Generate a single, correctly formatted citation in APA, MLA, or Chicago style.
The Citation Generator builds a single, correctly formatted reference entry in APA, MLA, or Chicago style from the details you provide about a source. Rather than memorizing the exact punctuation, capitalization, and ordering rules that each style guide demands, you fill in plain fields — author, year, title, publisher, and so on — and the tool assembles them into the citation format your instructor requires.
Academic writing almost always requires a "Works Cited," "References," or "Bibliography" page, and every style has its own conventions. APA style, common in the social sciences, places the year immediately after the author in parentheses. MLA style, common in the humanities, favors author and page number and formats titles differently depending on whether the source is a stand-alone work or part of a larger container. Chicago's notes-bibliography system is often used in history and some humanities disciplines and has its own ordering and punctuation rules again. Mixing these up, or using the wrong one for your course, is one of the most common and avoidable mistakes in academic writing.
To use the tool, first choose the citation style your assignment requires, then select whether the source is a website, a book, or a journal article, since each source type has different required fields. Fill in the author's name in last-name-first format, the publication year, and the title of the work. For a website, include the site or organization name and the URL. For a journal article, include the journal name along with the volume, issue, and page range. Once the relevant fields are complete, press "Generate Citation" and the correctly punctuated, capitalized entry appears, ready to copy directly into your reference list.
This tool intentionally focuses on producing one citation at a time so you can review each entry carefully before adding it to your paper. If you need to build and manage a full alphabetized list of many sources at once, use the companion Bibliography Generator tool on this site, which is designed specifically for assembling and exporting a complete reference list rather than formatting individual entries.
Because citation rules are occasionally updated by the style guide organizations (APA, MLA, and the Chicago Manual of Style each issue new editions periodically), always cross-check an important citation against your institution's writing center guidance or the latest official style manual, especially for unusual source types such as government documents, interviews, or social media posts that are not covered by the basic fields here.
Keeping a consistent style throughout a single paper also matters as much as getting any one citation exactly right — mixing APA and MLA punctuation within the same reference list is a common and easily avoidable deduction, so generate every citation for a given assignment using the same style selection here before assembling your final reference page.
When your source does not fit neatly into the three basic categories offered here — for instance, a government report, a recorded interview, or a social media post — generate the closest matching citation as a starting draft, then manually adjust the specific fields and ordering according to your style guide's dedicated rules for that less common source type.
The formatting follows APA 7th edition, MLA 9th edition, and the Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition notes-bibliography conventions, which are the versions most commonly required in current coursework.
This tool is built for single-author entries. For sources with two or more authors, generate the base citation and then manually add the additional author names following your style guide's rules for multiple authors.
Leave the URL field blank; the citation will still generate using the remaining details, though APA and MLA generally expect a URL or DOI for online sources when one is available.
No, it formats the details you enter but does not verify that the author, year, or title are correct. Always double-check the source details against the original publication.
This page produces one citation at a time. For a full alphabetized bibliography with export options, use the Bibliography Generator tool.
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