Mixing milestone and XP. Granting “bonus levels” at story beats on top of tracked XP double-counts progression. Pick one system; if you convert mid-campaign, set each character’s XP to their current level’s threshold.

Practical tips for Dungeon Masters

Pacing encounters to the bands. Because the bands widen sharply, awarding the same XP per session that worked in the heroic tier (levels 1–4) will make the paragon tier (levels 11–16) feel glacial. Scale encounter budgets proportionally to keep advancement feeling consistent.

XP splitting by the book. The PHB awards encounter XP divided equally by the number of characters present. Only characters who participated or were at risk of harm earn XP — spectators and unconscious characters do not.

Milestone leveling vs. XP. Many groups abandon XP tracking after level 5 in favour of milestone leveling, which grants a level at narrative beats the DM chooses. If your group switches mid-campaign you can use the percentage bar here to estimate how many sessions remain, then simply stop tracking.

Level 20 cap. Standard 5e ends at level 20 (355,000 XP). Epic boons from the Dungeon Master’s Guide are the official mechanism for growth beyond that point — the XP system has no higher threshold.

Sources and references

D&D 5e Systems Reference Document (SRD 5.1) — Wizards of the Coast’s official, freely licensed rules including character advancement
D&D Basic Rules — Beyond 1st Level (experience points) — the published XP-to-level thresholds

Maintained by the Gera Tools editorial team. The thresholds (0, 300, 900, …, 355,000) are the official Player’s Handbook / SRD experience table. This tracker is for tables using XP advancement, not milestone leveling. Last reviewed 2026-07-02.