Generator Tools
Citation Generator
Generate APA 7, MLA 9, and Chicago citations and in-text references for books, journal articles, websites, and more, free in your browser.
Citation style
APA 7 uses author + year in-text citations. Reference list entries are hanging-indented and sentence case for article titles. Italicize journal names and book titles.
Source type
Source details
Write as "Last, First Middle" or "First Middle Last". Start a line with * for an organization.
Use a four-digit year, "n.d." if none is given, or "in press".
Fill in the highlighted fields
- Add at least one author or organization. Use one per line. Lines starting with * are treated as organization names.
- Add a title for the source.
Reference list (References)
(n.d.). . .
Parenthetical in-text citation
(, n.d.)
Tips
- For two-author works in APA, separate names with an ampersand in the reference list and parenthetical (Smith & Jones, 2020) and with "and" in narrative text (Smith and Jones found...).
- MLA in-text citations include the page number when the page is known. The tool inserts the first page from the Pages field. Add the exact page in your draft when you cite a specific quotation.
- Chicago notes-bibliography uses superscript numbers in the text. Place the full first note the first time you cite a source and the shortened note for every later citation.
- APA uses sentence case for article and book titles in the reference list. MLA and Chicago use title case. The tool applies the right case automatically.
This tool follows the published rules in APA 7 (2020), MLA 9 (2021), and the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. Always check your instructor's requirements for variations.
How to use
- Pick a citation style (APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago author-date, or Chicago notes-bibliography) at the top.
- Choose the source type (journal article, book, book chapter, website, newspaper article, or online video).
- Enter authors one per line as 'Last, First Middle' or 'First Middle Last'. Start a line with * for an organization name.
- Fill in the title, year, and the style-specific fields the tool reveals (DOI, volume, issue, publisher, URL, etc.).
- Copy the reference list entry, the parenthetical or footnote citation, and the subsequent short citation into your paper.
About this tool
Citation Generator builds correctly formatted reference list entries and in-text citations in four academic styles: APA 7th edition (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 2020), MLA 9th edition (MLA Handbook, 2021), Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition author-date, and Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition notes-bibliography. Pick a source type (journal article, book, edited book chapter, website, newspaper article, or online video), fill in the fields that style needs, and the tool produces three outputs at once: a complete reference list entry with the correct italics, capitalization, and punctuation for the chosen style; a parenthetical in-text citation (or a full first footnote for Chicago notes-bibliography); and a subsequent in-text or shortened-footnote version for repeat citations. Authors are entered one per line as 'Last, First Middle' or 'First Middle Last', and lines that begin with an asterisk are treated as organization names so 'World Health Organization' or 'U.S. Department of Labor' stay intact. The tool handles the rules each style gets wrong most often: APA's sentence case for article titles versus title case for journal names, MLA's 'et al.' threshold at three authors versus Chicago bibliography's threshold at eleven, APA 7's twenty-author ellipsis rule, Chicago's place-of-publication for books, and DOI formatting as a clickable https://doi.org/ link. Validation flags missing required fields, malformed years, and invalid URLs so you can fix the source data before pasting it into a paper. Everything runs in your browser, so the references and unpublished work you draft never leave your device.
Free to use. Works in your browser. No signup, no login.
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