📖 Education & Students

Citation Generator

Generate APA, MLA, and Chicago citations for websites, books, journal articles, and more. Fill in the source details and copy your formatted citation instantly. Free, no signup.

Generate Citation

Citation style:

Source type:

Author Last Name

Author First Name

Publication Year

Date Accessed (Month Day, Year)

Page / Article Title

Website Name

URL

Author Last Name

Author First Initial(s)

Year Published

Edition (optional)

Book Title

Publisher

DOI or URL (optional)

Author Last Name

Author First Initial(s)

Year Published

Volume

Issue

Pages

Article Title

Journal Name

DOI

Reporter Last Name

Reporter First Name

Year

Month & Day

Article Title

Newspaper Name

URL (optional)

APA vs MLA vs Chicago: Which to Use?

The three major citation styles are used by different academic disciplines. Your professor or institution will typically specify which format to use — when in doubt, ask.

APA (American Psychological Association)

Used primarily in social sciences, education, psychology, and nursing. APA emphasizes the date of publication, reflecting the importance of currency in scientific research. The 7th edition (2020) introduced new rules for URLs, DOIs, and the removal of "Retrieved from" in most cases.

MLA (Modern Language Association)

Used primarily in humanities — literature, language, film, and cultural studies. MLA emphasizes the author and source type, using a flexible "container" system introduced in the 9th edition (2021) that allows citation of sources within sources (articles within journals within databases).

Chicago (The Chicago Manual of Style)

Used in history, fine arts, and some social sciences. Chicago has two systems: Notes-Bibliography (used in humanities, uses footnotes) and Author-Date (used in sciences, similar to APA). Our generator produces the Notes-Bibliography format most commonly required by history professors.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I cite the date I accessed a website?

In APA 7th edition, the access date is only required for sources that may change over time (wikis, social media). For stable web pages, you don't need an access date. In MLA 9th edition, an access date is always recommended. Our generator includes it in MLA by default.

What if a source has no author?

When no author is identified: APA — use the title of the work in the author position; MLA — begin the entry with the title; Chicago — begin the entry with the title. Leave the author fields blank in our generator and the citation will be formatted correctly.

How do I cite a source with multiple authors?

For 3+ authors in APA, list the first author followed by "et al." (e.g., Smith et al., 2024). MLA uses the first author followed by "et al." for 3+ authors. Chicago lists all authors up to 10, then uses "et al." Our generator currently handles single-author sources — for multi-author works, add "et al." to the author field manually.