📚 Citation Generator

Fill in the source details to generate APA, MLA and Chicago style citations. Leave a field blank to omit it. Always double-check against your institution's style guide.

Author (Last, First)

Year

Title

Publisher / Site Name

URL (optional)

What each string is assembled from

Five fields are dropped into three fixed patterns. Nothing is looked up online and no field is reformatted - the text you type is the text you get.

APA      Author (Year). Title. Publisher. URL
MLA      Author. "Title." Publisher, Year, URL.
Chicago  Author. "Title." Publisher. Year. URL.

With the sample values loaded, MLA comes out as: Smith, Jane. "Understanding Online Tools." SimpleMoney Tools, 2024, https://tools.simplemoney.online/. Any box left empty is dropped together with its punctuation, so a page with no named author simply begins at the title.

Three things to fix by hand

APA wants initials. The tool prints the author exactly as entered, so type Smith, J. rather than Smith, Jane if APA is the style you are submitting.
Italics are not applied. Book, journal and website titles are italicised in all three styles; add that in your word processor after pasting.
Capitalisation differs by style. APA puts article and book titles in sentence case - first word and proper nouns only - while MLA and Chicago use title case. One title box cannot be correct for all three at once, so edit the one you actually hand in.

Title is the only required field. Clear it and the tool stops with "Enter a title." Everything else is optional.

Frequently asked questions

How do I cite a website with no author?

Leave the author box blank. The citation then starts with the title, and in APA the site name moves into the author position instead - move your publisher text there yourself if your marker is strict about it.

Do I need an accessed date?

APA 7 asks for a retrieval date only for pages designed to change, such as a wiki entry. MLA 9 treats "Accessed 14 May 2024" as optional but useful for undated web sources. There is no field for it here, so append it after the URL if you want it.

Why is my reference list not indented?

All three styles use a hanging indent: the first line flush left, later lines indented half an inch. That is paragraph formatting, not part of the citation text, so set it in your document after pasting.