Citation Generator

What is the Citation Generator?

The Citation Generator is a free online tool that turns the details of a source — its author, title, year, publisher, and link — into a correctly formatted reference in APA 7th, MLA 9th, or Chicago 17th edition style. Pick the kind of source you are citing (a website, a book, a journal article, or a newspaper article), fill in the fields that appear, and the formatted citation is built instantly so you can copy it straight into your reference list or works-cited page. A source-aware review points out important gaps before you copy, and the tool also builds the matching APA or MLA in-text citation or Chicago short note.

Everything happens in your browser, so the source details you type are never uploaded to a server. That keeps your work private and means the tool stays fast even with no internet once the page has loaded.

How to use it

1. Choose the source type: Website, Book, Journal Article, or Newspaper.
2. Fill in the fields that appear for that source — author name, title, year, publisher or journal, page numbers, URL, and so on. The review panel explains how important missing details will change the result. A title is required before copying; other unknown details can be left blank after you review the notice.
3. Pick your citation style, or turn on the side-by-side view to see APA, MLA, and Chicago together and decide which your assignment needs.
4. Add an optional page or locator for a quote or specific passage. Copy the full reference and the matching in-text citation (or Chicago short note) into your document, then compare high-stakes work with your instructor or official style guide.

The rules behind each format

Each style is built from the official manual, not guessed at:

• APA 7th lists the author surname followed by initials, then the year in parentheses, then the title. Standalone works such as books and web pages get an italic title; article and chapter titles stay in plain text and keep sentence case. Journal names and volume numbers are italic, and a DOI or URL ends the entry.
• MLA 9th uses the full given name of the first author, inverted as Surname, Given Name. Article titles sit inside quotation marks while book and container titles are italic. The container, publisher, date, and location follow in that order, with an access date added for undated web pages.
• Chicago 17th (notes-bibliography style) inverts only the first author's name and joins multiple authors with "and". Book titles are italic, article titles are quoted, and publication facts appear as Place: Publisher, Year for books or Volume, no. Issue (Year): pages for journal articles.

For three or more authors, APA lists every author up to twenty, MLA shortens to the first author plus "et al.", and Chicago lists up to three then switches to "et al." for four or more.

Examples

Here is the same book — George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (Secker & Warburg, 1949) — in all three styles:

• APA: Orwell, G. (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. Secker & Warburg.
• MLA: Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Secker & Warburg, 1949.
• Chicago: Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Secker & Warburg, 1949.

And a journal article by two authors:

• APA: Smith, J. M., & Doe, J. (2020). On the nature of citations. Journal of Citation Studies, 12(3), 45-67.
• MLA: Smith, Jane M., and John Doe. "On the nature of citations." Journal of Citation Studies, vol. 12, no. 3, 2020, pp. 45-67.
• Chicago: Smith, Jane M., and John Doe. "On the nature of citations." Journal of Citation Studies 12, no. 3 (2020): 45-67.

Common use cases

• Students assembling a reference list, works-cited page, or bibliography for an essay, lab report, or thesis.
• Researchers drafting a paper who need entries in a specific journal's required style.
• Teachers and librarians showing how the same source looks across APA, MLA, and Chicago.
• Bloggers and writers who want to credit sources properly and avoid accidental plagiarism.

Why use this citation generator

Most citation makers hide the full feature set behind a sign-up wall, limit you to one format, or bury the tool under banners and pop-ups. This generator does the opposite: three major styles, four source types, instant results, source-detail checks, matching in-text citations or short notes, and no account required. Because the formatting runs entirely in your browser, the bibliographic details you enter never leave your device — handy when you are citing unpublished or sensitive work.

It also sits alongside a small writing toolkit. Once your draft is cited you can check its length with the Word Counter, estimate how long it runs with Words to Pages, or confirm a strict character limit with the Character Counter.

Frequently asked questions