Citation Generator
Build perfect APA 7th, MLA 9th, and Chicago author-date citations for books, websites, and journal articles.
APA 7th Edition
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In-text: -
MLA 9th Edition
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In-text: -
Chicago 17th (Author-Date)
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In-text: -
How to Use This Citation Generator
Building citations by hand is slow and error-prone: one misplaced period can cost you points. This generator formats your source in all three major styles at once, so you can copy whichever one your instructor asked for.
Pick the source type: book, website, or journal article. The form shows only the fields that style of source needs.
Enter the authors one per line. Write either "Last, First" or "First Last" and the generator parses both. Leave it blank for anonymous sources like many webpages.
Fill in the title plus the source details: publisher for books; site name, URL, and publication date for websites; journal, volume, issue, pages, and DOI for articles.
Read your three citations, each already set with a hanging indent, and hit Copy to paste one straight into your paper. The in-text form is shown under each style too.
APA, MLA, and Chicago: The Core Patterns
APA 7th edition is the standard in psychology, education, and the social sciences. Its signature move is the author-date in-text citation, (Kahneman, 2011), paired with a reference list where book and article titles use sentence case, meaning only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized. MLA 9th edition dominates the humanities: in-text citations point to the author and the page, (Kahneman 45), and the Works Cited list uses title case for titles with the publisher before the year. Chicago's author-date system, from the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, looks close to APA but places the year right after the author with a period instead of parentheses, and it shows up across the sciences and some history writing. Note that Chicago also has a completely different notes-and-bibliography system built on footnotes. This generator produces the author-date version, which is what most instructors mean when they ask for "Chicago style" in a science class.
Worked Example
Take the book Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, published in 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Here is exactly what each style produces:
Notice how APA reduces the first name to an initial and lowercases the title, while MLA keeps the full first name and title case. The in-text forms are (Kahneman, 2011) in APA, (Kahneman) or (Kahneman 45) with a page number in MLA, and (Kahneman 2011) in Chicago. Now a website with no author: the page "Climate Data" on NASA, published March 15, 2024, at https://climate.nasa.gov. APA moves the title into the author position: Climate data. (2024, March 15). NASA. https://climate.nasa.gov. The month is spelled out in full and there is no retrieval date, because APA 7th only wants one for sources designed to change.
Getting In-Text Citations Right
The reference list is only half the job: every in-text citation must match an entry in your list, and every list entry must be cited in your text. With two authors, APA joins them with an ampersand in parentheses, (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979), and the word "and" in running text. With three or more authors, APA shortens to the first author plus et al. from the very first citation: (Kahneman et al., 2011). MLA handles multiple authors the same way in the text but keeps the page number instead of the year. When there is no author, use a shortened version of the title in quotation marks, ("Climate Data," 2024), so your reader can find the matching entry alphabetized under C. The most common student mistake is mixing styles in one paper, for example APA in-text citations with an MLA Works Cited page. Pick one style on day one, generate every citation in it, and proofread the final list against the patterns above before you submit.
Frequently Asked Questions
APA vs MLA, what is the difference?
APA 7th edition, from the American Psychological Association, is the standard in psychology, education, and the social sciences. It uses author-date in-text citations like (Kahneman, 2011) and a reference list where titles use sentence case. MLA 9th edition dominates the humanities and uses author-page in-text citations like (Kahneman 45) with a Works Cited list where titles use title case. Chicago author-date (17th edition) looks close to APA but places the year right after the author with a period, and it is common in the sciences.
How do I cite a website with no author?
Move the title into the author position. In APA 7th: Title in sentence case. (Year, Month Day). Site Name. URL. For example: Climate data. (2024, March 15). NASA. https://climate.nasa.gov. Do not use "Anonymous" unless the page is actually signed that way, and do not add a retrieval date for a stable webpage.
What is a hanging indent?
A hanging indent is the standard reference-list format where the first line of each citation sits flush left and every following line is indented by half an inch. In Microsoft Word, select your references, open the Paragraph dialog, and choose Special: Hanging. In Google Docs, go to Format, then Align and indent, then Indentation options, and select Hanging. This generator applies a hanging indent to every citation automatically with CSS.
How do in-text citations work?
In APA 7th, cite one author as (Kahneman, 2011), two authors as (Kahneman and Tversky, 2011) in text or (Kahneman & Tversky, 2011) in parentheses, and three or more authors as (Kahneman et al., 2011). With no author, use a shortened title in quotes: ("Climate Data," 2024). MLA uses the author and page number with no comma or year: (Kahneman 45), or just the title for anonymous works. Chicago author-date looks like (Kahneman 2011), with no comma between author and year.
Do I need a retrieval date for online sources?
In APA 7th edition, no. Retrieval dates are only required for sources designed to change over time, such as Wikipedia articles, social media profiles, or pages with no archived version. For an ordinary stable webpage or online article, the publication date (or n.d. if there is none) plus the URL is enough. MLA 9th does not use retrieval dates either, while Chicago style lets you add an "Accessed" date, which this generator includes when you provide one.